One of the most important parts of any home isn't necessarily the living room, the bedroom or the kitchen – it's the foundation. The foundation is so important that its definition literally means “an underlying basis or principle.” If you begin to notice cracked walls, doors that you're having a difficult time closing or floor boards that are suddenly bulging, these aren't necessarily signs that you need to perform a few basic repairs around the house. These could be signs of very serious foundation conditions that are only going to get worse over time.

Foundation Problems: The Warning Signs

Warning signs of foundation issues that you should look for on the outside of your home include wall rotation, cracks in brickwork and displaced moldings. Inside the home on the lower levels you need to keep an eye out for bowed walls, cracked walls and water seeping into the basement from outside. On the upper levels, always look out for things like cracks in the floors, misaligned windows and more.

Other symptoms that you should watch out for include but are not limited to:

• A leaning chimney.
• Uneven beams in your home.
• Floors or walls that used to be even but no longer are.
• Cracks on interior walls.

These are the types of problems that could be small. There may be nothing nefarious at all about an uneven beam, for example. Maybe it's always been slightly uneven and you just never noticed it. However, it could also be a sign of something much more serious. Rather than jeopardize the safety of both your home and those who live inside it, you should get it checked out immediately.

It's important to note that foundation problems can be caused by a lot more than just improper workmanship from the original builders. If you have a particularly rough winter or rainy summer in your area, for example, the soil under the foundation could begin to shift. Suddenly the weight bearing system of the whole house is thrown off and can lead to structural damage as a result.

Foundation Settlement

Foundation settlement is something that the original builders of your home should have taken into consideration, but things don't always happen exactly as they should. Additionally, a particularly severe winter could lead to settlement that nobody could have ever predicted. Foundation problems such as these can easily lead to incredibly serious problems both inside and outside of your home. If foundation problems get bad enough, your home could actually become uninhabitable.

At Family First Restoration, we're here to help. Foundations are our specialty and we have decades of experience fixing any type of problem that you may come across WITHOUT having to tear out the foundation and start from scratch. The services that we offer include but are not limited to:

• Structured Foundation Repair
• Concrete Foundation Repair
• Foundation Crack Repair
• House Foundation Repair
• Foundation Cracks and more

Family First Restoration: The Solution to Your Home's Problems

If you find that you're experiencing problems, we'll send a structural adviser out to the property to assess the situation. Using the latest that technology has to offer, they'll find out the extent of your problem and will locate exactly what's causing it. No stone will go left unturned with something as important as the foundation of your home. At the end of that process, we'll know exactly how much foundation movement has occurred and will be able to develop a custom plan for how to fix it.

No two homes are created equally, which means that there is no “one size fits all” solution to foundation repairs. The nature of the problem and the home itself will all play important factors, which is why our dedicated and passionate professionals at Family First Restoration will go over every inch of your home to make sure that we're taking care of the problem in the most complete and efficient way possible.