June 17, 2025 • 36 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 ADWCCHS it's
employees or WVRC media.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Miner if us A good morning to you. You're listening
to ask the expert WCHS the Voice of Charleston, am
Deel Cooper. Thanks for tuning in on this Tuesday morning.
I'm I have to check my dates here because Brett
Hadston is here, the owner of Foster Foundation Repair, and
usually we see each other on Wednesday, but for the
next several weeks anyway, or who knows how long. It
doesn't really matter to me. We're going to be on
Tuesday or several months, I should say, and it's not weekly,
(00:57):
but will be here on Tuesdays. Good morning, how you
doing this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Good morning?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, yeah, we have my wife does be and I
on Wednesdays, so I'm taking the kids to summer camp
on Wednesday mornings now for the foreseeable feature.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Brad Hasson is the owner of Foster Foundation Repair. You
can give us a call this morning if you have
any questions three zero A four three four five fifty
eight fifty eight. Three zero four three four five fifty
eight fifty eight. You can also send over text questions
as well. Three zero four non three five five zeros
you eight. Three zero four non three five five zeros
you eight. Right before we came on the air, we
were hearing a report from Metro News about the massive
(01:31):
flooding that's been wheeling and obviously great empathy from us
on this part of the state goes out to those Well,
we've suffered it here many many times in our recent past,
and we know what that's like and the unfortunate loss
of life that's taking place there. I want to kind
of use just the the climate situation from this as
(01:52):
something for us to talk about a little bit this morning,
because when you have massive rain that comes in and
some things get washed out, and there's there's disasters that happen,
and that's a that's like a separate thing, and obviously
that needs to be addressed. But things can happen when
there's massive amounts of water that comes through an area.
They can give you some some clues about your home,
(02:13):
Like you can observe things that are happening with like
different drain each, different things like that that in your
own home that when you're having these uh these weather
issues and things like that, you might want to pay
attention to. Like if you started having some seeping into
the uh into your basement. Maybe normal rain, it doesn't happen,
but if you get a lot of rain and suddenly
you start seeing some seeping, is that an indication of
a problem in the future, or just like a once
(02:34):
in occasional thing that happened that overflowed a system somewhere.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I mean, there could be some questions that come up.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, I mean it could be it could be just
a one off excess of rain that overwhelmed the system.
But oftentimes it's a you know, some sort of debris
in a system or or a failed system. I looked
at a looked at a property earlier this week and
there was basically kind of small sinkholes developing around a
(02:59):
drain pipe where what I deduced was water was dumping
off the roof, and then it was eroding the soil
into the downspout drain system because it was a lower
quality corrugated black corrugated system which does not have water
tight joints. So the soil, you know, the access water
was collecting there and it was eventually finding its way
(03:20):
into the drain, not through a proper channel, but it
was taking the soil with it, so it was kind
of creating a sinkhole. So yeah, that's that's certainly things
of that nature. Erosion is something to definitely look for
if you if you're having erosion of your mult or
your top soil around your foundation, you've got water flowing
obviously around your house and something needs to be addressed there.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And if you think about the last couple of years
just here in the Kanaala Valley, we've both gone through
drought and you know, we've gone through periods of excess
rain where we've gotten more in dazed than we get
sometimes in a season recently. So depending on where you're at,
what your home is, I mean, you could see some
issues that start create them up from when you get
to extreme ends of the weather.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
We have unique, unique soil in this area.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I mean, there's a lot of things that kind of
goes into that and I just wanted to bring that
up as something as obviously as a home owner myself,
you run across these things sometimes. I saw a new
crack the other day that I didn't see that I
hadn't seen before, and I was trying to apply some
of the things that we've talked about.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I was like, I don't know about this thing.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We might have to get it looked at some point
in time, but I don't know that it appeared overnight.
But it's an area of the house that it's not
like I never look at, you know, So I don't
know where I missed it at or if it's something
that just recently happened. But it was a little concerning
to see. Relatively small and doesn't seem to be in
a major area.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
But what do I know.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Yeah, I mean, we're all prone to it. I've got
a few little hairline cracks that have developed We've owned
our house for around three years that have developed since
we bought the house, and there's nothing there's nothing that
I can identify that is that I can address to
reduce the risk. So it's just one of those where
we're all kind of prone to it in this region,
(04:59):
just the build practices and again there's this oil conditions
are conducive to two issues developing over time.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Bret Hauschen is here once again. He is the owner
of Foster Foundation Repair. More information online Foster Foundation Repair
dot com. Foster Foundation Repair dot com located on Woodrom
Lane here in Charleston. We'll give more of the contact
details as we go along here this morning. You're welcome
to give us a call about any question when it
comes to a foundation repair, your basement, anything like that
that Foster Foundation Repair can help you out with. You
can give us a call. Don't forget that Brett is
(05:28):
an engineer as well, so looks at these things from
a critical appraisal that maybe you don't get from every
company that does foundation repairs, and so you get an
analytical eye when it comes to those things. So if
you have a little bit of a complex issue that
you've been that you've been worried about, you're welcome to
give us a call this morning or send us a text.
The phone number three or A four three four five
fifty eight fifty eight threes are A four three four
(05:48):
five fifty eight fifty eight. The text line numbers three
are four non three five five zero zero eight. Threes
are a four nine three five five zero zero eight.
And we actually did get a text line question from
the three zero four nine four one, and that is
my basement floods seasonally every spring. This is just what
we were talking about though. What could be some of
the causes of that, Uh.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Well, too much water obviously, but it's you know, seasonally
in the spring. Sometimes it's a result of the snow
melt and a rising water table or a fluctuating water table.
