What every homeowner should know about foundation repair in Fayetteville
If you have questions about foundation repair services in Arkansas, arming yourself with information now can save you headaches and expense later. This easy guide to foundation repair takes the mystery out of the process, for both residential and commercial properties. It will help you make informed choices about the options that are best for you and your budget.
There are many soil types across the state of Arkansas. In the Fayetteville area, building manuals often describe the soil conditions as “problematic” – meaning that they can expand and contract around foundations because of their high clay content. Years of cyclical expansion and contraction can subject your foundation to repeated stress, eventually causing parts to break down and lose their load bearing capacity.
While temperatures are usually not as extreme around Fayetteville as in other parts of the country, seasonal changes can still affect the soil that supports your foundation. Clay content in the soil will react to even modest changes in ambient moisture and ground water. Interestingly, soil types can vary even in a single residential lot. If foundation design, site grading, and compaction didn’t take this into account at the time of construction, differential settling could occur as the ground sinks and gives way at different rates. This can put enough strain on your foundation to cause early failure.
Established in 1933, Olshan Foundation Repair has over 90 years of experiencing repairing and protecting foundations. Our goal? To be the absolute best home service provider that ever steps foot in your home.
Payment Plans start as low as $125/Month
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Natural settling occurs over time, even in the best built homes, and if it happens slowly and evenly enough, you may only see minor cosmetic changes to your property. Foundation trouble starts when settling occurs more suddenly, or when erosion washes supporting soil away. When this happens, excess strain can cause unsupported parts of your foundation crack, sink, or shift out of alignment. To make matters worse, pests and unwanted moisture can attack your foundation through cracks or separations, leading to worsening structural damage.
Olshan Foundation Repair has been protecting residential and commercial properties since 1933. Arkansas homeowners trust Olshan’s free expert evaluations, transparent estimates, budget-friendly payment plans, and industry-leading warranty programs. Call Olshan when you have questions about concrete leveling, crawl space repair, crawl space encapsulation, exterior water management, or foundation repair.
Concrete leveling
Concrete slabs of all shapes and sizes can tilt, sink, crack, or separate for any number of reasons. The same forces that affect other foundation types also put a strain on concrete surfaces like walkways, patios, pool decks, driveways, as well as on primary slab foundations. Virtually all these slab types can be stabilized and leveled without major disruption to your property.
If your home sits on a slab foundation, Olshan often recommends piers or pilings that are engineered for your local soil type. These can be anchored together and reinforced using Olshan’s patented Cable Lock™ ST Plus piling system.
For lighter repairs, surfaces like walkways and driveways can be quickly and affordably restored using injectable polyurethane foam. This method is ideal for correcting smaller voids beneath your slab left by spot erosion. Olshan’s trained field crews drill very small holes and inject the foam which gently expands and lifts the slab back into alignment. The fast-curing foam quickly stabilizes the concrete so that you can drive on it the same day. Finally, expert technicians patch and seal the injection holes making them almost invisible.
Crawl space repair and encapsulation
Pier and beam foundations & block and base foundations (also known as “crawl space” foundations) are common in Arkansas. The most common types, as illustrated in many building code manuals around the state, have similar elements. These include a masonry or concrete perimeter that follows the footprint of the house and a mix of wood beams supported by concrete piers. The piers are placed and shimmed in engineered increments to transmit structural loads to the ground below.
Everything works fine as long as these structural loads are distributed evenly across stable soil. The problem is, the high clay content in Fayetteville area soil can expand and contract with changing moisture conditions. Over time, this constant movement, combined with the effects of settling and erosion, can push the interior piers out of alignment or cause them to sink. This can shift extra strain to other parts of the structure and cause them to fail prematurely.
The trouble signs for crawl space pier and beam foundations are similar to those of other foundation types and are easy to recognize. You may notice unusual humidity or internal air quality issues, doors and windows that begin to stick, or spongy or creaky floors. A reputable repair company like Olshan can help you evaluate the damage and advise you on repair options that will restore your crawl space foundation to like new condition. Piers can be adjusted. Decayed wood can be replaced. Drainage and pest issues can be resolved. Olshan’s crawl space repair solutions include:
- Full crawl space encapsulation with water-resistant liners and dehumidification
- Pipe and rock drainage modifications or sump pumps
- Interior waterproofing with EZ Drain Plus
- Structural repair with SafeAdjust™ support columns (works with Cable Lock™ ST Plus)
- Lumberkote spray-on polymer seal for beams, joists, and subflooring
Basement wall repair
Olshan also has affordable and proven repair solutions for homes with full basements. Bowed and cracked basement walls can be restored with Wall Lock™ wall anchors, adjustable braces, carbon fiber strips, or epoxy crack injections, in addition to all the remedies mentioned above.
Foundation repair
If you’re like most people, you naturally think of foundations as permanent, immovable things, so the idea of “foundation repair” may hard to imagine. In reality, foundations are every bit as sensitive to the elements as the parts of the structure that are visible above ground. Luckily for Arkansas homeowners, innovators have been improving repair technologies as long as modern foundations have been in existence. Reputable companies like Olshan have spent decades perfecting methods to safely restore virtually any foundation to like-new condition – slab, poured footing, pier and beam – to like-new condition.
Only Olshan offers the patented Cable Lock™ ST Plus piling system to homeowners in the Fayetteville area. This proprietary system combines the structural advantages of steel pilings and concrete pilings in a unified solution, all locked together with an engineered cable. This technology delivers a stronger and longer lasting repair when compared with outdated repair methods such as bell bottom piers, concrete pads, or steel piers, and is far less invasive to your property than expensive helical piers.
Exterior water management
Although severe storm activity is less common around Fayetteville than in other parts of the country, everyone knows that water happens. Depending on when your property was built and where your lot is situated, excess storm water may not be properly draining away from your foundation. This could be caused by soil erosion, runoff from neighboring properties, or poor grading practices when your property was first developed. Your foundation could also be weakened by broken or leaky pipes that cause standing water to collect near the structure.
It only takes a small amount of unwanted water to trigger foundation trouble. Water itself can stress parts of your foundation with what experts call “hydrostatic pressure.” Ground water changes, excess storm water, or poor construction practices can allow water to wash supporting soil away from your foundation or cause wood components to deteriorate in places that are hard to see. Olshan can help you avoid severe damage with exterior drainage solutions, grading improvements, and simple but effective remedies like downspout extensions.
How to find the right foundation repair expert
Olshan Foundation Repair has been an industry leader for more than 90 Years, and we uphold the same original principles that made us successful in the beginning. We utilize the most innovative house leveling and waterproofing technology available, but we also provide quality service and stand behind our work on every single project. That’s our promise to you, our customers, and we intend to keep it.
When you call on a foundation restoration and repair expert, make sure they can offer:
- Free, no-obligation evaluations
- A fully transparent estimate of your repair options
- Fair pricing and reasonable warranty protection
- Affordable payment plan alternatives
- Qualified technicians and crew members who stay with the company
- Trustworthy customer service after the job
- A positive reputation in your local community
Call our Fayetteville regional office today to schedule a free evaluation that will put your worries to rest.
