May 21, 2025 • 37 mins
Join us for a concise, informative discussion with Brett Hodgdon of Foster Foundation Repair. In this episode, we explore essential foundation and basement care, addressing maintenance, weather impacts, and effective solutions. Brett shares his expertise and practical advice for homeowners. Don't miss these valuable insights!
Contact Foster Foundation Repair:
Phone: (304) 776-6263
Address: 4226 Woodrum Ln, Charleston WV 25313
Website: www.fosterfoundationrepair.com
Contact Foster Foundation Repair:
Phone: (304) 776-6263
Address: 4226 Woodrum Ln, Charleston WV 25313
Website: www.fosterfoundationrepair.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Unlock your dream property with Meeks Realty Group, where Rich
the realtor makes real estate dreams a reality, whether it's
residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to Huntington covered. Your
key to exceptional real estate experience is start here Meeks
Realty Group. Contact us at Meeks dot us.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wcchs
it's employees or WVRC Media.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Twenty two minutes past the top of the hour, it
is eight twenty two. You're listening to ask the expert
w se HS the Voice of Charleston. I'm Deel Cooper.
Thanks so much for tuning in on this Wednesday morning,
getting through the road race cycling here in downtown Charleston.
A few more days of that left, but what an
exciting tom I'll tell you what. Lots of visitors in
downtown Charleston walking around some yesterday and seeing folks from
(00:55):
other lands visiting us here. So it's kind of nice
doing that, and a lot of overorgy downtow. But that
means a little bit of a traffic situation too. You'll
just want to be aware of that. We give you
updates throughout the day and let you know the areas
that you might want to avoid, but there's races at
night that you might want to come and observe. You're
listening to ask the expert this morning and joining me
in the studio this morning is Brett Hodgton. He is
(01:16):
from Foster Foundation Repair and is with us here in
studio this morning, first time in our new studio. Bret,
good morning, how you doing this morning?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
I'm doing well in this studio is quite nice.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
It's nice. This is one of our smaller ones, but
it's very great, especially for one on one interviews like this.
And man, just the sound compression in here's great. It's
so much better than what our last studio was. We
have great discussions for you this morning. You can call.
We're back to our standard phone line, so you can
give us a call. It three zero four three four
fifth fifteen fifty eight. Three zero four, three four five
fifty eight fifty eight is our number you can call
this morning if you have any questions for Brett. When
(01:47):
it comes to a foundation repair and things around your
foundation at your home. There's all kinds of questions about that.
We're going to be addressing a lot of the issues
this morning. Brett has a lot of good information he
wants to share. But if you have a question about
your home, maybe something that's going on that you know
your neighbor told you, Hey, that's nothing to worry about.
Does your neighbor really know, maybe you should ask, Or
maybe you have a neighbor told you that's a huge
problem and you're concerned about it. Does your neighbor really know?
(02:08):
Maybe you should ask the questions. You can call this morning.
If you have any questions about your basement, your foundations,
anything along those lines. Brett complaint you in the right direction.
Three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
Three zero four, three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
It's been a month or so since I've seen how
you doing. Man, Everything all right, I'm doing well. We're
very busy.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
The weather slowing us down today, but fortunately we have
certain things we can pivot to. But yeah, we're staying
very busy. It's that time of year for us.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I was unfortunately, oh it was a two days ago
whenever we had the last relatively heavy rain. I was
getting out of my car at lunch and walking towards
my house and saw a little standing water in my
yard and was like, oh, I bet Brett wouldn't be
very happy with that. Yeah, things that happen. I know,
I have some draining's just used in my yard. I
talk about it all the time, but it's just one
(02:53):
of those things that pop up every once in a while.
So if you have any questions this morning, give us
a call. We're going to talk a lot about foundations
this morning and some of the some of the situations
around foundations, try to backfill some of the information that
you have or may not have to allow you to
make education educated decision. And if you need bread services
or not, you can give us a call and find
out more as we go along this morning. But there's
(03:14):
a lot that goes into we talk about it a
lot on this program, but it is true we are
in an area where foundation repair and I guess foundation
observation almost is pre resquit to be a homeowner because
we have a lot of unique soil configurations and different
things like that around here. That really means that we
have a lot of activity potentially in our foundations.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah, and we have a lot of unique construction practices
with forty fifty foot tall foundations on the backside sometimes.
So yeah, it does require probably a different approach here
in Charleston than many other parts of the country. I
know there for a long time. It's not that way currently,
(03:54):
but there was five or six engineers completely making a
living off doing resisidential foundation inspections.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
And we're down to probably two or three locally now,
But at one point in time it was I don't
even want to say it was very competitive. We I
didn't feel like anybody was really competing with anybody. Everybody
was still still as busy as they could be, so
just that much business. Yeah, and it's unfortunately there's only
a handful of doing it now, so it's not so
they're not they're very busy, and unfortunately people aren't getting
(04:23):
the servant that service like they once did.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
One thing. You know, we've talked about the importance of
foundation repair almost in a here's the situation and what
is doing right to that area, But in very real terms,
if we're talking about someone say that you're living in
a house, you have no plans of moving or anything else,
You're like, who cares, what's happened? I have this crack.
Who cares what happens with my foundation? I'm not selling
this house. I want to live here until I pass
and I don't have any family, not going to give
(04:47):
it to anybody who cares? Who cares? Who cares? What's
what's the ultimate? If you just like like those old
History Channel documentaries like Life After People. If if you're
living in your home but you're and you have a
foundation issue, but you just decide, you know, not something
I'm going to concern myself with. What are some of
the things you're going to start seeing happen to your
home over time?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
So if you're having an active movement, you're going to
start Depending on the type of movement, of course, cracks
might enlarge, doors may start sticking, windows may quit working.
As I was at a house a little two weeks
ago where has a casement. Casement windows which are the
type of window that that swing out, and that type
of window when when a window frame gets out of
(05:27):
square that creates pressure in the window can combine and
quit working. Normally, a double hung window which goes up
and down, we will continue to operate in that scenario.
But you're starting to look for things that are that
are changing doors, windows that no longer function like they
once did, and of course cracks that are developing in
the brick the block or even interior finishes. Uneven floors,
(05:48):
of course be another one.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I've been in a house before. Actually it was back
when I was in real estate. Well, when I did mortgages.
We travel to people's homes and sometimes you talk to
somebody over the phone, you don't know what their house
looks like, and you go out to their house, and
it's kind of my company's way of doing like a
pre check before we call it out in an appraise
or anything else. I literally went to a house one time.
I don't know what the grade of the angle was
that the that the flooring was throughout the house, but
it was. It was not flat. It was at least
(06:12):
three four or five six degrees off where I mean,
if you put ball bearings on one end, it would
roll quickly to the other end. It was very uncomfortable
just to stand in the home, let alone live in it.
I found it amazing that people live there.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Yeah, yeah, that certainly can be the I've seen. Probably
the worst house I've seen is from front to rear.
There was this house had been in part of a
slip and it was six inches out of level from
one end of the house, went well from front to
rear over about twenty five thirty feet, so it was
very noticeable.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
That's like a I mean there's like a bike course.
I mean, that's really bad.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
It was occupied too.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Oh man, I just so these are I mean, you
don't want to live in that kind of environment. And
and yes, you can get kind of sort of blind
to some of these things that happens. Oh hey, my
windows have been sticking forever around the front. This door
has never really shut, so I stuff have to shove
a towe underneath it because it's not making a good
scene at night or whatever it might be. Eventually, these
things are going to lead to problems where your house
where it's just gonna there's gonna be so many issues
that you're gonna lose energy efficiency, you're going to there's
(07:06):
a lot of problems that's going to happen. Let alone
the fact if you ever need to resell your house,
refinance your house, or anything along those lines, it's really
going to put you out of pocket for that.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
It is and I don't want to say in every instance,
but In many cases, if if the situation is addressed early,
it can be addressed at a less, less intrusive or
aggressive approach. Some cases it can just be addressing drainage.