It could be that you have poor drainage around the
foundation that is directing water towards the house. In older areas,
house I looked at a few few probably months ago,
(06:28):
had a singular failed terra cotta downs about drain where
they were where they were having water infiltrate. So you know,
throughout through the course of the inspection, we're walking around
the house and I can see standing water at the
top of the pipe and evidence that the water was
backing out of the pipe. So you know, there's there's
a lot of different things that that can cause that
(06:49):
or contribute to that. Typically, if it's occurring. It really
depends I don't want to get into too many specifically,
it really depends on the era of when the house
was built, of what type of techniques would have been
used to attempt to manage the water. A lot of
older homes, like here on the East end of Charleston,
(07:09):
the basement floor sloped to a center or multiple center
located floor drains. They were never really intended to be
a bone dry basement, more of a utility or a
storage area, which is much different than many of the
basements people built more recently where the goal was to
have a finished living space, and many people, many many
(07:31):
contractors and over the years have have used a more
of what is considered a damp proofing method to seal
the basement, which is more like a tar based roll
on material. More a better product. Better products are out
there than that that type of material that are actually
(07:52):
when when defined in the codebook, they're actually considered water proofing,
and they they are much more reliable. That's the type
of systems working to install as it typically as a retrofit,
we don't do a lot of new construction waterproofing. Normally,
the general contractor is going to handle that on those
type of setups. But the waterproofing is a very important
(08:14):
part of what we do.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So for this particular situation, for this person, if they're
having this issue, it doesn't necessarily mean that their entire
system is jacked up or something like that. They could
just need to take another step somewhere, like to take
the pressure off a little bit during the spring seasons.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Yeah, and again, depending on the age, it may be
the way the house was designed and set up. Now,
flooding that I've heard a lot of different descriptions of
flooding in a basement where it might just be a
small yeah edge to where there's six inches of standing
water seasonally. So there's wide just definitions that people may
(08:53):
have there. So that's certainly something that I'd be more
than happy to speak more thoroughly directly with you. If
you want to give us a call.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, you give Foster Foundation Repair a call. The numbers
threes or four seven seven six sixty two sixty three
three zero four seven seven six sixty two sixty three.
After the show, I mean you could probably call it
open now, yeap. Yeah, there, so you can call and
get the ball rolling right now. But if you want
to call in on the show and talk to Man himself.
You get to call and talk to breat this morning
and then maybe follow up after that. You can give
us a call first at three zero four three four
(09:24):
five fifty eight fifty eight. Three zero four, three four
five fifty fifty eight, just like the last caller did.
If you'd like to get on the text line, you
can do that as well. Three zero four nine three
five five zero zero eight three zero four nine three
five five zero zero eight. We've spoken many times about
sort of your background and you know, having being an
engineer not previously. It's not something like that you forget
(09:44):
or you're you're no longer do you apply that with
the in the course of the job that you have
now recently in this area, has there been a have
you noticed any uptick in any particular types of issues
or anything that you could give f so like a
cautionary for is or anything that just in your experience
in the last short amount of time that you're seeing
(10:04):
more people have problems with.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
So through through last the drought of last summer and fall,
we had a lot of most most people who were
contacting us were suffering from drought related settlement and uh
so that was that was and that was a severe
drought that we went through last year. Since then, now
we've had a lot of water, so we're getting a
lot of water related issues with water related calls now.
(10:29):
But you know, this area is just prone for for
foundation movement, vertical and lateral movement either be caught caused
by soil pressure acting on a basement wall or downhill
subsidence of the hillside. And that's that's just unfortunately, it's
very consistent no matter what. But the drought related settlement
typically is going to occur more in areas where the
(10:54):
soil is very expansive. So there's some aary there's some
areas and cross lanes and taste valley that are very
pre to that type of movement, and it's a result
of the soul characteristics there.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I've asked you this question before, but I'm going to
be a little selfisher because this is something that I'm
currently in the market for, and so I'm trying to
figure out the right decision to make. I want to
replace my entire drainage system. As far as gutters and
stuff go, mine's old. I've been clearing them out forever
and they're just I mean, they're really probably the most
basic form of gutters that you could possibly have. They're
basically just ten shoots that come off the house. There's
(11:28):
no coverage join them. I mean, and I have trees
in my yard. I mean, they get gunked up easily.
I mean, it's an ongoing process. So I'm thinking it's
time to upgrade, you know, I need to get something
that upgrades. Are the ones that are covered worth it?
Is there different types of systems or something that you
would recommend for somebody looking to really try to make
a difference in the drainage.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
So a standard gutter, you know, a standard aluminum gutter
will be sufficient in I mean every situation. Of course,
there's all kinds of different gutter products out there, but yeah,
gutter guard I believe are very important, especially in canall
city or any wooded lot. It's also very important to
know that the gutter guards should be selected based on
(12:10):
the foliage that's around. If you have a lot of
pine needles, you don't want to have a large open screen.
Gutter Guards are not in no maintenance item, though a
lot of people believe it, and it's very much advertised.
There's some national advertising going on for that that you
never have to clean them again. Well that's not true.
The house I described earlier with the water dumping off
(12:32):
the roof, the mesh screen had become matted with with
debris that had washed off the roof and kind of
got baked into the screen. So there, I've I had
the last two installations that I did for myself on
my current home. In my last home was a Low's
Home Depot bought product that that I had. I was
(12:56):
very pleased with. I never had any issues. Now I
didn't have a ton of overhanging foliage either, But yeah,
to me, gutter guards are very critical. They're going to
reduce the risk of water dumping off the roof, along
the foundation or clogging up the end ground drains. I mean,
if an acorn falls on the roof and rolls down
into the gutter, it's going down into the pike.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah, I believe I see this all the time with
my house because the acorns exactly, they just get so
many of them around my house. They drop onto the
roof and they roll around all over the place. They're
really hard sometimes to get control of. When you see
people with the the downspouts going into like sometimes you
see like obviously they just go into the yard, or
they have something some people create, like they'll use the
(13:40):
water for other things, Like you could put a rain
barrow and then create some sort of irrigation for for
your garden or something along those lines.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Is there a wrong thing to do though?
Speaker 3 (13:49):
As far as if you're trying to do something like
how far away from the house did you make sure
that your water's being diverted? Is there a certain angle
like do you want to go downhill or uphill? Like, well,
what should you make sure of when you're putting your
your drainage coming out of the downspouts?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
So I'm gonna address rain barrels first, don't I don't
love rain barrels. They fill up and they collect debris.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
I felk, they're kind of dirty. I mean like bugs
and mosquitos and things like that is what I think.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
And they're right next to the house, and they're supposed
to have an overflow, so once it fills up, it
it overflows off somewhere. But I just I don't love
rain barrels. But downspout water coming off a roof, obviously
we want to get into a piping system. Ideally it's
a below grade system that takes water. I recommend a
minimum of five feet away from the foundation. With sloping lots,
(14:39):
we can typically take them, you know, a long way
away from the house, so there's no risk of erosion
or any type of foundation movement as a result of
them discharging clothes. So I recommend a minimum five feet.
A friend of mine, another engineer that does is in
this industry that I think his is ten feet. I'd
(14:59):
say it really depends on the scenario. To say a
blanket five or ten feet is probably not accurate. But
just a minimum of five is my opinion.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And make sure that you do that, and you could.
