Heat impacting foundations on houses, yards in Central Texas
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - The high temperatures are causing some homeowners to see cracks in their yards and houses.
John Scales, of Scales Engineering, works on foundations and repairs cracks often.
“I’ve seen them really, really bad where you can stick a finger into the foundation, the crack of the foundation,” said Scales.
How does this happen?
KWTX Meteorologist Sean Bellafiore said the soil shifting is a result of dry heat and drought conditions.
“Whenever we get all of the heat in combination with the dry weather, I mean, this is the second driest summer we’ve ever seen in history, that means that the soil itself also becomes stressed. It starts to crack more easily. It doesn’t take the weight of all the concrete on top of it,” said Bellafiore.
Scales said many issues can come from cracked foundations like the doors, windows and drainage systems not functioning properly.
“It’s more of the function problems and the aesthetic problems. People don’t like to look at cracks in the wall, they don’t like to have doors that don’t operate right. Those are the real problems that you run into,” said Scales.
Scales said if you want to avoid this issue, use a soaker hose around your house a couple of times a week.
“Let it soak the ground and try to maintain that moisture level so that they’re moving up and down and not changing. As long as we’re keeping things the same, we’re not going to experience a lot of problems,” said Scales.
These repairs can cost anywhere between $2,000-$10,000.
Scales said if you chose to go through a company for repairs, wait until drought conditions are over.
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