You know, I'll typically if a person doesn't have the
(07:35):
any any plan to sell, we'll probably start with some
noninvasive inspections like dounce about drains, any any type of
drain and ground drain that we can get to. We'll
start with those to see see if we can identify
a cause of whatever the issue is and then hopefully
address that cause and then and then monitor it and
see if it will uh stabilize and prevent prevent that
(07:57):
from continuing.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
And and that's important. You have to stay you thing
haves to observe and make sure that things aren't going
to get worse or if there's any other repairs you
need to put in. You mentioned a couple of the
factors when it comes to foundations moving, what I find
is fascinating. We spoke before about how a home is
almost like a like a living organism, and that goes
with the surroundings and the environment of it as well.
(08:21):
And it's odd to me. I was doing some reading
and when it comes to foundations and for things like that.
And I saw that you have it on your notes
that you're brought here this morning. Why do foundations move?
They can move for a couple of different reasons, including
too much water and drought, not enough water. You really
have a balance in there that you're looking for for
your foundation.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, And over the last twelve months, we've experienced kind
of the extremes of both. I would say for our
region they were the extremes. We had a severe drought
last fall last summer, which led to a lot of
settlement issues. Pretty Much every call I was looking at
through that period of time was addressing a drought related
settlement issue to the point where or when we got
(09:00):
to actually go out. By the time we got to
the repair, in some instances, the cracks had closed where
the soil had rehydrated and and caused the foundation to heave,
so it it We certainly have seen the extremes now
in that in those cases every client we've we were
h contracted with actually decided to continue with the repair
(09:23):
because they they said, well, the next route it's gonna
it's gonna happen again. And and you know, I generally
concurred with them. It was kind of we had the
discussion at that point, well, what do you want to do?
I mean, just the cracks have closed, but uh, I
guess the the source or the potential is still there.
So they every one of them so far has elected
to proceed with the with the repair.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And uh it seems like that that's that's just the
correct and the cautious move to make, because you want
to be able to plan for these things in the
future when you have these different varieties of things that
can affect you, and and when it comes to even
the innudation we talk about have extremely wet seasons and
stuff like that, which can certainly affect things, but also
just the configuration of your home when it comes to
(10:07):
water penetration could cause some issues. There's grading issues that
you can have even if you're not having a necessarily
exceptionally wet season. If you have bad grading, gutters and
downspouts that aren't routed correctly, there's other things you could
have other than it just being hey, it's a wet season.
Your house could also not be configured properly to handle
the moisture we do have.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
That's correct, you could have, yes, just like you mentioned
poor drainage issues. You know, some houses are kind of
a U shaped where there's has two wings with a
recessed area, and sometimes that water is getting directed in
there and it just has nowhere to go but down
against the foundation or down to the foundation drain, which
is not a desirable You never want your foundation drain
(10:47):
to be a primary drainage feature for a property. That
should always kind of be the last resort that manages
as little water as possible. We want to try to
manage everything at the surface with down spoutscutters, surface strainage,
or surface strangage features such as storm drains, catch basins,
French strange things of that nature.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
One of the things I thought we could caution folks
on as well as I had one of these stuck
into my mailbox a couple weeks ago. Somebody going around
sticking in flyers about hey, check your foundation, different things
like that, and I noticed that the information that they
provide on their slips on the people that do these
types of things are not the same type of information
that we talk about on this program. The number one
(11:28):
they lead with price, it seems like it's like and
then there's certain things that they detail that I wonder
about the like quick fixes and things like that. You
really have to be careful when you're selecting a service
provider regardless, I mean just as yourself, as someone who's
not only an engineer but does foundation inspections and repair.
There's always going to be somebody out there looking to
pull the thread on a shortcut that may not be
(11:50):
the best solution for it, or may even be a
catastrophic quote unquote solution.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Yes, this industry has changed over probably the last five
to ten year years where the goal of the industry
has to try to figure out the cheapest way to
address the most common cookie cutter and cookie cutter issues,
and that's essentially what is being pushed on the clients,
(12:15):
and that is not always the best. Sure, sometimes it'll work,
a lot of times it won't. It will get it'll
it'll work long enough for the check to clear. But
you know, I'm looking at five to ten I'm looking
at twenty thirty year repairs is what I'm looking for.
I'm looking for repairs that are going to be still
in service when I when I'm done and gone retired
(12:36):
from this industry. Because I don't want to get called
back callbacks on failed issues. So yeah, there's definitely that issue.
I was actually reading some warranty documentation from another company
and they actually had to define what lateral movement was,
and they defined it in a manner which excluded three
(12:58):
of the four types of lateral movement. And essentially what
they were what they were doing is they were their
lateral movement is defined as the typical weak point in
a wall. So what they would plan on doing is
reinforcing the wall to resist that type of movement. But
all they have done is changed the weak point of
(13:20):
the wall. So now you've you've created an increased potential
for a different type of movement, which typically requires the
same repair that should have been done the first time,
or creates a more expensive repair in the long run.
For example, in a lateral movement issue, if you end
up with base base wall shear, which is a horizontal
(13:41):
crack or a horizontal offset that develops at the base
of the wall, that that results in, I mean, you're
into big money no matter what you how you address that,
because now you're going to very likely have water entry
as well as the foundation movement.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Bred Hauston is our guest this morning. You're listening to
ask the expert with Foster Foundation Repair. You can find
more information online. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot com. That's
Foster Foundation Repair dot com, located here in Charleston, West Virginia,
therefore number of seven seven six sixty two sixty three
seven seven six sixty two sixty three. You can call
us this morning at three zero four three four five
fifty eight fifty eight three zero four three four five
fifty eight fifty We'll take a break here in a
(14:15):
couple of minutes, come back with hopefully some of your
phone calls or any questions you have. If you'd like
to get a question on the text line, you can
do that as well. I know some folks like to
type it out and send in because they have very
specific questions, especially about technical matters like this. You're more
than a welcome to do that. Our text line numbers
three zer a four non three five five zero zero
eight three zero four non three five five zero zero
eight is the text line number that you can send
(14:36):
in your questions to as well. Is there a better time,
a best or better time of year to get your
foundation inspected in this region? Or is it doesn't really matter?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (14:45):
No, it doesn't really matter. I mean it's I mean
my process is to evalue, visually evaluate the foundation for cracks,
and then you know, if I'm if I'm seeing anything
that looks like there's a settlement issue, then I'm going
to utilize a laser level to to in some manner,
either inside or outside, to try to substantiate what the
cracks are telling me visually. So no, I mean, I
(15:10):
don't go through the same process now that that I'm
in the contractor roles I used to. I used to
sort of identify do an exhaustive review of the foundation.
Now my approach is more based on what the client
directs me to. Yeah, and then of course if I
see anything else, I bring it up and say do
you want to get into this and talk about this?
(15:31):
But no, I mean it doesn't. Typically people are going
to it's going to typically get inspected when the house
is being bought or sold by well bought by the buyers.
Typically when it comes up or oftentimes a seller will
have a crack and they'll do a pre pre list
(15:52):
inspection so they can get a report and lay it
on the counter and say whether it's good or bad
or you know, here's the here's the fix, here's the
lost from a contract or something. But no, I mean,
I think for your average homeowner, it's it's typically anytime
you you feel there has been a change. I don't
I'm not a huge advocate of just, you know, annual,
(16:13):
annually paying somebody to come to an inspect right, I'd
certainly be happy for that, But I don't think that's warranted.
I think it's it's more on a you know, an
issue based need if you see it, and really the
time of year. You know, it's very dependent on the
time of year of what I'm looking at and what
I'm considering as as factors. You know, of course I'm
(16:35):
going to think very differently during a drought than I
am going to be during the debt of winner, of
what what the cause might be. So no, I think
you know, anytimes, anytime's perfectly fine. If if there's a
a need rises.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
That's great information. As always one thing, I thought we
could get out of here and then we'll take a
break and come back. I was looking at the different
types of foundations. You provided a list on some of
the some of the common ones around here, and I
was I was king if if if folks on their
found if there's a particular type of foundations that's common
to the area where folks should be extra aware of
potential issues. Is there is there a type of foundation
that you've run into that you know, hey, if you
(17:12):
have this type of home after so long, you're going
to potentially start seeing these problems more common than you
are in other ones where this particular type of foundation
has this one unique issue that I see come up.