You can get the pieces for that.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
And the nice thing about that is I've noticed there's
all kinds of aftermarket pieces you can get it, Like
you said, home depot or somewhere like that. If you
need to make sure that you extend them a little
further or anything like that from what you have that
you can do that. I just want to make sure
I do it right this next time that I do it,
because they're in pretty bad shape right now.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yeah. Yeah, water mean waters. Water's the root of all that.
Pretty much all that I do is addressing either something
that has been caused by water or to prevent damage
in the future. Crawl spaces are prone to collecting both
liquid water and water vapor, which then results in condensation
(15:48):
and mold growth and things of that nature. So there's
a lot of different things that we can do to
address those those kind of situations without having to dig
up a yard or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Sign number three or four non three five five zeros
or eight threes or four non three five five zeros
er eight from the threes are of four four one five.
Can crawl space and calpulation help prevent mold under my house?
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Absolutely? Yeah, that's what the deal is, right, Yes, So
an encapsulation system is designed. The intent of that is
to well, let me back up. Most most houses in
our region have what is called a vented crawl space.
You have your wall vents that go around the house,
and the idea is that air wind blows through the
house and dries out the wood and the insulation. The
(16:33):
problem is, on a day like today, when it's ninety
five percent humidity, you're bringing ninety five percent humid air
into the crawl space and a lot of times that's
where your ductwork is and your cold water lines are,
so you'll end up with condensation. So I've been in
crasl spaces where it's literally raining in waters dripping off
things in the crawl space. So a crawl space encapsulation
(16:54):
system is is converting in a situation where we're converting it.
It's converting a crawl space from a vented crawl space
to an unvented crawl space. And what we're doing is
we're sealing off the earth and the outside air with plastic,
and we also change the way in which the insulation
(17:15):
the house is insulated or functions. Essentially, you're bringing the
encapsulation excuse me, the crawl space into the conditioned space
of the home. So what we're going to do is
we're going to take the floor insulation out and we're
going to install either spray foam or rigid foam board
insulation around the perimeter to insulate the outside. And then
we're going to install drainage mat on the ground and
(17:36):
plastics that wrap up the wall and all the seams
are taped, so that's going to keep the majority of
the water vapor out. This does not address a crawl
space encapsulation system does not address liquid water in the
event they're standing water that has to be dealt with
with an interior foundation drain or exterior waterproofing. But once
(17:58):
we seal everything up, we then have to dress the
water vapor because we've now created a stagnant area. So
typically in a retrofit application, we're going to install a
dehumidifier that will automatically come on and off. It drains
to a either a condensate pomp or some pump. It
drains somewhere automatically, so it's a no maintenance item. And
(18:20):
then that's going to control the humidity. And it also
brings the temperature of the room or the cross space
into more a little warmer than it might be otherwise.
So essentially we're managing the water vapor, which is what
is causing, would cause or lead to mold growth. Anytime
the wood in a cross base gets to about twenty
(18:42):
percent moisture content, that's when you're prone to mold growth.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, I think that's a problem I've been dealing with
in my house for quite some time. I know I've
talked about it in here before. By the way, TJ. Meadows,
the co host of Metronews talk line. Just send me
a text. I think you guys are out of his
house right now. He said, you're doing a cross space
and cappulation for him, and it's going very well. He
high recommendations.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I forgot.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
I forgot about that where the de humidifiers going in. Today,
there we go.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
So he's very happy with the progress of that so far.
So that's an interesting question. That's something that here's a
and again, I'm just kind of probing my own personal
thing because I'm looking to maybe sell my house sometime
in the relatively near future, and so there's some things
I've left go that I need to start really thinking
about taking care of this week. This past weekend, I
was doing some work around my house and I had
(19:28):
a clear away. I have an outbuilding that it was
a temporary shelter, you know, a built one that I
got from lowers or whatever. I was able to move myself.
So I was able to move. I found a a
in my back steps. I found a piece that has
caved in that was hidden by this thing. And it
looks to me like at some point in time that
animals had gotten in under my steps. And I think
(19:50):
that I've now solved how I had a groundhog in
my house last year. I haven't had any in there
since then. However, I'm pretty sure that must be how
he got in, because I had looked and looked and
looked and couldn't find anything for that something that big
to get in. And so finally I solve that mystery,
I think. But that got me thinking because I've been
thinking about cross space and capitulations and stuff like that.
You really want to make sure you don't get any
critters getting into your cross space before you go through
with the encapitulation encapsulation.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
I would imagine, no, no, you don't, because they'll they'll
choose true through it.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Right exactly. That's the first thing I thought of. I
could see myself investing in this and then suddenly having
a family of critters living in my crawl space.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
We Actually that reminds me of a small project we
did not long ago on a house in Saint Albans
where there was a situation where a crawl space was
connected to a lower basement and the soil that the
gentleman was replacing his deck, and he found this big
hole in in that particular location where water had actually
eroded the soil into the crawl space and created a hole,
(20:42):
and he was having raccoon, raccoons or some sort of
ferm and was getting in there. But we ended up
just forming it up and pouring it and filling it
and then filming the whole outside for.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Him, like a stinking Disney cartoon. My cameras picked up
have been picking up now for about two weeks a
family of raccoons that lives somewhere near my house, and
not I don't think they're on my property, but they
traverse my property almost every night. There's five of them,
and it is just like a Disney cartoon in that
you see the big, fattest one, which I guess is
mom or dad, and then the next biggest one and
then like the the little siblings coming after it. If
(21:14):
it wasn't for the fact that they were, you know, pests,
it would actually be a little bit cute because you
see these chunky things walking around. Then I can't help
but to think, man, what kind of damage are they're
doing to our neighborhood, to the trash, to like everything
that's out here that that can't be a good sign.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Yeah, I've got a raccoon loves my trash can as well.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I had to say, I think I told the story
I had to save my house from a from a
possum last year. And uh, and possums, of course, I don't.
I don't think they can. I mean, they have tea,
so I guess if they really got mad, they could
probably hurt you. But there's no there's no, there's no
there's no fear of a possum, right and less unless
the possum is in your rafters and you didn't know
it was there, and you go downstairs and you look
(21:52):
up and there's this relatively big possum just hanging off
the rafter with its rabid looking teeth at you. And
I have to admit I gave a little holler. It
scared me just a little bit.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I don't do the animals and in buildings either. If
they're there, we're gonna We're gonna let you get it
handled and we'll come back.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
My daughter said.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
I came upstairs and explained to my wife what scared me,
and I said it was a possum, and I'm sure
it's not gonna hurt me. I'm gonna go back down there.
