Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. Basement wall cracks are covered when, if you read your condo documents it states that they are responsible for the foundation walls. There are also situations where it is not stated in the documents. Then the decision goes to the association to decide. Basement wall cracks are not covered when, in the condo documents, it states that the basement foundation is not covered, or when the association decides...

We received a call recently from an owner of a high-end brownstone in Boston that faces the Charles River. The gentlemen who owns the unit is also a developer and a civil engineer by trade. In the bathroom, water was coming in from behind the finished wall. We probed some more with questions, and found that they had tried to stop the water by putting a smear coat of mortar onto the leaking stone foundation...

As a homeowner, if you head into your basement during a thunderstorm and notice water coming into your home from a leaking basement window, what is the first thing you should do? First we have to identify where the water is coming from. If it is a finished basement window, we have to open that wall up a little bit. There are a few places where the water can be leaking from. The water can...

This time of year, as the weather gets cooler, the mice are looking for a place to live. These mice are coming into people's houses all the time. One mouse can have 49 babies a year, and they can start reproducing when they are just 4 weeks old. There are six main ways to keep mice from creating a home in your basement. Keep food in glass or metal containers. Don't keep your food in...

A1 Foundation Crack Repair would like to welcome a new member to our fleet! Keep your eyes open for our new "Crack Repair Van."

We recently got a call from a brand new homeowner. They noticed water coming in the basement at the seam between the stone foundation and a poured concrete foundation. The homeowners noticed that where the previous homeowner has painted or put a skim coat on the stone foundation, there was water coming in through that. They painted it right before they sold the house. We felt the wall, and we could push our finger into...

What we see out in the field is three types of foundation walls that are being painted.  One type are stone foundations. When we see stone foundations that are painted, 92% of them are peeling, which means that only 8% are not. The reason this is happening is because there is mortar in between each stone. These homes were built at least 80 to well over 100 years ago. The mortar in between the stone...

In New England, stones were readily available from plowing fields. Foundations were needed, so Yankee engineering said, "let's use them!" Like any foundation, stone foundations tend to leak as they age. What we are finding when we go out to homes is that there is a smear coat of mortar over the stones on the foundations and the smear coating is falling off. The skin, or smear coat, is a combination of sand and mortar...

We have a very interesting case study to share today about an apartment building that was built with ICFs and survived something disastrous. We don't use alot of ICFs in New England, but ICF stands for "Insulated Concrete Forms." Think of a giant Lego, about 18" long and about 6" high, that is what an ICF looks like. But, instead of being plastic think of Styrofoam, and take out the middle of the lego and...

The 3 main causes for a unattractive or dangerous walkway or sidewalk: Cracks Spalling and delamination Broken concrete Let's take these one at a time. How can cracks form in walkways. There are lines in concrete walkways that are called expansion joints. They are here because concrete expands and contracts depending on the weather. Sometimes they are put in too far apart or not put in at all. When this happens you can get cracks...