Winter’s Effect on Your Foundation

Meteorologists in the area are predicting a rather mild winter for our part of the country. The large numbers of hurricanes and storms in the Caribbean have left a pocket of warm air and the cold northern fronts seem to be moving mostly eastward and not southeastward. El Niño probably will camp out in our neck of the woods for winter. Yet, it might still be cold enough in Texas, especially in the Fort Worth/Dallas metroplex and north, that your foundation might be affected. What is winter’s effect on foundations.

Cold weather conditions are generally understood to be defined as three consecutive days of temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It does not necessarily have to freeze to be considered cold weather. Quite often we have many such cold weather events in Texas and your foundation could be affected by that weather.

Cold weather could cause “frost heave”. Frost heave is the buckling (heaving) of the ground due to cold weather freezing. If the ground heaves, your foundation could crack or lose its integrity. There are three factors that can cause the soil to heave:

  • The soil is frost susceptible (a large percentage of the soil comprises silt, not sand or clay)
  • Sufficient moisture is available (soil is above approximately 80 percent saturation), and
  • Sub-freezing temperatures are penetrating the soil.

All three conditions are often present in our region. When cold weather conditions persist with these three factors, the soil could heave and unsettle the home’s foundation.

But it doesn’t have to! If your foundation is mostly covered by soil that has ground cover you should not experience heaving of the soil. However, if your foundation is largely uncovered and exposed to the air, and the three conditions above exist, the concrete will get very cold and cause the soil to heave and impact your slab. There are some areas where silt is a component of the ground.

Can anything help protect your foundation? Yes. A one-inch layer of polystyrene insulation (R4.5 value) starting from the ground upward will cause the frost line to move upward on to the foundation from the ground. In other words, the insulation moves the point of frost developing from the ground up onto the foundation. The way ground upheaval works is perpendicular to the frost line. So when the frost line is on the ground the direction of soil heaving is upward. But when your insulation is in place the frost line is now on the foundation wall and the direction of heaving is perpendicular so now the heaving motion is away from your foundation, parallel to the ground and your foundation remains intact.

There is science to everything about your foundation. The bell bottom pier (drilled pier with a bell bottom foot) method is the only proven, time-tested, and permanent concrete slab repair method on the market today. This drilled pier design with poured concrete reinforced with steel rebar is the same design used in the construction of commercial multi-story buildings, bridges, and highway overpasses. The engineers use this method because of the superior strength and permanence of the support columns.

We hope this tip on protecting your foundation for cold weather conditions helps your investment. But, when you need a repair, and you want the best and proven method, we are the champions of the bell bottom pier method of foundation repair.

Dawson Foundation Repair installs Bell Bottom Piers throughout the Texas market.  We do not install cheap stacked concrete cylinders because we agreed with the assessment of the structural engineers at A-1 Engineering – that they are “temporary” and “almost useless.”

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