And it took about a month for me to corral
this thing eventually. But the first night my daughter looked
at me and said, you mean the things that play dead? Thanks? Thanks, baby,
I appreciate. Yeah, let's do this. Let's go ahead and
take a break. We have to pay some bills. We're
gonna come back. We're go to have plenty more to
(22:30):
talk about.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
See.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
I have some more text messages coming in as well.
If you want to use the phone line, we've been
getting a lot of phone calls recently on Expert show.
You're welcome to give us a call this morning. Three
zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three
zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. But
if you want to continue texting, you're more than welcome
to do that as well. Three zero four non three
five five zero zero eighth three zero four nine three
five five zero zero eight to this is asked the
expert and studio with me this morning is Brett Hodgton.
(22:52):
He is the owner of Foster Foundation Repair online Foster
Foundation Repair dot com, located on Woodrum Avenue or Woodwind
Lane here in Charleston forty two twenty six. Their phone
number three zero four seven seven six sixty two sixty
three seven seven six sixty two sixty three. But hey,
if you want to talk to Bretton in the next
for the next fifteen minutes or so, you can give
us a call three zero four three four five fifty
eight fifty eight. We'll thank Greak can be back right
(23:13):
after this. You're listening to ask the expert with Foster
Foundation Repair on WCHS the Voice of Charleston.
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Hey, that's a John T two and you're listening to
as the expert w c HS the Voice of Charleston.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I'm Del Cooper.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
You can call us this morning if you want to
ask Brett Hutchon from Foster Foundation Realfair any question about
your foundation how to repair it. We've had a lot
of strange weather in the Canall Valley over the last
couple of years. We've gone from drought to extreme to
extreme wetness and frankly some some sub zero degree temperatures too.
Not as much the last couple years, but man, three
years ago, I know we had that snap around Christmas
(25:55):
time where we were below zero for about a week straight.
So it's hard to tell what happens with your foundation. Heat,
cold water, all those things can play some pretty massive
Tuney join your on your foundations and basements, right.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Yep, Mother nature is relentless undefeated, as it turns out, Yeah, undefeated.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
We did have a text question about patio slabs while
we were on break, just wondering if there's anything they
can do.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Let me see, where did it go?
Speaker 3 (26:20):
My concrete patio is sinking? How can I get that fixed?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So I would say it depends on depends on what's
causing it. A lot of times if it's a newer home.
A lot of times it's the soil around the foundation
was not backfield adequately, and over time the soil consolidated
or settled, and so did the pad. Most concerning would
be if the pad is settled and is now diverting
(26:46):
water towards the house. That's going to result in either
water entry or excess hydrostatic pressure on the foundation. But
the fix, again, it kind of depends on the situation.
Of course, you can tear it out and replace it,
which is really typically the direction. Well that's the direction
(27:06):
we will go, unless it's unless we don't. There's there's
methods in which a slab can be raised, which works
sometimes not all the time, but they also don't address
just by simply raising a slab, you're not addressing the
root cause if there is something that is causing that
that issue. So if if there are there are certain
(27:29):
applications where a grout pump is applicable. We do small
grout pump jobs we don't do We don't have the
equipment to do large grout pumps or foam injections. It's
not a it's not a market that I want to
be in. There's, in my opinion, too many times it's
appropriate to actually take it out and replace it. But
(27:53):
in some cases it can be lifted. It's it's it's
if it's right up against the house, there is risk
of exerting pressure on the foundation of the house. So
the installer has to be very skilled and very careful
because anytime you inject a material under pressure that is
a liquid, it's observing pressure in three hundred and sixty degrees,
So the force that it takes to lift it, you're
(28:14):
putting on your foundation. If you're right there on your foundation,
you also run the risk of filling pipes. If there's
pipes under the ground that are the cause of the
failure or the settlement, you run the risk of actually
filling the pipes up and reading the fine print of
the contracts of companies that do this, those are not
(28:35):
covered under their warranty. That's unfortunately, that is a risk
that you assume as the owner. So basically you have
the You can lift it through injection, injecting material below
it under pressure, or it can be taken out and replaced.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Very good, great information from Brett Hashton from Foster Foundation Repairing.
Give us a call this morning. Threes or a four
three four five fifty to fifty eight text threes are
four nine three five five er ars or eight. This
is a question that I came across. It was unanswered
on a forum. I forgot all about it and I
just came across it after a heavy rain. White stains
on the basement walls. Is that a bad sign?
Speaker 4 (29:06):
So that is likely efflorescence, which is evidence of water
seeping through the block or the concrete, and as the
water is moving through, it's picking up minerals and salts
in the concrete or the block. And then once the
water gets to the inside surface of the wall, it
evaporates and leaves those minerals behind. So it is evidence
of some minor water. If it's just efflorescence that white
(29:28):
powdery material, it is evidence of some minor water seepage.
It could in some cases be evidence of condensation. But
that you know, that's just going to take somebody figuring
out what the culprit is. But ultimately that's something you'd
want to look at doing some taking a look in
the area and seeing seeing if you can divert water
(29:48):
away from the foundation, and that that could result that
But ultimately it suggests that the waterproofing or damp proofing
system on the exterior is not fully functional anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yea, that I thought of a question a little bit ago,
and I forgot about it. But this kind of dovetails
into that a little bit still too, so I wanted
to ask about this. You mentioned something earlier that a
lot of basements in this area were made to get damp,
not wet, but damp. You know, they weren't meant to
be completely to be completely dry. If you're somebody that
has a home owner and you have one of these
basements and you're like I have a relatively small home.
(30:21):
I want to expand my livable square footage en if
it doesn't, you know, go towards home value or anything.
I want to finish my basement or partially finish my
basement or something along those lines. That's really a major
consideration that you have to take in place. You probably
want to have that upgraded from allowing dampness, and you
want to take the next step if you can before
you want to go through and finish that in any way.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Right, Yeah, So you in nant event, you have two options. Essentially,
you can do a next year waterproofing system, which is
very viable. It's the most appropriate means to address a
water related issue, so that that requires excavation of the
yard and it is a it's one of the more
(31:02):
labor intensive projects that we would undertake. The other option
to do would be to install what is called an
interior foundation drain. A lot of the industry refers to
that as as refers to that as basin water proofing.