Is there any any tips that you can give homeowers
with a particular type of foundation or is it not
really anything that comes up like that?
Speaker 4 (17:27):
So, the most common foundations we have in our region
are are a basement, crass space, a basement, a crawl space,
and less common a concrete slab on grade. Now we
do have a lot of garage floors, of course, but
true foundation slab on grades, we don't have a large
amount of those. I'm seeing a few up in the
Buffalo area. There's a neighborhood out there, new development out
(17:50):
there they are building some of My mother in law
just bought one on a slab, but at the basements.
So we have what are called restrained retaining walls for
our basements, which essentially means that wall is being held
in place by the floor overhead and the basement floor slab.
Different than what would be considered a rigid retaining wall,
which is completely self supporting it requires no outside support
(18:14):
to prevent displacement. But our common basements, the most common
basement that we see in this area is restrained, so
it requires again the floor diaphragm overhead, so the wall
leans on the top of the floor at the top
and then to prevent sliding it it's pinned by the
basement floor slab. And the vast majority of homes built
(18:38):
from the fifties to the eighties in this region that
were basements were unreinforced CMU or concrete masonry unit walls,
so we oftentimes develop a horizontal crack right down the
middle of the wall that has a resulted that is
caused by the wall boeing from the lateral earth pressure
and water pressure acting against the wall. So that's probably
(18:58):
one of the most common UH failure modes that we see.
And back to that warranty topic I touched on on
it earlier, that's that's the that was the defined movement
that was going to be addressed by that company. They
were excluding any other type of movement with their repair,
which boeing is the most common, and it can be
(19:21):
it can be fixed with various means, but it doesn't
prevent the floor from basically pushing through the other end
of the house, causing the entire building to rake or
lean to the opposite side. And and if you're only
addressing that bowing, it's not providing any sheer resistance at
the base of the wall, which is where the largest
(19:43):
sheer force develops is at the base of the wall.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Outstanding information and UH and really useful information from Brett
Hodgston from Foster Foundation Repair. You can call this whey,
I want to take a break now if you want
to control the conversation. You have some questions about your
basement foundation, some problems that you might have or maybe
allowed to with. Maybe you have a child or apparent
that has some issues and you want to follow up
for them. Here more than welcome to you. Give us
a call this morning three zero four three four five
fifty eight fifty eight. You can also texting your questions
(20:08):
to three zero four non three five five zeros or eight.
As see, we have a couple of texts that have
come in. We'll get to those when we come back,
you can get in as well. Three zero four non
three five five zero zero eight. You're listening to ask
the expert in studio with me this morning is Brett
Hodgton from Foster Foundation Repair. I'm Delle Cooper, and give
us a call at three zero four three four five
fifty eight fifty eight three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
We'll be back right after this and ask the expert
(20:29):
whs the Voice of Charleston.
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Speaker 3 (21:44):
You are listening to ask the expert whs the voice
of Charleston at studio with this morning with me this
morning is bred Hodston, owner of Foster Foundation Repair. We're
talking about your Foundation Foundation repairs. Any questions that you
have this morning about those things, you can give us
a call this morning at three zer A four three
four five fifty fifty eight three zero four three four
five fifty to fifty eight. You can text over any
questions you have the three zero four non three five
(22:04):
five zers or eight have a couple of those right now.
Let me give you a Foster's information first before we
get to these questions. Foster Foundation Repair, located in Charleston
at forty two twenty six Woodrum Lane U and their
phone numbers threes are four seven, seven, six sixty two
sixty three. So if you want to follow up after
the program today, you can do that. Three zero four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three one line Foster
Foundation Repair dot com. Foster Foundation Repair dot Com. From
(22:28):
the three zero four three eight nine. We're on a
hillside lot and every heavy rain sends water towards the house.
We've tried French drains, but it's still damp under the
cross space. Are we just stuck with this?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
No, it's fixable. Oh, like it always fixable. So French
strains French trains. Some people consider call a a foundation
drain a French drain. I consider a French drain a
surface drain, a drain that is collecting water that's running
across the ground. So often times French trains that I evaluate,
(23:03):
and maybe the only reason I'm evaluating them is because
they don't work. They're not done well. A quality installed
French train will divert a large amount of water away
from the foundation. But what you may also need is
a new foundation waterproofing. Excuse me and drainage system, which
is essentially a French drain, but it is located adjacent
(23:27):
to the footer and so with proper surface water management,
water is diverted around the house and then at the
foundation of the house there is a foundation drain back
filled with gravel, and then a waterproofing system against the
foundation which will prevent any moisture penetrating the wall. The
(23:49):
waterproofing system we installed is a commercial grade waterproofing system
I've seen in architectural plans locally that engineers and architects
have drawn up. It's the same one always specked out
as when I was just an engineering doing design work.
That was the the waterproofing system that I specified as
a Carlisle system. It's a self adhering rubber membrane that
(24:11):
goes against the wall, and then after that's installed, there
is a vertical drainage board which is a nippled, nippled
plastic membrane with a filter cloth on it that goes
vertically against the wall. So any any water that gets
to the to the foundation hits hits that filter drains
through it into that nippled membrane and straight down to
(24:32):
the foot or drain but we're also backfilling with gravel.
It's the likelihood that water is going to get actually
get to the foundation's pretty darn low. But no, it's
it's certainly a fixable issue. There are also ways to
handle it from the inside. There are water management systems
where where the water can be once it gets in,
it can be collected and diverted in either to a
(24:52):
sump pump or to the exterior and then so that
would handle the liquid water. And then on top of
that you can always go with a crawl space encapsulation system,
which is a wonderful system that's going to manage the
water vapor in the crawl space as well as the
house quite quite efficiently, and it really improves the indoor
(25:17):
air quality. It's a very clean system. They're quite attractive
just you know, just to look at. They're a very
nice looking product if done well. But no, you are
not stuck. There are there are fixes for it depending
on your site. Sometimes you know, proper French drainage and
(25:37):
you know, diverting water through drainage features like drainage swales
may not be possible, but there are certainly ways to
manage the water in a manner that will prevent future damage.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah, so there, if you have any follow ups on
that's that's a great answer. And if you have any
follow ups on that, if you want to give Bread
a call for Foster Foundation refair seven seveny six sixty
two sixty three, you can call us. Threes are four
three four five fifty to fifty eight three four five
fifty fifteen more welcome to call us this morning. Another
text question coming in from the threes or four three
eight nine. My home inspectory didn't mention any foundation problems
when we've bought the home last year, but now doors
(26:10):
are sticking and we've got maybe a slightly sloped floor.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Should I be concerned, Well, it's certainly something to look at.
A slope floor could be from various things. Could be
foundation settlement, perimeter. Foundation settlement could be an isolated peer
that has settled. It could be a defect in the
original construction of the framing systems that may or may
(26:34):
not be a significant, significant issue that may or may
not need to be repaired. But inspection would certainly give
you more insight and if done with a somebody that's reasonable,
they'll give you, you know, kind of lay it out
as how severe the condition is and whether it represents,
(26:57):
you know, a long term issue, whether it represents a
work term safety issue or something of that nature, which
is pretty rare that there's a safety issue, but it's
certainly something that might be warranted looking at and that's
something we do. We we would certainly come out and
take a look at that and offer a free estimate.
That's great or evaluation, you know if it if it
(27:17):
doesn't need anything, I'll be perfectly honest with you.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yeah, And that's the peace of mind that that gives
you something else that you you really can't you can't
really attach any kind of value for that. And when
you're just getting an evaluation, that's an evaluation and to
get and to kind of be able to put that
out of your mind. If it's something you're concerned about,
that's uh, that's that's quite that's quite something else. That's
a peace of mind is always worth something, that's for sure.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Let me see. I have another text question. This is
from the three zero four five to five two Great Show.
I often deal with blasting damage claims from nearby construction
and mining projects, and that's always the reason for claims.
That's interesting you can have a foundation repair from that.
I never even thought about that. I guess I could
see that.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Yeah, I have a friend that's in highway construction and
and he's had he's had claims before from their their work.
