While you may be pulling out those winter clothes to help protect your body from the frigid temperatures, that’s not all that you need to do. Your home is highly susceptible to cold weather, especially your foundation. Preventing problems this winter is a necessity to ensure the safety and health of your family and your home.
Clean Your Gutters
While you may think of your gutters as a necessary accessory for your roof, that’s not their only purpose. They help to divert water away from the foundation of your home. Without proper diversion, water can pool and create a whole slew of issues like settling and health hazards. It’s best to clear out your gutters and downspouts before the winter season to prevent any clogging.
Insulate Your Pipes
The piping that runs throughout your home is highly susceptible to freezing during wintertime weather. When pipes freeze, they can easily burst and lead to excessive water damage. This problem can be easily avoided with the use of insulation on your piping. You can opt for tubular or tape insulation that works to keep your pipes above freezing temperatures.
Seal Up Any Foundation Cracking
Over time, your foundation may develop slight cracks. After having them properly assessed by a foundation expert to ensure that they’re not overly damaging to your home, it’s necessary to seal them up. If you don’t, water will penetrate them as the snow melts. As it gets cold, the water will freeze up and naturally expand. This will result in the cracks expanding even further and creating more damage to your home’s foundation.
Slope the Soil Around Your Home
Regardless of whether your home is built on a concrete slab or with pier and beam construction, it’s very important to the health of your home that the soil around it slopes away from your home. This helps to naturally force water away from your home with gravity,.
When moisture enters the soil and freezes, it will naturally expand. The soil will push upward to accommodate the expansion. If it can’t, it will push outward. By sloping your soil, you can ensure that it has adequate space to expand without putting any undue pressure on the outer foundation walls of your home.
Install Adequate Drainage Around Your Home
The goal of any homeowner should be to keep water as far away from their home as possible. One of the most popular ways to do this is with a french drain system. This involves placing a corrugated slotted pipe under the ground just slightly outside of your exterior walls.
As the water sinks into the soil, it will naturally follow the path of least resistance. In this case, that’s down the corrugated pipe. This pipe will lead to an area away from your home and sometimes even a drainage ditch. When you have adequate drainage installed around your basement, you don’t have to worry about excessive water pooling or damage during the winter season.
Get an Annual Inspection
As a smart homeowner, it pays to get an annual inspection of your home’s base. This will allow you to be alerted of issues while they’re small and cheap to fix. Additionally, it will allow you to fix these issues before the winter weather turns them into more massive problems.
Install a Frost-Free Discharge Line
If your home relies on a sump pump to remove excess water, then it’s necessary to properly prep it for winter. You should have a frost-free discharge line installed. This way, the exterior of your line that reaches the outdoors to discharge excess water doesn’t end up freezing. A frozen discharge line would mean that water can freely back up into your basement and cause major water damage issues.
Shovel Snow Away From Your Home
If you get snow throughout the winter season, then it’s absolutely vital that you pay attention to where you shovel it. Don’t just throw it against your home. This holds especially true for those who use snow rakes to remove excess snow from their roofs. Stacking snow up against your home can lead to excessive water and, eventually, penetration into your basement walls.
The foundation is arguably the most essential structural component of any home. It’s vital that you properly prep it for the cold winter season to ensure that it makes it through without any damage.
This Winter, No matter the cause or if the cracks are aesthetic or potentially hazardous, you can contact Centex Foundation Repair to fix the problem as professionally and quickly as possible. They will provide you with a full estimate on your slab foundation repair costs, give you plenty of options for financing and even offer you a lifetime warranty on the repairs.