It is not. It's an interior water management system. So
when when this type of system is installed, the water
is in the house, it is collected and diverted either
(31:25):
to a sump pump or back outside of the house
through through a gravity drain, and then the perimeter foundation
walls are covered with a either a sheet plastic or
we normally are going to use rigid plastic sheets four
by eight sheets of plastic that are adhered to the
foundation with plastic rivets.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Uh there.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
We tend to go that route because it's a very
heavy material that is very terar resistant or damage resistant,
whereas some of the other contractors are going to use
sheet plastic which can tear very easily, and then you
tape your tear. It's about the only option because it
all extends below the concrete once it's all finished, so
you can't just easily take a piece out and replace it.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Great information yet again, and get ready to wrap up
the conversation coming up here pretty soon. About three and
a half minutes left in the program. You can get
in a text message if you like, threes or four nine, three, five,
five zero zero eight, probably running weight for a phone
call at this point. A couple questions that I had
that I don't think we've ever brought up before, and
probably on me for not asking this. I'm assuming the
answer to this one's probably yes. But for people that
(32:29):
are having insurance work done that had damage done with insurance,
you work with insurance companies.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
We don't do a lot of insurance work. That's just
not a route we've wanted to go. There's normally a
time constraint to that, and our schedule stays pretty booked.
We can certainly work with our insurance and we have
in the past, but it's not there's a whole industry
of I understand how that works also also industry insurance.
(32:53):
Excuse me, it doesn't typically cover our bread and butter
kind of construction work. We don't do wind damage to roofs.
A tree falls in a house that's getting into roof
the framing, we would certainly do drawwall we try to
stay away from. We tend to do the heavy structural
part and then either bring in a subcontractor to do
(33:16):
the finished work or allow the owner to do it
themselves or contract with another contract.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
And if you use foster correctly, a lot of could
be preventive and you won't have to worry about these
things in the future anyway.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Good, that's probably the best thing for it.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
And then the last question I had was for massive projects,
do you guys yourself offer any avenue to financing, like,
do you work with any banks or is that just
something you'd ask for the clients to occur.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
No, we do have an option for financing through Green Sky,
which is a fairly common industry in the industry, So yeah,
we do have options through that.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
So one stop if that's what you need to If
that's what you need to do, let me make sure
that I get the information out to you again before
we have to leave the airwaves this morning. Foster Foundation
Repairs located here in Charleston, of course, forty two twenty
six Woodroum Lane and phone number threees are A four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Threes are A
four seven seven six sixty two sixty three. You can
find out all kinds of information on a great new
website that has very detailed services and information that you
(34:10):
can find. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot com. Foster Foundation
Repair dot com. You can check it out over there.
We have a ton of a history of a podcasts
that we've done together. You can find those as well
at WCHS network dot com. Slash podcast there's all kinds
of our expert podcasts will be in there and you
can scroll through and find all of the previous ones
we've did if you want to go back and listen
to any of those, because we try to do those
from time to tom As far as I know that
(34:31):
you've mentioned a few times, your industry is projects can
take some time. You I'm sure get very busy. So
as far as what folks are looking at right now,
they're to contact Foster Foundation Repair, what kind of tom
frameworly looking at for work to get done.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
We typically stay in the four to six month period
and we're doing. I mean the jobs we're doing are
typically the larger. You know, there's there's only a few
companies that will will take on the projects we undertake,
and I mean there's a lot that we also do
that other companies will take on, but the larger excavations,
(35:07):
foundation rebuilds, those are the kind of things that that
we're willing to take on. We had one of those
come in where a foundation wall had actually collapsed that
we were we were looking at to do. I think
that one is not going to go right at the moment,
but we were We're in the process of getting ready
to mobilize the go temporary brace temporarily brace the other
walls so they didn't collapse because they were that bad.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
So so a little bit of a leadway. But that's
industry standard to this point. And you can if you
have any questions this, of course, that's something that you
can you can call about now. You can call Foster
Foundation Repair their phone number three zero four seven seven
six sixties two sixty three. Three zero four seven seven
six sixty two sixty three. Right, we'll be back here
the second Tuesday of next month. This is second of
the third. This is a second, right second, Pretty sure,
(35:50):
that's right. I'm terrible with that. I don't know why
of next month that you can tune in and follow up.
If you have questions, write them down somewhere so you
don't forget, and then the next time you hear it
Bred on the airwaves, give us a call, shoot us
a text, get your questions answered, or even better, just
give Bred a call over at Foster Foundation Repair that
phone number one again, three zero four seven seven six
sixty two sixty three three zero four seven seven six
(36:10):
sixty two sixty three. Thank you so much for tuning
in today. That's going to do it for me. Coming
up next is gonna be Dave Allen on five eighty Live.
He is going to be followed by Dave Wilson and
TJ on Talkin And I'll be back this afternoon with
Dave Weekly for Hotline at three o six. Have a
greatday everyone, Brett, thank you so much for your time.
Appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
We'll see you next time. You're listening to the Voice
of Charleston five eighty w c HS.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Fight E c HSA MTY six point five.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
That's on Charleston one oh four point five cross Lay
WVRC Media Station.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
We're proud to live here too.
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
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Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ADWCCHS it's
employees or WVRC media.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Miner if us A good morning to you. You're listening
to ask the expert WCHS the Voice of Charleston, am
Deel Cooper. Thanks for tuning in on this Tuesday morning.
I'm I have to check my dates here because Brett
Hadston is here, the owner of Foster Foundation Repair, and
usually we see each other on Wednesday, but for the
next several weeks anyway, or who knows how long. It
doesn't really matter to me. We're going to be on
Tuesday or several months, I should say, and it's not weekly,
(00:57):
but will be here on Tuesdays. Good morning, how you
doing this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Good morning?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, yeah, we have my wife does be and I
on Wednesdays, so I'm taking the kids to summer camp
on Wednesday mornings now for the foreseeable feature.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Brad Hasson is the owner of Foster Foundation Repair. You
can give us a call this morning if you have
any questions three zero A four three four five fifty
eight fifty eight. Three zero four three four five fifty
eight fifty eight. You can also send over text questions
as well. Three zero four non three five five zeros
you eight. Three zero four non three five five zeros
you eight. Right before we came on the air, we
were hearing a report from Metro News about the massive
(01:31):
flooding that's been wheeling and obviously great empathy from us
on this part of the state goes out to those Well,
we've suffered it here many many times in our recent past,
and we know what that's like and the unfortunate loss
of life that's taking place there. I want to kind
of use just the the climate situation from this as
(01:52):
something for us to talk about a little bit this morning,
because when you have massive rain that comes in and
some things get washed out, and there's there's disasters that happen,
and that's a that's like a separate thing, and obviously
that needs to be addressed. But things can happen when
there's massive amounts of water that comes through an area.