But yeah, that certainly is a potential source. I remember
there was the train explosion or the train derailment what
down south a little bit from here. Yeah, I remember
hearing some complaints about that that they caused the cracks,
(28:18):
and they're certainly they're certainly engineers locally that specialize and
that's what their their focus is on. I would have
maybe gotten into that kind of work previously. I don't
have the time for it now. But there are definitely
things that are forensic inspections that that we do in
this area that look for specific things to see if
(28:38):
that's a fresh crack, or if that's maybe been patched
ten times and you've had an ongoing issue for you five, ten,
fifteen years, and this is just progression of that situation.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
So a few minutes left on the program. You're welcome
to give us a call or a text. WE text
line is popular this morning. Text line three zero of
four none three five five zero zero eight phone line
is three zero of four three four five fifty eight
fifty eight threes zerre of three four five fifty to
fifty eight. Picking back through the information that you gave
me when you came in this morning, we talked a
little bit before we went to the break about the
lateral movement and you were defining some of the some
(29:10):
of the terms on that and what some folks were
using for that. I see that you have a panel
and the information that you brought me talking about vertical
movement of a foundation. What is that?
Speaker 4 (29:19):
So typically you think vertical movement is going to be
found differential settlement or settlement of some type. There's a
couple of different types of settlement. You've got the initial settlement,
which is basically, you build a house, it's going to
have some degree of settlement. The big building designers they
they're trying to their goal is to get uniform settlement,
(29:40):
where the whole building creeps down very slightly. Differential settlement
is typically when you're going to get some cracking that develops,
like when a corner settles off away from the rest
of the house, or maybe an addition tilts away from
an original structure, and then we have tipping settlement, which
can be quite severe where the whole building sort of
(30:03):
tips in one direction from one end to the other,
and you can actually have pretty significant tipping settlement without
the development of cracks and an addressing. Tipping settlement can
be quite difficult if it's a progressive, if it's an
ongoing and progressive concern, because essentially end up having to
underpin the entire foundation, which which would get very expensive.
(30:25):
And tipping settlement really can only be picked up with
with laser levels, you know, some sort of leveling device
to measure for elevation.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
What is the likelihood that that new builds will have
some sort I mean you're going to have settlement period.
I mean there's going to be settlement. When you put
weight on dirt, there's going to be settlement. You're just
going to get that. But what is the likelihood that
you're actually going to after your settlement? What is I
saw in your information two to four years is your
typical initial settlement amount. Is it possible for that settlement
just for not to have been installed correctly or unforeseen
(30:58):
issues and actually to develop problems when a new build.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yes, yes it is. I mean to me, the especially
like production houses, production neighborhoods. The drainage is like the
last concern. It's the kitchen, it's the bathrooms.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Subdivisions like a pre prefab subdivisions or whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
Okay, all the pretty stuff is all that matters, right
to everybody. Your common homeowners not going to walk in
and say, how'd you do my drains? Nobody's thinking about them.
It's just assumed. And they're commonly just slapped in there
just so they're functional.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
It's very common for those to be damaged during backfill.
Uh you're just dumping a bunch of dirt with rocks
in it and it collapses the pipe. So it's certainly possible.
Of course, it all depends on the builder. We have
all both both ends of the spectrum here in the
in the valley with very good quality builders and less
(31:57):
I'll just say, and and then some people don'tnderstand the
significance of of the of water, of the drain pipes
and how important they are.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah, and again, if you have any questions about those things,
or if you need to follow up with those, you
can give Foster Foundation Repair a call. Three zero four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three. We're running out
of time this morning, you can still try to squeeze
in here the last couple of minutes we have at
three zero four, three four five fifty eight fifteen. Another
text question that came in we got some crack. Well,
this is a great question for We address this at
(32:27):
some degree with every show, and I don't think we
necessarily did today, So this will be a great question
for us to maybe wrap up the show. One, we've
got some cracks in our basement walls and one runs
through the floor. How do I know if it's settling
or if we have real problems. That's basically your job,
that is, that.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Is my job.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
So oftentimes I don't want to say all the time,
but oftentimes cracks in a slab or they're not necessarily
a major issue. They can be a function of whatever
other movement is occurring. The only way to know the cause,
which is where I'm going to start the cause of
(33:01):
the crack, is to hire somebody that is experienced in
identifying what that cause is and then the likelihood that
that movement would continue. Uh, if it's a small hairline
crack from from some settlement, that's and you're not playing
on going anywhere we're typically going to start looking for
(33:21):
drainage issues that we can address and then hopefully monitor
that foundation so it doesn't move. If it's a lateral
movement issue on an unreinforced basement wall, normally that's going
to be something that's going to be a progressive issue
that's going to need some sort of action to prevent
that from from progressing. Even if you know we've we've
(33:43):
we've done we've done drainage improvements to reduce the amount
of water flowing towards a house for lateral movement and
monitored it. The the chances are lower that that's going
to be a successful permanent fix. But sometimes that's the clients.
You know, they don't have the funds to go with
the big one, so we do what we can to
(34:04):
limit the risk of future movement. But to directly answer
the question, is somebody that is experienced in this industry,
preferably an engineer, because they are we have some ethics
we have to abide by, Rather than just a salesperson
(34:26):
from a foundation repair company. I think the most appappropriate
person to assess the situation as an engineer who especially
that works in residential foundation inspection and repair.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
You bring up a very good point there, and uh,
I'm sure people think about this to some degree, but
the real imbalance when it comes to something like foundations,
I don't care how unless it's just something that for
some reason you dabbled in when you were maybe when
you had a job out of college or something like that,
and you didn't really do it. Most people have zero
(35:00):
zero knowledge joined this type of thing. And so the
trust that you have to build with the person who's
giving you the advice, what work to do, how much
it's going to cost, and things like that, that trust
has to be explicit because basically, I mean, if you
could tell me anything, I'd be like, oh okay, Brett.
If you think we have to do it, then that's
what we have to do. You know, I don't know,
So I have to trust what you're telling me. And
that's a very important part of it.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
I agree one hundred percent with that, and that is
I tried to develop that trust. I try to be
honest and trustworthy when I am honest with what my
opinions are, but I try to develop that trust. What
I would encourage is if is if you're in the
unfortunate situation where you have an issue that needs to
be addressed. I would certainly recommend you getting the background
(35:44):
of the person that's telling you what needs to be done.
Research their background. They should have a resume and see
where they've been. Where they a car salesman three years
ago and no offense to car salesman. But I couldn't
go sell a car, I can tell you that, right, right,
But it's just somebody that has been in this industry.
I'm fifteen plus years now. I believe what this is
(36:04):
all I've done. So I would certainly encourage that you
understand the experience of the person giving you the recommendations
and whether it's me, Whether it's me or not, that's
perfectly fine. But I certainly would recommend to be an engineer.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Years ago, when I started my first brick and mortar business,
me and I had some volunteers that worked for me
and family and stuff like that. We went around with
little bags that we would go and hang on people's
doorknobs and their fences and their gates and stuff like that.
I sold books. You know, you don't really have to
have a high level of expertise to sell books on
a retail level. If somebody is sticking these same things
(36:40):
on your doorknob and on your fence and things like that,
and they're offering elite levels of professional service. I don't
begrudge anybody for trying to get a start to trying
to start off their business or something like that, but
I'm not sure that that's always the best route to go.
You really need to vet who you're working with and
make sure that you're making the right calls on doing that. Yep. Yeah,
that's kind of my editorial when it comes to things
(37:01):
like that. We've been doing shows with Brett for a
long time here and has always come come with the
information and with the receipts showing you the things you
need to learn when it comes to your foundation and
how to take care of your foundation. For Foundation Repair,
Foster Foundation Repair located here on Charleston forty two twenty
six woodrom Lane. Their phone number three zero four seven
seven six sixty two sixty three three zero four seven
seven six sixty two sixty three seven seven six sixty
(37:23):
two sixty three Foster Foundation Repair dot com. Brett, thank
you so much for your time. I appreciate it again this week.
Thank you. We'll see you back here next month. Yep,
it sounds that'll do it for us. Coming up next
Dave Dave Allen five eight Live. I'll be back this
afternoon at three or six on Hotline with Dave Weekly.
