Foundations & Structure
10 articles · A–Z master index
Drainage
- Crawl Space Moisture and Encapsulation — Why vented dirt crawl spaces farm moisture, the encapsulation sequence from ground vapor barrier to sealed vents to dehumidification, the costs and half-measures, and what to fix first.
- Grading and Drainage Around Foundations — The six-inches-in-ten-feet slope rule, the downspout discharge that outranks everything, swales, French drains, and window wells, and why exterior water management is the cheapest foundation repair.
Foundations
- Bowing Basement Walls: Causes and Repairs — Why block walls bow inward, measuring deflection and its thresholds, the repair ladder from carbon fiber to wall anchors to rebuild, and the drainage work every repair depends on.
- Efflorescence on Basement Walls: What It Means — The white mineral bloom decoded: how moisture moving through masonry leaves salt behind, efflorescence versus mold versus spalling, and why the powder is a water report, not a wall disease.
- Foundation Crack Types: Which Ones Are Serious — Reading foundation cracks by direction, width, and pattern: shrinkage hairlines, vertical and diagonal settlement cracks, the horizontal crack that outranks them all, and monitoring versus repair.
- Post and Pier Foundations: Inspection Points — How post-and-pier structures carry a house, the inspection circuit from pier settlement to post rot to connection hardware, the shimming culture, and when repairs need an engineer.
- Settlement vs. Heave: Reading Foundation Movement — The two directions foundations move and how to tell them apart: settlement's sinking signatures, heave's lifting ones, the seasonal clay cycle, and which findings warrant an engineer.
- Slab vs. Crawl Space vs. Basement Foundations — The three residential foundation types compared: how each is built, what each does well, the characteristic failure modes and maintenance lists, and why climate mostly decided for you.
Framing
- Sill Plates, Rim Joists, and Rot — The wood band where the house meets the foundation: how sills and rim joists rot, the probe-test inspection, grade and splash-back as the usual authors, and repair from sistering to jacking.
Safety
- Radon: Testing and Mitigation Basics — What radon is and why the only diagnosis is a test, short-term versus long-term testing, the 4 pCi/L action level, and how sub-slab depressurization reliably fixes elevated homes.