Foundation damage can be hard to ignore once it takes root, but you should try to catch it early and nip it in the bud. It pays to regularly check your home for signs of damage. Of course, just how often you need to check it depends on the health of your home.
When to Check Your Foundation
If your foundation is in good health, as far as you know, you only need to check your property once every year. If you schedule your annual checks to coincide with any other seasonal maintenance you usually carry out, it will become second nature. This can feel a little silly if you have no reason to expect problems, but it’s well worth it in the long run.
If you notice damage or your foundation has pre-existing damage, you should step up your checks to once a month or once every other month. It is preferable to check a damaged foundation monthly, but whatever you decide, you should be making a note of the areas of existing damage and checking them for escalation.
What to Look For
Of course, checking your foundation is only helpful if you know what to expect in terms of damage. Thankfully, there are some very simple checks that you can perform, most of them visual, which will give you an idea of whether your foundation is healthy or not. The most obvious, of course, is to look for spreading cracks. Horizontal, vertical, or stair-step, it doesn’t matter—a spreading crack is a sign of active pressure.
Secondly, you can look to see if your external steps are even, and look to see if your home looks uneven from the street. Finally, you should look for saturated perimeter soil (a sign of poor drainage) and make sure your windows and doors still hang well and open/close smoothly. Sticking windows and doors are a subtle sign of subsidence in many cases.