Have a great day everyone. On five eight WCHS. We
are the voice of Charleston. Five medwchsamninty six point five.
(37:45):
That's in Charleston one oh four point.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Five cross laced on WVRC Media station. We're proud to
live here, to
Unlock your dream property with Meeks Realty Group, where Rich
the realtor makes real estate dreams a reality, whether it's
residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to Huntington covered. Your
key to exceptional real estate experience is start here Meeks
Realty Group. Contact us at Meeks dot us.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wcchs
it's employees or WVRC Media.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Twenty two minutes past the top of the hour, it
is eight twenty two. You're listening to ask the expert
w se HS the Voice of Charleston. I'm Deel Cooper.
Thanks so much for tuning in on this Wednesday morning,
getting through the road race cycling here in downtown Charleston.
A few more days of that left, but what an
exciting tom I'll tell you what. Lots of visitors in
downtown Charleston walking around some yesterday and seeing folks from
(00:55):
other lands visiting us here. So it's kind of nice
doing that, and a lot of overorgy downtow. But that
means a little bit of a traffic situation too. You'll
just want to be aware of that. We give you
updates throughout the day and let you know the areas
that you might want to avoid, but there's races at
night that you might want to come and observe. You're
listening to ask the expert this morning and joining me
in the studio this morning is Brett Hodgton. He is
(01:16):
from Foster Foundation Repair and is with us here in
studio this morning, first time in our new studio. Bret,
good morning, how you doing this morning?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
I'm doing well in this studio is quite nice.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
It's nice. This is one of our smaller ones, but
it's very great, especially for one on one interviews like this.
And man, just the sound compression in here's great. It's
so much better than what our last studio was. We
have great discussions for you this morning. You can call.
We're back to our standard phone line, so you can
give us a call. It three zero four three four
fifth fifteen fifty eight. Three zero four, three four five
fifty eight fifty eight is our number you can call
this morning if you have any questions for Brett. When
(01:47):
it comes to a foundation repair and things around your
foundation at your home. There's all kinds of questions about that.
We're going to be addressing a lot of the issues
this morning. Brett has a lot of good information he
wants to share. But if you have a question about
your home, maybe something that's going on that you know
your neighbor told you, Hey, that's nothing to worry about.
Does your neighbor really know, maybe you should ask, Or
maybe you have a neighbor told you that's a huge
problem and you're concerned about it. Does your neighbor really know?
(02:08):
Maybe you should ask the questions. You can call this morning.
If you have any questions about your basement, your foundations,
anything along those lines. Brett complaint you in the right direction.
Three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
Three zero four, three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
It's been a month or so since I've seen how
you doing. Man, Everything all right, I'm doing well. We're
very busy.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
The weather slowing us down today, but fortunately we have
certain things we can pivot to. But yeah, we're staying
very busy. It's that time of year for us.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I was unfortunately, oh it was a two days ago
whenever we had the last relatively heavy rain. I was
getting out of my car at lunch and walking towards
my house and saw a little standing water in my
yard and was like, oh, I bet Brett wouldn't be
very happy with that. Yeah, things that happen. I know,
I have some draining's just used in my yard. I
talk about it all the time, but it's just one
(02:53):
of those things that pop up every once in a while.
So if you have any questions this morning, give us
a call. We're going to talk a lot about foundations
this morning and some of the some of the situations
around foundations, try to backfill some of the information that
you have or may not have to allow you to
make education educated decision. And if you need bread services
or not, you can give us a call and find
out more as we go along this morning. But there's
(03:14):
a lot that goes into we talk about it a
lot on this program, but it is true we are
in an area where foundation repair and I guess foundation
observation almost is pre resquit to be a homeowner because
we have a lot of unique soil configurations and different
things like that around here. That really means that we
have a lot of activity potentially in our foundations.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah, and we have a lot of unique construction practices
with forty fifty foot tall foundations on the backside sometimes.
So yeah, it does require probably a different approach here
in Charleston than many other parts of the country. I
know there for a long time. It's not that way currently,
(03:54):
but there was five or six engineers completely making a
living off doing resisidential foundation inspections.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (04:02):
And we're down to probably two or three locally now,
But at one point in time it was I don't
even want to say it was very competitive. We I
didn't feel like anybody was really competing with anybody. Everybody
was still still as busy as they could be, so
just that much business. Yeah, and it's unfortunately there's only
a handful of doing it now, so it's not so
they're not they're very busy, and unfortunately people aren't getting
(04:23):
the servant that service like they once did.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
One thing. You know, we've talked about the importance of
foundation repair almost in a here's the situation and what
is doing right to that area, But in very real terms,
if we're talking about someone say that you're living in
a house, you have no plans of moving or anything else,
You're like, who cares, what's happened? I have this crack.
Who cares what happens with my foundation? I'm not selling
this house. I want to live here until I pass
and I don't have any family, not going to give
(04:47):
it to anybody who cares? Who cares? Who cares? What's
what's the ultimate? If you just like like those old
History Channel documentaries like Life After People. If if you're
living in your home but you're and you have a
foundation issue, but you just decide, you know, not something
I'm going to concern myself with. What are some of
the things you're going to start seeing happen to your
home over time?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
So if you're having an active movement, you're going to
start Depending on the type of movement, of course, cracks
might enlarge, doors may start sticking, windows may quit working.
As I was at a house a little two weeks
ago where has a casement. Casement windows which are the
type of window that that swing out, and that type
of window when when a window frame gets out of
(05:27):
square that creates pressure in the window can combine and
quit working. Normally, a double hung window which goes up
and down, we will continue to operate in that scenario.
But you're starting to look for things that are that
are changing doors, windows that no longer function like they
once did, and of course cracks that are developing in
the brick the block or even interior finishes. Uneven floors,
(05:48):
of course be another one.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I've been in a house before. Actually it was back
when I was in real estate. Well, when I did mortgages.
We travel to people's homes and sometimes you talk to
somebody over the phone, you don't know what their house
looks like, and you go out to their house, and
it's kind of my company's way of doing like a
pre check before we call it out in an appraise
or anything else. I literally went to a house one time.
I don't know what the grade of the angle was
that the that the flooring was throughout the house, but
it was. It was not flat. It was at least
(06:12):
three four or five six degrees off where I mean,
if you put ball bearings on one end, it would
roll quickly to the other end. It was very uncomfortable
just to stand in the home, let alone live in it.
I found it amazing that people live there.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Yeah, yeah, that certainly can be the I've seen. Probably
the worst house I've seen is from front to rear.
There was this house had been in part of a
slip and it was six inches out of level from
one end of the house, went well from front to
rear over about twenty five thirty feet, so it was
very noticeable.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
That's like a I mean there's like a bike course.
I mean, that's really bad.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
It was occupied too.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Oh man, I just so these are I mean, you
don't want to live in that kind of environment. And
and yes, you can get kind of sort of blind
to some of these things that happens. Oh hey, my
windows have been sticking forever around the front. This door
has never really shut, so I stuff have to shove
a towe underneath it because it's not making a good
scene at night or whatever it might be. Eventually, these
things are going to lead to problems where your house
where it's just gonna there's gonna be so many issues
that you're gonna lose energy efficiency, you're going to there's
(07:06):
a lot of problems that's going to happen. Let alone
the fact if you ever need to resell your house,
refinance your house, or anything along those lines, it's really
going to put you out of pocket for that.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
It is and I don't want to say in every instance,
but In many cases, if if the situation is addressed early,
it can be addressed at a less, less intrusive or
aggressive approach. Some cases it can just be addressing drainage.
You know, I'll typically if a person doesn't have the
(07:35):
any any plan to sell, we'll probably start with some
noninvasive inspections like dounce about drains, any any type of
drain and ground drain that we can get to. We'll
start with those to see see if we can identify
a cause of whatever the issue is and then hopefully
address that cause and then and then monitor it and
see if it will uh stabilize and prevent prevent that
(07:57):
from continuing.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
And and that's important. You have to stay you thing
haves to observe and make sure that things aren't going
to get worse or if there's any other repairs you
need to put in. You mentioned a couple of the
factors when it comes to foundations moving, what I find
is fascinating. We spoke before about how a home is
almost like a like a living organism, and that goes
with the surroundings and the environment of it as well.