They can give you some some clues about your home,
(02:13):
Like you can observe things that are happening with like
different drain each, different things like that that in your
own home that when you're having these uh these weather
issues and things like that, you might want to pay
attention to. Like if you started having some seeping into
the uh into your basement. Maybe normal rain, it doesn't happen,
but if you get a lot of rain and suddenly
you start seeing some seeping, is that an indication of
a problem in the future, or just like a once
(02:34):
in occasional thing that happened that overflowed a system somewhere.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I mean, there could be some questions that come up.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, I mean it could be it could be just
a one off excess of rain that overwhelmed the system.
But oftentimes it's a you know, some sort of debris
in a system or or a failed system. I looked
at a looked at a property earlier this week and
there was basically kind of small sinkholes developing around a
(02:59):
drain pipe where what I deduced was water was dumping
off the roof, and then it was eroding the soil
into the downspout drain system because it was a lower
quality corrugated black corrugated system which does not have water
tight joints. So the soil, you know, the access water
was collecting there and it was eventually finding its way
(03:20):
into the drain, not through a proper channel, but it
was taking the soil with it, so it was kind
of creating a sinkhole. So yeah, that's that's certainly things
of that nature. Erosion is something to definitely look for
if you if you're having erosion of your mult or
your top soil around your foundation, you've got water flowing
obviously around your house and something needs to be addressed there.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And if you think about the last couple of years
just here in the Kanaala Valley, we've both gone through
drought and you know, we've gone through periods of excess
rain where we've gotten more in dazed than we get
sometimes in a season recently. So depending on where you're at,
what your home is, I mean, you could see some
issues that start create them up from when you get
to extreme ends of the weather.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
We have unique, unique soil in this area.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I mean, there's a lot of things that kind of
goes into that and I just wanted to bring that
up as something as obviously as a home owner myself,
you run across these things sometimes. I saw a new
crack the other day that I didn't see that I
hadn't seen before, and I was trying to apply some
of the things that we've talked about.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I was like, I don't know about this thing.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We might have to get it looked at some point
in time, but I don't know that it appeared overnight.
But it's an area of the house that it's not
like I never look at, you know, So I don't
know where I missed it at or if it's something
that just recently happened. But it was a little concerning
to see. Relatively small and doesn't seem to be in
a major area.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
But what do I know.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Yeah, I mean, we're all prone to it. I've got
a few little hairline cracks that have developed We've owned
our house for around three years that have developed since
we bought the house, and there's nothing there's nothing that
I can identify that is that I can address to
reduce the risk. So it's just one of those where
we're all kind of prone to it in this region,
(04:59):
just the build practices and again there's this oil conditions
are conducive to two issues developing over time.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Bret Hauschen is here once again. He is the owner
of Foster Foundation Repair. More information online Foster Foundation Repair
dot com. Foster Foundation Repair dot com located on Woodrom
Lane here in Charleston. We'll give more of the contact
details as we go along here this morning. You're welcome
to give us a call about any question when it
comes to a foundation repair, your basement, anything like that
that Foster Foundation Repair can help you out with. You
can give us a call. Don't forget that Brett is
(05:28):
an engineer as well, so looks at these things from
a critical appraisal that maybe you don't get from every
company that does foundation repairs, and so you get an
analytical eye when it comes to those things. So if
you have a little bit of a complex issue that
you've been that you've been worried about, you're welcome to
give us a call this morning or send us a text.
The phone number three or A four three four five
fifty eight fifty eight threes are A four three four
(05:48):
five fifty eight fifty eight. The text line numbers three
are four non three five five zero zero eight. Threes
are a four nine three five five zero zero eight.
And we actually did get a text line question from
the three zero four nine four one, and that is
my basement floods seasonally every spring. This is just what
we were talking about though. What could be some of
the causes of that, Uh.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Well, too much water obviously, but it's you know, seasonally
in the spring. Sometimes it's a result of the snow
melt and a rising water table or a fluctuating water table.
It could be that you have poor drainage around the
foundation that is directing water towards the house. In older areas,
house I looked at a few few probably months ago,
(06:28):
had a singular failed terra cotta downs about drain where
they were where they were having water infiltrate. So you know,
throughout through the course of the inspection, we're walking around
the house and I can see standing water at the
top of the pipe and evidence that the water was
backing out of the pipe. So you know, there's there's
a lot of different things that that can cause that
(06:49):
or contribute to that. Typically, if it's occurring. It really
depends I don't want to get into too many specifically,
it really depends on the era of when the house
was built, of what type of techniques would have been
used to attempt to manage the water. A lot of
older homes, like here on the East end of Charleston,
(07:09):
the basement floor sloped to a center or multiple center
located floor drains. They were never really intended to be
a bone dry basement, more of a utility or a
storage area, which is much different than many of the
basements people built more recently where the goal was to
have a finished living space, and many people, many many
(07:31):
contractors and over the years have have used a more
of what is considered a damp proofing method to seal
the basement, which is more like a tar based roll
on material. More a better product. Better products are out
there than that that type of material that are actually
(07:52):
when when defined in the codebook, they're actually considered water proofing,
and they they are much more reliable. That's the type
of systems working to install as it typically as a retrofit,
we don't do a lot of new construction waterproofing. Normally,
the general contractor is going to handle that on those
type of setups. But the waterproofing is a very important
(08:14):
part of what we do.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So for this particular situation, for this person, if they're
having this issue, it doesn't necessarily mean that their entire
system is jacked up or something like that. They could
just need to take another step somewhere, like to take
the pressure off a little bit during the spring seasons.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Yeah, and again, depending on the age, it may be
the way the house was designed and set up. Now,
flooding that I've heard a lot of different descriptions of
flooding in a basement where it might just be a
small yeah edge to where there's six inches of standing
water seasonally. So there's wide just definitions that people may
(08:53):
have there. So that's certainly something that I'd be more
than happy to speak more thoroughly directly with you. If
you want to give us a call.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, you give Foster Foundation Repair a call. The numbers
threes or four seven seven six sixty two sixty three
three zero four seven seven six sixty two sixty three.
