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June 13, 2018

Home Improvement

A DIY Checklist To Your House Foundation Inspection

Winters are an ideal time to get your house foundation inspected. This is because the soil has shrunk in the past summer. Also, the soil has not yet expanded from the spring showers them. You can inspect the house yourself or hire a house foundation inspections expert to do it. But, if you are planning to inspect the house yourself, you may need a laser level, paper and a pencil.

Draw your home’s blueprint on paper or on a computer drawing software.

First things first. Sketch up an outline or a blueprint of your house on a computer drawing program, you can also draw it manually on a paper. Additionally, make sure to mark doors and windows to begin with.

Inspect the doors and windows of your house.

Whenever an opening in made or cut in a wall to make some space for the doors and windows, it becomes the weakest point in the wall of your house. Hence, doors and windows are prone to show the primary signs of foundation settlement. You should look out for three common signs in your house foundation inspection:

  • Floor and wall gaps, or gaps between the door-frame or window-frame
  • Drywall cracks extending from the corners of doors or windows
  • A door or window separating from the framing or exterior finish

Additionally, you can also check out for the misalignment by opening and closing doors and windows of your house to ensure if they are functioning properly. Ensure to lock or latch them properly. Last but not the least, look out for the signs above in your blueprint.

Check your floor

Prance through your home and make note of any peculiar changes in the floors like cracks, bowing, sagging or bouncing. It might also come to notice that the floors are uneven—they are dropping or separating from the walls. This, in turn, creates gaps between the floor and the wall. Inspect the floors with the help of a laser level if they are sloping. Firstly, set it on the floor of the main level of your home, and point it in the direction of the walls. Secondly, ascertain the difference in the measurement of laser line and the floor on one side of the room, and compare it with the distance between the laser line and the floor on the opposite side of the room. Lastly, take note of the differences, if any, on your sketch.

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