(08:21):
And it's odd to me. I was doing some reading
and when it comes to foundations and for things like that.
And I saw that you have it on your notes
that you're brought here this morning. Why do foundations move?
They can move for a couple of different reasons, including
too much water and drought, not enough water. You really
have a balance in there that you're looking for for
your foundation.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, And over the last twelve months, we've experienced kind
of the extremes of both. I would say for our
region they were the extremes. We had a severe drought
last fall last summer, which led to a lot of
settlement issues. Pretty Much every call I was looking at
through that period of time was addressing a drought related
settlement issue to the point where or when we got
(09:00):
to actually go out. By the time we got to
the repair, in some instances, the cracks had closed where
the soil had rehydrated and and caused the foundation to heave,
so it it We certainly have seen the extremes now
in that in those cases every client we've we were
h contracted with actually decided to continue with the repair
(09:23):
because they they said, well, the next route it's gonna
it's gonna happen again. And and you know, I generally
concurred with them. It was kind of we had the
discussion at that point, well, what do you want to do?
I mean, just the cracks have closed, but uh, I
guess the the source or the potential is still there.
So they every one of them so far has elected
to proceed with the with the repair.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And uh it seems like that that's that's just the
correct and the cautious move to make, because you want
to be able to plan for these things in the
future when you have these different varieties of things that
can affect you, and and when it comes to even
the innudation we talk about have extremely wet seasons and
stuff like that, which can certainly affect things, but also
just the configuration of your home when it comes to
(10:07):
water penetration could cause some issues. There's grading issues that
you can have even if you're not having a necessarily
exceptionally wet season. If you have bad grading, gutters and
downspouts that aren't routed correctly, there's other things you could
have other than it just being hey, it's a wet season.
Your house could also not be configured properly to handle
the moisture we do have.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
That's correct, you could have, yes, just like you mentioned
poor drainage issues. You know, some houses are kind of
a U shaped where there's has two wings with a
recessed area, and sometimes that water is getting directed in
there and it just has nowhere to go but down
against the foundation or down to the foundation drain, which
is not a desirable You never want your foundation drain
(10:47):
to be a primary drainage feature for a property. That
should always kind of be the last resort that manages
as little water as possible. We want to try to
manage everything at the surface with down spoutscutters, surface strainage,
or surface strangage features such as storm drains, catch basins,
French strange things of that nature.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
One of the things I thought we could caution folks
on as well as I had one of these stuck
into my mailbox a couple weeks ago. Somebody going around
sticking in flyers about hey, check your foundation, different things
like that, and I noticed that the information that they
provide on their slips on the people that do these
types of things are not the same type of information
that we talk about on this program. The number one
(11:28):
they lead with price, it seems like it's like and
then there's certain things that they detail that I wonder
about the like quick fixes and things like that. You
really have to be careful when you're selecting a service
provider regardless, I mean just as yourself, as someone who's
not only an engineer but does foundation inspections and repair.
There's always going to be somebody out there looking to
pull the thread on a shortcut that may not be
(11:50):
the best solution for it, or may even be a
catastrophic quote unquote solution.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Yes, this industry has changed over probably the last five
to ten year years where the goal of the industry
has to try to figure out the cheapest way to
address the most common cookie cutter and cookie cutter issues,
and that's essentially what is being pushed on the clients,
(12:15):
and that is not always the best. Sure, sometimes it'll work,
a lot of times it won't. It will get it'll
it'll work long enough for the check to clear. But
you know, I'm looking at five to ten I'm looking
at twenty thirty year repairs is what I'm looking for.
I'm looking for repairs that are going to be still
in service when I when I'm done and gone retired
(12:36):
from this industry. Because I don't want to get called
back callbacks on failed issues. So yeah, there's definitely that issue.
I was actually reading some warranty documentation from another company
and they actually had to define what lateral movement was,
and they defined it in a manner which excluded three
(12:58):
of the four types of lateral movement. And essentially what
they were what they were doing is they were their
lateral movement is defined as the typical weak point in
a wall. So what they would plan on doing is
reinforcing the wall to resist that type of movement. But
all they have done is changed the weak point of
(13:20):
the wall. So now you've you've created an increased potential
for a different type of movement, which typically requires the
same repair that should have been done the first time,
or creates a more expensive repair in the long run.
For example, in a lateral movement issue, if you end
up with base base wall shear, which is a horizontal
(13:41):
crack or a horizontal offset that develops at the base
of the wall, that that results in, I mean, you're
into big money no matter what you how you address that,
because now you're going to very likely have water entry
as well as the foundation movement.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Bred Hauston is our guest this morning. You're listening to
ask the expert with Foster Foundation Repair. You can find
more information online. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot com. That's
Foster Foundation Repair dot com, located here in Charleston, West Virginia,
therefore number of seven seven six sixty two sixty three
seven seven six sixty two sixty three. You can call
us this morning at three zero four three four five
fifty eight fifty eight three zero four three four five
fifty eight fifty We'll take a break here in a
(14:15):
couple of minutes, come back with hopefully some of your
phone calls or any questions you have. If you'd like
to get a question on the text line, you can
do that as well. I know some folks like to
type it out and send in because they have very
specific questions, especially about technical matters like this. You're more
than a welcome to do that. Our text line numbers
three zer a four non three five five zero zero
eight three zero four non three five five zero zero
eight is the text line number that you can send
(14:36):
in your questions to as well. Is there a better time,
a best or better time of year to get your
foundation inspected in this region? Or is it doesn't really matter?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (14:45):
No, it doesn't really matter. I mean it's I mean
my process is to evalue, visually evaluate the foundation for cracks,
and then you know, if I'm if I'm seeing anything
that looks like there's a settlement issue, then I'm going
to utilize a laser level to to in some manner,
either inside or outside, to try to substantiate what the
cracks are telling me visually. So no, I mean, I
(15:10):
don't go through the same process now that that I'm
in the contractor roles I used to. I used to
sort of identify do an exhaustive review of the foundation.
Now my approach is more based on what the client
directs me to. Yeah, and then of course if I
see anything else, I bring it up and say do
you want to get into this and talk about this?
(15:31):
But no, I mean it doesn't. Typically people are going
to it's going to typically get inspected when the house
is being bought or sold by well bought by the buyers.
Typically when it comes up or oftentimes a seller will
have a crack and they'll do a pre pre list
(15:52):
inspection so they can get a report and lay it
on the counter and say whether it's good or bad
or you know, here's the here's the fix, here's the
lost from a contract or something. But no, I mean,
I think for your average homeowner, it's it's typically anytime
you you feel there has been a change. I don't
I'm not a huge advocate of just, you know, annual,
(16:13):
annually paying somebody to come to an inspect right, I'd
certainly be happy for that, But I don't think that's warranted.
I think it's it's more on a you know, an
issue based need if you see it, and really the
time of year. You know, it's very dependent on the
time of year of what I'm looking at and what
I'm considering as as factors. You know, of course I'm
(16:35):
going to think very differently during a drought than I
am going to be during the debt of winner, of
what what the cause might be. So no, I think
you know, anytimes, anytime's perfectly fine. If if there's a
a need rises.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
That's great information. As always one thing, I thought we
could get out of here and then we'll take a
break and come back. I was looking at the different
types of foundations. You provided a list on some of
the some of the common ones around here, and I
was I was king if if if folks on their
found if there's a particular type of foundations that's common
to the area where folks should be extra aware of
potential issues. Is there is there a type of foundation
that you've run into that you know, hey, if you
(17:12):
have this type of home after so long, you're going
to potentially start seeing these problems more common than you
are in other ones where this particular type of foundation
has this one unique issue that I see come up.
Is there any any tips that you can give homeowers
with a particular type of foundation or is it not
really anything that comes up like that?
Speaker 4 (17:27):
So, the most common foundations we have in our region
are are a basement, crass space, a basement, a crawl space,
and less common a concrete slab on grade. Now we
do have a lot of garage floors, of course, but
true foundation slab on grades, we don't have a large
amount of those. I'm seeing a few up in the
Buffalo area. There's a neighborhood out there, new development out
(17:50):
there they are building some of My mother in law
just bought one on a slab, but at the basements.
