Experts in Foundation and Slab Repair in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island & Nearby Areas of NS, NB 

How heaving foundations & slabs lead to damage of your Home

The problem:

Your foundation or slab floor is moving upwards, leading to cracks in the walls and floors of your home.

Telltale signs:

• Cracking on inside walls (common)
• Cracking on outside walls (rare)
• Cracks on the concrete floor slab
• Displaced or tilting slab sections
• Cracks joining together to form a triangle

How we can fix it:

Unwanted water accumulating in the soil under your home – and the pressure it brings -- is typically the cause of slab and foundation heave. Ridgeback Basement Systems’s first priority will be to eliminate water sources wherever possible. We will check for underground water line leaks, clogged drains, broken sprinkler lines, as well as faulty gutter and leader systems. Once we have fixed water problems, we can begin making repairs like:

• Concrete grinding for minor heaves, especially in outdoor slabs
• Soil stabilization by polymer injection to resist water infiltration
• Mechanical foundation repair, including the use of helical piers that can both support your foundation and to keep it from heaving in the future

Other causes for heaving include tree roots and pressure from adjacent buildings. Regardless of the cause, a professional foundation contractor is the best person to evaluate foundation heaving problems and suggest suitable solutions for your home.

What Causes Foundation Upheaval?

Heave is the upward movement of a foundation or slab caused by underlying soils that expand or swell. This occurs due to an increase in moisture or by freezing forces. Heave is more common with slabs than foundations because slabs have less weight to resist heaving forces. Unless there is a long period of drought, heave most commonly occurs within the first few years of the building's construction.

Slab and foundation heave is most commonly caused by these four forces:

What NOT To Do:

Before doing any repairs to your foundation, it's important to identify the problem as heaving.

Some contractors who have not been fully educated on the signs of heave can easily misread the cracks in your home and suggest the wrong solution.

The problem? While heave is the opposite of foundation settlement, the symptoms are often similar. To an untrained eye, it may appear that the exterior walls are going down — when what's really happening is that the basement slab is being pushed up near the center of the house.

To apply the right solution to a foundation problem, make sure you're getting the right diagnosis.

More about sinking concrete slab floors.

Repairing Heave Damage

Start by having an experienced foundation repair specialist inspect your foundation issue and identify what is causing your problem. Once the problem is identified, a customized solution can be proposed to repair the damage and address the cause of the issue.

We Do Foundation Heave Repair in NS, NB!

At Ridgeback Basement Systems, we have the tools and training available to fix foundations and slabs that are experiencing problems with upheaval.

We offer foundation and slab heave repair quotes to all within our Nova Scotia & New Brunswick service area. If you would like to schedule a free, no-obligation appointment with one of our foundation specialists, call or e-mail us today!

We proudly serve Fredericton, Halifax, Moncton, surrounding areas such as Dartmouth, Charlottetown, Truro, Dieppe, Sydney, Summerside, Glace Bay, and nearby.

Looking for a price? Get a no cost, no obligation free estimate.