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| The Reasons Concrete Foundations Crack |
| By Greg Vanden Berge |
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One of the biggest problems with your concrete foundation is the fact
that it's actually sitting in the ground. During the summer, often the
ground becomes dry and brittle and in the winter, it becomes wet and
soft.
This can create big problems for your building foundation. Concrete
absorbs moisture from the soil when wet and the opposite occurs once the
soil dries out. Dry soil will actually pull the moisture out of your
concrete footings or floor slab.
Now what about the homes whose concrete building foundations are sitting
in the same soil that freezes in the wintertime. These foundations will
be more susceptible to cracks and failure than those located in less
harsh climates.
For those of you that look at massive rocks and noticed that their split
in half or even into smaller sections, they share similar problems with
your concrete building foundation. Water absorbs into these large rocks,
in the same way that it will absorbs into concrete and the moment that
this moisture starts to freeze and expand, it can easily split large
boulders and your building foundation in half. |
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The biggest reason concrete building foundations
crack is from the unstable ground that it's resting on. If soil was
brought in from another job site and wasn't compacted properly, this
could increase your chances of soil erosion problems, causing your
building foundations to crack as certain areas of the building start to
sink in the unstable soil.
Water leaks can also create big problems for your building foundation as
water works its way to the bottom of the concrete footings or floor slab
and starts to erode the soil away from underneath them. After enough
soil has been eroded and it's no longer providing enough support for the
concrete building foundation. The weight of the building that the
foundation is supporting can put enough pressure on the structural
foundation to cause it to crack.
There are other things that can cause your building foundation to crack,
but these are some of the most common. |
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