So we have what are called restrained retaining walls for
our basements, which essentially means that wall is being held
in place by the floor overhead and the basement floor slab.
Different than what would be considered a rigid retaining wall,
which is completely self supporting it requires no outside support
(18:14):
to prevent displacement. But our common basements, the most common
basement that we see in this area is restrained, so
it requires again the floor diaphragm overhead, so the wall
leans on the top of the floor at the top
and then to prevent sliding it it's pinned by the
basement floor slab. And the vast majority of homes built
(18:38):
from the fifties to the eighties in this region that
were basements were unreinforced CMU or concrete masonry unit walls,
so we oftentimes develop a horizontal crack right down the
middle of the wall that has a resulted that is
caused by the wall boeing from the lateral earth pressure
and water pressure acting against the wall. So that's probably
(18:58):
one of the most common UH failure modes that we see.
And back to that warranty topic I touched on on
it earlier, that's that's the that was the defined movement
that was going to be addressed by that company. They
were excluding any other type of movement with their repair,
which boeing is the most common, and it can be
(19:21):
it can be fixed with various means, but it doesn't
prevent the floor from basically pushing through the other end
of the house, causing the entire building to rake or
lean to the opposite side. And and if you're only
addressing that bowing, it's not providing any sheer resistance at
the base of the wall, which is where the largest
(19:43):
sheer force develops is at the base of the wall.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Outstanding information and UH and really useful information from Brett
Hodgston from Foster Foundation Repair. You can call this whey,
I want to take a break now if you want
to control the conversation. You have some questions about your
basement foundation, some problems that you might have or maybe
allowed to with. Maybe you have a child or apparent
that has some issues and you want to follow up
for them. Here more than welcome to you. Give us
a call this morning three zero four three four five
fifty eight fifty eight. You can also texting your questions
(20:08):
to three zero four non three five five zeros or eight.
As see, we have a couple of texts that have
come in. We'll get to those when we come back,
you can get in as well. Three zero four non
three five five zero zero eight. You're listening to ask
the expert in studio with me this morning is Brett
Hodgton from Foster Foundation Repair. I'm Delle Cooper, and give
us a call at three zero four three four five
fifty eight fifty eight three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
We'll be back right after this and ask the expert
(20:29):
whs the Voice of Charleston.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Opening day has arrived and baseball is back for another season.
And while you may not be joining the Boys of
Summer on the field this year, that doesn't mean you
can't still hit a home run.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
That's well back, it's a home run.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
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Speaker 3 (21:44):
You are listening to ask the expert whs the voice
of Charleston at studio with this morning with me this
morning is bred Hodston, owner of Foster Foundation Repair. We're
talking about your Foundation Foundation repairs. Any questions that you
have this morning about those things, you can give us
a call this morning at three zer A four three
four five fifty fifty eight three zero four three four
five fifty to fifty eight. You can text over any
questions you have the three zero four non three five
(22:04):
five zers or eight have a couple of those right now.
Let me give you a Foster's information first before we
get to these questions. Foster Foundation Repair, located in Charleston
at forty two twenty six Woodrum Lane U and their
phone numbers threes are four seven, seven, six sixty two
sixty three. So if you want to follow up after
the program today, you can do that. Three zero four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three one line Foster
Foundation Repair dot com. Foster Foundation Repair dot Com. From
(22:28):
the three zero four three eight nine. We're on a
hillside lot and every heavy rain sends water towards the house.
We've tried French drains, but it's still damp under the
cross space. Are we just stuck with this?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
No, it's fixable. Oh, like it always fixable. So French
strains French trains. Some people consider call a a foundation
drain a French drain. I consider a French drain a
surface drain, a drain that is collecting water that's running
across the ground. So often times French trains that I evaluate,
(23:03):
and maybe the only reason I'm evaluating them is because
they don't work. They're not done well. A quality installed
French train will divert a large amount of water away
from the foundation. But what you may also need is
a new foundation waterproofing. Excuse me and drainage system, which
is essentially a French drain, but it is located adjacent
(23:27):
to the footer and so with proper surface water management,
water is diverted around the house and then at the
foundation of the house there is a foundation drain back
filled with gravel, and then a waterproofing system against the
foundation which will prevent any moisture penetrating the wall. The
(23:49):
waterproofing system we installed is a commercial grade waterproofing system
I've seen in architectural plans locally that engineers and architects
have drawn up. It's the same one always specked out
as when I was just an engineering doing design work.
That was the the waterproofing system that I specified as
a Carlisle system. It's a self adhering rubber membrane that
(24:11):
goes against the wall, and then after that's installed, there
is a vertical drainage board which is a nippled, nippled
plastic membrane with a filter cloth on it that goes
vertically against the wall. So any any water that gets
to the to the foundation hits hits that filter drains
through it into that nippled membrane and straight down to
(24:32):
the foot or drain but we're also backfilling with gravel.
It's the likelihood that water is going to get actually
get to the foundation's pretty darn low. But no, it's
it's certainly a fixable issue. There are also ways to
handle it from the inside. There are water management systems
where where the water can be once it gets in,
it can be collected and diverted in either to a
(24:52):
sump pump or to the exterior and then so that
would handle the liquid water. And then on top of
that you can always go with a crawl space encapsulation system,
which is a wonderful system that's going to manage the
water vapor in the crawl space as well as the
house quite quite efficiently, and it really improves the indoor
(25:17):
air quality. It's a very clean system. They're quite attractive
just you know, just to look at. They're a very
nice looking product if done well. But no, you are
not stuck. There are there are fixes for it depending
on your site. Sometimes you know, proper French drainage and
(25:37):
you know, diverting water through drainage features like drainage swales
may not be possible, but there are certainly ways to
manage the water in a manner that will prevent future damage.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah, so there, if you have any follow ups on
that's that's a great answer. And if you have any
follow ups on that, if you want to give Bread
a call for Foster Foundation refair seven seveny six sixty
two sixty three, you can call us. Threes are four
three four five fifty to fifty eight three four five
fifty fifteen more welcome to call us this morning. Another
text question coming in from the threes or four three
eight nine. My home inspectory didn't mention any foundation problems
when we've bought the home last year, but now doors
(26:10):
are sticking and we've got maybe a slightly sloped floor.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Should I be concerned, Well, it's certainly something to look at.
A slope floor could be from various things. Could be
foundation settlement, perimeter. Foundation settlement could be an isolated peer
that has settled. It could be a defect in the
original construction of the framing systems that may or may
(26:34):
not be a significant, significant issue that may or may
not need to be repaired. But inspection would certainly give
you more insight and if done with a somebody that's reasonable,
they'll give you, you know, kind of lay it out
as how severe the condition is and whether it represents,
(26:57):
you know, a long term issue, whether it represents a
work term safety issue or something of that nature, which
is pretty rare that there's a safety issue, but it's
certainly something that might be warranted looking at and that's
something we do. We we would certainly come out and
take a look at that and offer a free estimate.
That's great or evaluation, you know if it if it
(27:17):
doesn't need anything, I'll be perfectly honest with you.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Yeah, And that's the peace of mind that that gives
you something else that you you really can't you can't
really attach any kind of value for that. And when
you're just getting an evaluation, that's an evaluation and to
get and to kind of be able to put that
out of your mind. If it's something you're concerned about,
that's uh, that's that's quite that's quite something else. That's
a peace of mind is always worth something, that's for sure.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Let me see. I have another text question. This is
from the three zero four five to five two Great Show.
I often deal with blasting damage claims from nearby construction
and mining projects, and that's always the reason for claims.
That's interesting you can have a foundation repair from that.
I never even thought about that. I guess I could
see that.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Yeah, I have a friend that's in highway construction and
and he's had he's had claims before from their their work.
