Stone foundations are often found in old homes and when things age, they often need repair. Is there a low-cost fix for most stone foundation issues? Adam discusses the issue.
Narrator: It’s time once again for the “Crack Man Podcast” hosted by A1 Foundation Crack Repair. I’m Darren Kincaid here with the Crack Daddy himself, Adam Tracy. Adam and The Crack Man Rich have over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry. Rich as over two5 years as the president and founder of A1 Foundation Crack Repair. This podcast provides expert basement waterproofing, concrete repair, and preventative maintenance tips for homeowners and businesses. A1 Foundation’s valuable insight will help avert a disastrous flood within the basement, health problems associated with water infiltration, and protect your biggest investment….your home. The topic of today’s podcast: Is there a DIY fix for my stone foundation?
Narrator: So, Adam, stone foundations are often found in old homes, and when things age, they need repair. So, is there a low cost fix for most stone foundation issues?
Adam: Well, as with most home improvement projects, there is always a DIY option. The question becomes how much time and energy are you going to spend on finding the right solution to the issues that you have? Just like painting a house, anybody can paint a house, but why do we have painting contractors? Well, the time and materials and the effort to go through it often isn't worth the investment for the homeowner.
When it comes to a stone foundation, of course, a homeowner could potentially do a repair project on the foundation on their own. The question becomes, how long does it take for them to figure out what the right material is? Can they actually get that right material? And then the techniques around it. In general, it's a very heavy labor process.
And with a stone foundation, because all of these stones are cobbled together literally in a vertical fashion that has been there for 100 plus years, going excessively hard on the walls with different types of tools, untrained personnel can cause structural collapse of these.
A concrete foundation is a little bit more monolithic and has much more resistance to sort of a DIY kind of approach for making some small repairs. However, stone foundation definitely does not. So, if you take the wrong stone out or if you go too deep in digging out the mortar, you can not only just cause a small issue locally in that area, but you could actually cause a much larger issue for the whole entire home as it is holding up the rest of the house.
The other issue that you have as a homeowner is that the products that you have available if you go to a big box store aren't always the right products to use in these environments. The mortar, concrete, and cement options out there are voluminous. If you went into a big box home improvement store, you'll stand in the masonry aisle, and it's going to be an entire aisle on up to the ceiling with pallets and pallets and pallets of different types of products. To be honest, it's hard to kind of figure out what the right one is unless you've been properly trained, have done it in the past, or working with a contractor who specifically knows this area. Because picking the wrong product can also have disastrous effects with the foundation.
We have a lot of customers, if they have a water leak in a stone foundation, they’ll go plug in with hydraulic cement. Now that might work for a very temporary basis, but that'll damage the foundation long term because of how strong the mortar is there, how strong the cement is. That bond is so strong that it causes increased pressure into the foundation because that foundation wants to jostle and move ever so slightly. Is a DIY option available? Yes. It's available for almost all home projects. The question becomes what value to put on your time and the number of skills that you have to actually do this type of project. The other thing that people don't really realize is that when our crews go in to do a stone replanting or stone foundation repair projects, they'll see and they'll go in for one to four days depending on the size of the job. These are guys who do this all day, every day, are used to working in these environments, know all the right products. They don't have to think about what tools they need, but they're all equipped with that stuff.
What might take my crew three days to do would take three to five weeks for a regular homeowner chipping away after work or on weekends. Oftentimes, that's another consideration. DIY, it's an option. However, you have to be really careful with stone foundations because you can lead yourself into a really tough situation if you happen to do it wrong, both in the short term with actually going and removing too much mortar or removing the wrong sets of mortar or putting in the wrong materials because that can have long term implications to the home.
Make sure you call a contractor, get some ideas and pricing because oftentimes, these bigger projects are best left for the pros.
Narrator: Thanks, Adam, for sharing your experience regarding DIY fixes for stone foundations.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a crack repair professional near Boston, MA, or, if you’d like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call (866) 929-3171. Or you can email info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.