A1 Foundation Crack Repair has a long history of saving homeowners money on foundation repair jobs simply because they are reputable, experienced, and fair, not to mention the 10-year warranty and long track record of outstanding workmanship. In this episode, Adam shares an interesting case study on how A1 saved homeowners in Leominster Massachusetts bigtime on a block foundation repair job.
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: The top three things homeowners can do to avoid costly foundation repairs.
Narrator: Congratulations, Adam. This is your 400th episode of The Crackman Podcast. We've been doing this for 10 years. Can you believe it?
Adam: It's unbelievable, and I want to thank everyone for joining us for our 400th podcast celebration. I thought it would be an appropriate time to talk about the top three things that we see to save you as a homeowner money when it comes to foundation or foundation related things.
The number one thing we always see and that people will give us questions on, and after doing this for over 30 years as a business, is that my crack isn't leaking. It's been there for a while. Should I worry about it? Should I do anything about it? Well, the earlier you get these problems resolved, the less money they're going to cost. It's just nipping it in the bud early. You're able to get things under control quickly so that they don't become structural issues or water damage issues.
There's 2 types of cracks in this world. Ones that leak, ones that are going to leak. We just don't know when. So, if you're able to repair the foundation crack early, it's going to cost you less money, and then you're going to prevent further damage both structurally to the actual concrete or foundation itself. Also, to any sort of water damage that might occur because these repairs will come with a warranty. So even though it may have been there for a while, you have an eye on it, it's not really doing anything. Reality is it is doing something, and it's time to look at whether or not it's actually time for repair.
Getting away with it earlier is a lot less costly for the homeowner. The number 2 thing to save you money, and we say this all the time on the phone, especially during heavy rain events, the less you know about your water issue, the more you'll end up paying. And that's true for all the contractors that are going to be out there. Because if we don't know how the water is coming in, we're going to have to make assumptions because we're not there when it happens. Right?
If you don't know, you're just having water in the basement. Well, if you want to solve your water problem, we need to provide multiple solutions. So a lot of times when people are saying, I have water coming in my basement, but I don't know where. Can you come out and give me a solution? Well, we must figure out what's going on there.
A lot of times for a homeowner to really identify the source of the issue and really drive your cost down as a homeowner, you really need to do water testing. And what is a water test? It's very simple. It's getting a garden hose in the areas where you think the water's coming in, letting it run outside for 15 to 20 minutes on, 10 minutes off, repeating that cycle, and actually identifying the source of where the water's coming in.
Sometimes that involves a company like a restoration company coming in to open up walls and whatnot. But the less you know about where the water's coming in, the more a contractor like us must guess because we're not there when it actively leaks. So, if you can recreate that leak and say, ah, it's coming in this spot, it's next to this area, that really gives us an area to pinpoint, solve, and then really keep the cost down.
The third thing that we would like to have homeowners know is that don't ignore your lally columns. They are oftentimes, and even in newer homes, the source of much structural concern. Especially now, we're in New England where we're pretreating roads with brines to help prevent ice formations to keep it safer for driving. All of that stuff gets brought underneath the car. It melts. It gets wet underneath the car, and then it starts to corrode these lally columns, especially in garages.
Other things you might see are blistering or rusting of the columns. It's not something that you can just ignore forever because that active rust will continue and will allow it to be totally compromised. And you're looking at a replacement, which can be done, and that's something that we do, but it's something that you need to be aware of earlier on.
There are preventative maintenance things you can do for your lally columns earlier on. Simple just brushing it off the surface rust and repainting them once a season or once every couple of years. That'll do wonders to keep them protected and keep them standing up. Otherwise, if you let them go too long, it eventually is just going to need a replacement. So those are three simple tips that you can have as a homeowner to celebrate our 400th podcast, to keep your cost down, to make sure that you're not walking into a major repair over the years. The simple things to just kind of keep in mind as you continue to live in your homes.
Narrator: Well, thanks, Adam, for sharing your vast experience over the years, and congratulations on all your successes.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a crack repair professional near Leominster, MA, or, if you’d like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visitA1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call (866) 929-3171. Or you can email info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.