After the show, I mean you could probably call it
open now, yeap. Yeah, there, so you can call and
get the ball rolling right now. But if you want
to call in on the show and talk to Man himself.
You get to call and talk to breat this morning
and then maybe follow up after that. You can give
us a call first at three zero four three four
(09:24):
five fifty eight fifty eight. Three zero four, three four
five fifty fifty eight, just like the last caller did.
If you'd like to get on the text line, you
can do that as well. Three zero four nine three
five five zero zero eight three zero four nine three
five five zero zero eight. We've spoken many times about
sort of your background and you know, having being an
engineer not previously. It's not something like that you forget
(09:44):
or you're you're no longer do you apply that with
the in the course of the job that you have
now recently in this area, has there been a have
you noticed any uptick in any particular types of issues
or anything that you could give f so like a
cautionary for is or anything that just in your experience
in the last short amount of time that you're seeing
(10:04):
more people have problems with.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
So through through last the drought of last summer and fall,
we had a lot of most most people who were
contacting us were suffering from drought related settlement and uh
so that was that was and that was a severe
drought that we went through last year. Since then, now
we've had a lot of water, so we're getting a
lot of water related issues with water related calls now.
(10:29):
But you know, this area is just prone for for
foundation movement, vertical and lateral movement either be caught caused
by soil pressure acting on a basement wall or downhill
subsidence of the hillside. And that's that's just unfortunately, it's
very consistent no matter what. But the drought related settlement
typically is going to occur more in areas where the
(10:54):
soil is very expansive. So there's some aary there's some
areas and cross lanes and taste valley that are very
pre to that type of movement, and it's a result
of the soul characteristics there.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
I've asked you this question before, but I'm going to
be a little selfisher because this is something that I'm
currently in the market for, and so I'm trying to
figure out the right decision to make. I want to
replace my entire drainage system. As far as gutters and
stuff go, mine's old. I've been clearing them out forever
and they're just I mean, they're really probably the most
basic form of gutters that you could possibly have. They're
basically just ten shoots that come off the house. There's
(11:28):
no coverage join them. I mean, and I have trees
in my yard. I mean, they get gunked up easily.
I mean, it's an ongoing process. So I'm thinking it's
time to upgrade, you know, I need to get something
that upgrades. Are the ones that are covered worth it?
Is there different types of systems or something that you
would recommend for somebody looking to really try to make
a difference in the drainage.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
So a standard gutter, you know, a standard aluminum gutter
will be sufficient in I mean every situation. Of course,
there's all kinds of different gutter products out there, but yeah,
gutter guard I believe are very important, especially in canall
city or any wooded lot. It's also very important to
know that the gutter guards should be selected based on
(12:10):
the foliage that's around. If you have a lot of
pine needles, you don't want to have a large open screen.
Gutter Guards are not in no maintenance item, though a
lot of people believe it, and it's very much advertised.
There's some national advertising going on for that that you
never have to clean them again. Well that's not true.
The house I described earlier with the water dumping off
(12:32):
the roof, the mesh screen had become matted with with
debris that had washed off the roof and kind of
got baked into the screen. So there, I've I had
the last two installations that I did for myself on
my current home. In my last home was a Low's
Home Depot bought product that that I had. I was
(12:56):
very pleased with. I never had any issues. Now I
didn't have a ton of overhanging foliage either, But yeah,
to me, gutter guards are very critical. They're going to
reduce the risk of water dumping off the roof, along
the foundation or clogging up the end ground drains. I mean,
if an acorn falls on the roof and rolls down
into the gutter, it's going down into the pike.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah, I believe I see this all the time with
my house because the acorns exactly, they just get so
many of them around my house. They drop onto the
roof and they roll around all over the place. They're
really hard sometimes to get control of. When you see
people with the the downspouts going into like sometimes you
see like obviously they just go into the yard, or
they have something some people create, like they'll use the
(13:40):
water for other things, Like you could put a rain
barrow and then create some sort of irrigation for for
your garden or something along those lines.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Is there a wrong thing to do though?
Speaker 3 (13:49):
As far as if you're trying to do something like
how far away from the house did you make sure
that your water's being diverted? Is there a certain angle
like do you want to go downhill or uphill? Like, well,
what should you make sure of when you're putting your
your drainage coming out of the downspouts?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
So I'm gonna address rain barrels first, don't I don't
love rain barrels. They fill up and they collect debris.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
I felk, they're kind of dirty. I mean like bugs
and mosquitos and things like that is what I think.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
And they're right next to the house, and they're supposed
to have an overflow, so once it fills up, it
it overflows off somewhere. But I just I don't love
rain barrels. But downspout water coming off a roof, obviously
we want to get into a piping system. Ideally it's
a below grade system that takes water. I recommend a
minimum of five feet away from the foundation. With sloping lots,
(14:39):
we can typically take them, you know, a long way
away from the house, so there's no risk of erosion
or any type of foundation movement as a result of
them discharging clothes. So I recommend a minimum five feet.
A friend of mine, another engineer that does is in
this industry that I think his is ten feet. I'd
(14:59):
say it really depends on the scenario. To say a
blanket five or ten feet is probably not accurate. But
just a minimum of five is my opinion.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And make sure that you do that, and you could.
You can get the pieces for that.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
And the nice thing about that is I've noticed there's
all kinds of aftermarket pieces you can get it, Like
you said, home depot or somewhere like that. If you
need to make sure that you extend them a little
further or anything like that from what you have that
you can do that. I just want to make sure
I do it right this next time that I do it,
because they're in pretty bad shape right now.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Yeah. Yeah, water mean waters. Water's the root of all that.
Pretty much all that I do is addressing either something
that has been caused by water or to prevent damage
in the future. Crawl spaces are prone to collecting both
liquid water and water vapor, which then results in condensation
(15:48):
and mold growth and things of that nature. So there's
a lot of different things that we can do to
address those those kind of situations without having to dig
up a yard or anything like that.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Sign number three or four non three five five zeros
or eight threes or four non three five five zeros
er eight from the threes are of four four one five.
Can crawl space and calpulation help prevent mold under my house?
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Absolutely? Yeah, that's what the deal is, right, Yes, So
an encapsulation system is designed. The intent of that is
to well, let me back up. Most most houses in
our region have what is called a vented crawl space.