But yeah, that certainly is a potential source. I remember
there was the train explosion or the train derailment what
down south a little bit from here. Yeah, I remember
hearing some complaints about that that they caused the cracks,
(28:18):
and they're certainly they're certainly engineers locally that specialize and
that's what their their focus is on. I would have
maybe gotten into that kind of work previously. I don't
have the time for it now. But there are definitely
things that are forensic inspections that that we do in
this area that look for specific things to see if
(28:38):
that's a fresh crack, or if that's maybe been patched
ten times and you've had an ongoing issue for you five, ten,
fifteen years, and this is just progression of that situation.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
So a few minutes left on the program. You're welcome
to give us a call or a text. WE text
line is popular this morning. Text line three zero of
four none three five five zero zero eight phone line
is three zero of four three four five fifty eight
fifty eight threes zerre of three four five fifty to
fifty eight. Picking back through the information that you gave
me when you came in this morning, we talked a
little bit before we went to the break about the
lateral movement and you were defining some of the some
(29:10):
of the terms on that and what some folks were
using for that. I see that you have a panel
and the information that you brought me talking about vertical
movement of a foundation. What is that?
Speaker 4 (29:19):
So typically you think vertical movement is going to be
found differential settlement or settlement of some type. There's a
couple of different types of settlement. You've got the initial settlement,
which is basically, you build a house, it's going to
have some degree of settlement. The big building designers they
they're trying to their goal is to get uniform settlement,
(29:40):
where the whole building creeps down very slightly. Differential settlement
is typically when you're going to get some cracking that develops,
like when a corner settles off away from the rest
of the house, or maybe an addition tilts away from
an original structure, and then we have tipping settlement, which
can be quite severe where the whole building sort of
(30:03):
tips in one direction from one end to the other,
and you can actually have pretty significant tipping settlement without
the development of cracks and an addressing. Tipping settlement can
be quite difficult if it's a progressive, if it's an
ongoing and progressive concern, because essentially end up having to
underpin the entire foundation, which which would get very expensive.
(30:25):
And tipping settlement really can only be picked up with
with laser levels, you know, some sort of leveling device
to measure for elevation.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
What is the likelihood that that new builds will have
some sort I mean you're going to have settlement period.
I mean there's going to be settlement. When you put
weight on dirt, there's going to be settlement. You're just
going to get that. But what is the likelihood that
you're actually going to after your settlement? What is I
saw in your information two to four years is your
typical initial settlement amount. Is it possible for that settlement
just for not to have been installed correctly or unforeseen
(30:58):
issues and actually to develop problems when a new build.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yes, yes it is. I mean to me, the especially
like production houses, production neighborhoods. The drainage is like the
last concern. It's the kitchen, it's the bathrooms.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Subdivisions like a pre prefab subdivisions or whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
Okay, all the pretty stuff is all that matters, right
to everybody. Your common homeowners not going to walk in
and say, how'd you do my drains? Nobody's thinking about them.
It's just assumed. And they're commonly just slapped in there
just so they're functional.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
It's very common for those to be damaged during backfill.
Uh you're just dumping a bunch of dirt with rocks
in it and it collapses the pipe. So it's certainly possible.
Of course, it all depends on the builder. We have
all both both ends of the spectrum here in the
in the valley with very good quality builders and less
(31:57):
I'll just say, and and then some people don'tnderstand the
significance of of the of water, of the drain pipes
and how important they are.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah, and again, if you have any questions about those things,
or if you need to follow up with those, you
can give Foster Foundation Repair a call. Three zero four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three. We're running out
of time this morning, you can still try to squeeze
in here the last couple of minutes we have at
three zero four, three four five fifty eight fifteen. Another
text question that came in we got some crack. Well,
this is a great question for We address this at
(32:27):
some degree with every show, and I don't think we
necessarily did today, So this will be a great question
for us to maybe wrap up the show. One, we've
got some cracks in our basement walls and one runs
through the floor. How do I know if it's settling
or if we have real problems. That's basically your job,
that is, that.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Is my job.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
So oftentimes I don't want to say all the time,
but oftentimes cracks in a slab or they're not necessarily
a major issue. They can be a function of whatever
other movement is occurring. The only way to know the cause,
which is where I'm going to start the cause of
(33:01):
the crack, is to hire somebody that is experienced in
identifying what that cause is and then the likelihood that
that movement would continue. Uh, if it's a small hairline
crack from from some settlement, that's and you're not playing
on going anywhere we're typically going to start looking for
(33:21):
drainage issues that we can address and then hopefully monitor
that foundation so it doesn't move. If it's a lateral
movement issue on an unreinforced basement wall, normally that's going
to be something that's going to be a progressive issue
that's going to need some sort of action to prevent
that from from progressing. Even if you know we've we've
(33:43):
we've done we've done drainage improvements to reduce the amount
of water flowing towards a house for lateral movement and
monitored it. The the chances are lower that that's going
to be a successful permanent fix. But sometimes that's the clients.
You know, they don't have the funds to go with
the big one, so we do what we can to
(34:04):
limit the risk of future movement. But to directly answer
the question, is somebody that is experienced in this industry,
preferably an engineer, because they are we have some ethics
we have to abide by, Rather than just a salesperson
(34:26):
from a foundation repair company. I think the most appappropriate
person to assess the situation as an engineer who especially
that works in residential foundation inspection and repair.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
You bring up a very good point there, and uh,
I'm sure people think about this to some degree, but
the real imbalance when it comes to something like foundations,
I don't care how unless it's just something that for
some reason you dabbled in when you were maybe when
you had a job out of college or something like that,
and you didn't really do it. Most people have zero
(35:00):
zero knowledge joined this type of thing. And so the
trust that you have to build with the person who's
giving you the advice, what work to do, how much
it's going to cost, and things like that, that trust
has to be explicit because basically, I mean, if you
could tell me anything, I'd be like, oh okay, Brett.
If you think we have to do it, then that's
what we have to do. You know, I don't know,
So I have to trust what you're telling me. And
that's a very important part of it.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
I agree one hundred percent with that, and that is
I tried to develop that trust. I try to be
honest and trustworthy when I am honest with what my
opinions are, but I try to develop that trust. What
I would encourage is if is if you're in the
unfortunate situation where you have an issue that needs to
be addressed. I would certainly recommend you getting the background
(35:44):
of the person that's telling you what needs to be done.
Research their background. They should have a resume and see
where they've been. Where they a car salesman three years
ago and no offense to car salesman. But I couldn't
go sell a car, I can tell you that, right, right,
But it's just somebody that has been in this industry.
I'm fifteen plus years now. I believe what this is
(36:04):
all I've done. So I would certainly encourage that you
understand the experience of the person giving you the recommendations
and whether it's me, Whether it's me or not, that's
perfectly fine. But I certainly would recommend to be an engineer.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Years ago, when I started my first brick and mortar business,
me and I had some volunteers that worked for me
and family and stuff like that. We went around with
little bags that we would go and hang on people's
doorknobs and their fences and their gates and stuff like that.
I sold books. You know, you don't really have to
have a high level of expertise to sell books on
a retail level. If somebody is sticking these same things
(36:40):
on your doorknob and on your fence and things like that,
and they're offering elite levels of professional service. I don't
begrudge anybody for trying to get a start to trying
to start off their business or something like that, but
I'm not sure that that's always the best route to go.
You really need to vet who you're working with and
make sure that you're making the right calls on doing that. Yep. Yeah,
that's kind of my editorial when it comes to things
(37:01):
like that. We've been doing shows with Brett for a
long time here and has always come come with the
information and with the receipts showing you the things you
need to learn when it comes to your foundation and
how to take care of your foundation. For Foundation Repair,
Foster Foundation Repair located here on Charleston forty two twenty
six woodrom Lane. Their phone number three zero four seven
seven six sixty two sixty three three zero four seven
seven six sixty two sixty three seven seven six sixty
(37:23):
two sixty three Foster Foundation Repair dot com. Brett, thank
you so much for your time. I appreciate it again this week.
Thank you. We'll see you back here next month. Yep,
it sounds that'll do it for us. Coming up next
Dave Dave Allen five eight Live. I'll be back this
afternoon at three or six on Hotline with Dave Weekly.
Have a great day everyone. On five eight WCHS. We
are the voice of Charleston. Five medwchsamninty six point five.
(37:45):
That's in Charleston one oh four point.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Five cross laced on WVRC Media station. We're proud to
live here, to
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