If your home is in need of foundation repairs, the house foundation repair specialists may recommend jacking your home up to have the repairs made. Jacking your home up to make foundation repairs is quite expensive and can potentially lead to damage in your home, including cracking or flooring issues. This may leave you wondering if jacking your home up is really needed. Here are three common foundation repairs that require your home to be jacked up and why jacking your home up is important
The Land Beneath the Foundation Needs to Be Stabilized
One of the top reasons why a home is jacked up is to repair the land that is beneath the foundation of your home. If your foundation is sinking, you may not be experiencing a foundation problem. You may be experiencing a problem with the land below your home. It may have a small sink hole, flooding may have caused uneven wear, or earthquakes may have made it unstable. By jacking your foundation and home upward, a professional is able to stabilize the ground below your home or create a thicker, more stable foundation for your home to rest atop.
Piers May Be Needed to Correct a Sinking or Uneven Foundation
In some cases, the weight of your home may be too much for your foundation to support. This may be because the foundation has weakened due to age, or you built another floor to your home. If the foundation is unable to support the weight of your home, your foundation may slowly start to sink. Jacking up your home and foundations, and then placing piers underneath the ground below creates a sturdy and supportive foundation that your home can now rest on and prevent sinking.
Repairs May Be Needed at the Base of Your Foundation
Finally, jacking up your home may be needed to help make repairs to the foundation. In some cases, a professional can dig around your home and make repairs, such as repairing crumbling foundations, with the home still on top of the foundation. In other cases, the weight of the home may prevent the repair from being made correctly. Jacking up the home lifts pressure off of the foundation so the needed repairs can be made.
In most cases, house foundation repair specialists will look at alternative ways to fix your home's foundation without having to jack your home up. However, in some cases, there are not alternative ways to repair the foundation, or jacking the foundation and home up is the best way to make the repairs that are needed. If a professional recommends jacking your home up, you can ask them why it is needed and if the risks outweigh the benefits to ensure it is the right move for your home.