An ICF stands for "Insulated Concrete Form". If you think of a large lego blog, made out of styrofoam that is 8" x 18". The styrofoam is on the outside of the lego block, and you can stack them one on top of the other.  You can make corners or build whatever you want. There is space between the styrofoam where you can pour concrete when they are stacked up. You can build foundations with...

Recently we ran into a situation where a real estate broker gave us a call about a situation in which she didn't know what to do. In a home in Newton, MA with garage cracks, had rooms built above. The buyer was antsy. The buyer and the seller both had structural engineers, licensed by the state of MA, come to the home. One of the engineers said it was a structural issue, but didn't know...

Just wanted to let you know, Paul did a fantastic job on my basement this morning. He was extremely helpful in explaining the issues and how he addressed them. Hopefully I won't have to be in contact with you again..but will definitely recommend your company and Paul,and if I do have another basement water issue, will be asking for Paul. A-1 Foundation Crack Repair takes great pride in providing excellent customer service. We thank Jack...

The first things a homeowner should check in the spring in order to keep the basement dry are the gutters and downspouts. You want to be sure that the gutters are clean and that the gutters and downspouts are not ripped away from the house after all the ice we had this winter. This is what keeps the water flowing away from the house. You also want to check the soil around the foundation. You...

A few weeks ago, before the snow was really melting, and there had been no rain, an insurance company in the town of Hudson, MA called us because there was water in the basement. That didn't make much sense, so the first thing we had to do was find out where the water was coming from. There were no signs outside, so we went downstairs and found a finished basement with finished walls against the...

We got a call about a week ago from a gentleman who had a handyman come and try to repair a leaking tie-rod. A tie-rod is a little metal rod that goes through the concrete that holds together the pieces of wood that creates the forms for the foundation as it is poured. After the foundation is poured, those tie rods are broken in order to remove the wood, but the metal tie rods stay...

Radon is a radioactive gas that cannot be smelled, seen or tasted. Many times this gas can enter a home through tiny cracks between the floor and the wall in a basement. These tiny cracks can also allow water in the home. Unlike the nuisance of water in the basement, radon is dangerous to your family’s health. In fact, untreated, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States according to...

Just like with any electrical equipment, bad things can happen. With sump pumps, there have been quite a few fires. These sump pumps have motors which generate heat, and pedestal sump pumps come up high. This heat can generate fires when something touches them. People store belongings, such as artificial Christmas trees in boxes. These motors, when running, vibrate or people can hit them by mistake. They can causes fires when the motor comes in...

There are two components of a bulkhead.The door itself, which faces the outside, and what that door sits on, which is usually the concrete steps that go down to your basement. You can do a very low-tech test to see if you bulkhead doors are leaking. Get a garden hose and send someone inside to stand under your bulkhead. Run water on the door and the sides of the door and see if you can...

We got a call the other day from one of the premier real-estate investment companies who had water coming in from under one of their finished walls in the basement. We instructed them to remove the sheet rock so they could see the block foundation and where the water was coming from. They called back and said that it was leaking from between the blocks that make up the foundation and that it was also...