You have your wall vents that go around the house,
and the idea is that air wind blows through the
house and dries out the wood and the insulation. The
(16:33):
problem is, on a day like today, when it's ninety
five percent humidity, you're bringing ninety five percent humid air
into the crawl space and a lot of times that's
where your ductwork is and your cold water lines are,
so you'll end up with condensation. So I've been in
crasl spaces where it's literally raining in waters dripping off
things in the crawl space. So a crawl space encapsulation
(16:54):
system is is converting in a situation where we're converting it.
It's converting a crawl space from a vented crawl space
to an unvented crawl space. And what we're doing is
we're sealing off the earth and the outside air with plastic,
and we also change the way in which the insulation
(17:15):
the house is insulated or functions. Essentially, you're bringing the
encapsulation excuse me, the crawl space into the conditioned space
of the home. So what we're going to do is
we're going to take the floor insulation out and we're
going to install either spray foam or rigid foam board
insulation around the perimeter to insulate the outside. And then
we're going to install drainage mat on the ground and
(17:36):
plastics that wrap up the wall and all the seams
are taped, so that's going to keep the majority of
the water vapor out. This does not address a crawl
space encapsulation system does not address liquid water in the
event they're standing water that has to be dealt with
with an interior foundation drain or exterior waterproofing. But once
(17:58):
we seal everything up, we then have to dress the
water vapor because we've now created a stagnant area. So
typically in a retrofit application, we're going to install a
dehumidifier that will automatically come on and off. It drains
to a either a condensate pomp or some pump. It
drains somewhere automatically, so it's a no maintenance item. And
(18:20):
then that's going to control the humidity. And it also
brings the temperature of the room or the cross space
into more a little warmer than it might be otherwise.
So essentially we're managing the water vapor, which is what
is causing, would cause or lead to mold growth. Anytime
the wood in a cross base gets to about twenty
(18:42):
percent moisture content, that's when you're prone to mold growth.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, I think that's a problem I've been dealing with
in my house for quite some time. I know I've
talked about it in here before. By the way, TJ. Meadows,
the co host of Metronews talk line. Just send me
a text. I think you guys are out of his
house right now. He said, you're doing a cross space
and cappulation for him, and it's going very well. He
high recommendations.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I forgot.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
I forgot about that where the de humidifiers going in. Today,
there we go.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
So he's very happy with the progress of that so far.
So that's an interesting question. That's something that here's a
and again, I'm just kind of probing my own personal
thing because I'm looking to maybe sell my house sometime
in the relatively near future, and so there's some things
I've left go that I need to start really thinking
about taking care of this week. This past weekend, I
was doing some work around my house and I had
(19:28):
a clear away. I have an outbuilding that it was
a temporary shelter, you know, a built one that I
got from lowers or whatever. I was able to move myself.
So I was able to move. I found a a
in my back steps. I found a piece that has
caved in that was hidden by this thing. And it
looks to me like at some point in time that
animals had gotten in under my steps. And I think
(19:50):
that I've now solved how I had a groundhog in
my house last year. I haven't had any in there
since then. However, I'm pretty sure that must be how
he got in, because I had looked and looked and
looked and couldn't find anything for that something that big
to get in. And so finally I solve that mystery,
I think. But that got me thinking because I've been
thinking about cross space and capitulations and stuff like that.
You really want to make sure you don't get any
critters getting into your cross space before you go through
with the encapitulation encapsulation.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
I would imagine, no, no, you don't, because they'll they'll
choose true through it.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Right exactly. That's the first thing I thought of. I
could see myself investing in this and then suddenly having
a family of critters living in my crawl space.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
We Actually that reminds me of a small project we
did not long ago on a house in Saint Albans
where there was a situation where a crawl space was
connected to a lower basement and the soil that the
gentleman was replacing his deck, and he found this big
hole in in that particular location where water had actually
eroded the soil into the crawl space and created a hole,
(20:42):
and he was having raccoon, raccoons or some sort of
ferm and was getting in there. But we ended up
just forming it up and pouring it and filling it
and then filming the whole outside for.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Him, like a stinking Disney cartoon. My cameras picked up
have been picking up now for about two weeks a
family of raccoons that lives somewhere near my house, and
not I don't think they're on my property, but they
traverse my property almost every night. There's five of them,
and it is just like a Disney cartoon in that
you see the big, fattest one, which I guess is
mom or dad, and then the next biggest one and
then like the the little siblings coming after it. If
(21:14):
it wasn't for the fact that they were, you know, pests,
it would actually be a little bit cute because you
see these chunky things walking around. Then I can't help
but to think, man, what kind of damage are they're
doing to our neighborhood, to the trash, to like everything
that's out here that that can't be a good sign.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Yeah, I've got a raccoon loves my trash can as well.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
I had to say, I think I told the story
I had to save my house from a from a
possum last year. And uh, and possums, of course, I don't.
I don't think they can. I mean, they have tea,
so I guess if they really got mad, they could
probably hurt you. But there's no there's no, there's no
there's no fear of a possum, right and less unless
the possum is in your rafters and you didn't know
it was there, and you go downstairs and you look
(21:52):
up and there's this relatively big possum just hanging off
the rafter with its rabid looking teeth at you. And
I have to admit I gave a little holler. It
scared me just a little bit.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I don't do the animals and in buildings either. If
they're there, we're gonna We're gonna let you get it
handled and we'll come back.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
My daughter said.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
I came upstairs and explained to my wife what scared me,
and I said it was a possum, and I'm sure
it's not gonna hurt me. I'm gonna go back down there.
And it took about a month for me to corral
this thing eventually. But the first night my daughter looked
at me and said, you mean the things that play dead? Thanks? Thanks, baby,
I appreciate. Yeah, let's do this. Let's go ahead and
take a break. We have to pay some bills. We're
gonna come back. We're go to have plenty more to
(22:30):
talk about.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
See.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
I have some more text messages coming in as well.
If you want to use the phone line, we've been
getting a lot of phone calls recently on Expert show.
You're welcome to give us a call this morning. Three
zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three
zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. But
if you want to continue texting, you're more than welcome
to do that as well. Three zero four non three
five five zero zero eighth three zero four nine three
five five zero zero eight to this is asked the
expert and studio with me this morning is Brett Hodgton.
(22:52):
He is the owner of Foster Foundation Repair online Foster
Foundation Repair dot com, located on Woodrum Avenue or Woodwind
Lane here in Charleston forty two twenty six. Their phone
number three zero four seven seven six sixty two sixty
three seven seven six sixty two sixty three. But hey,
if you want to talk to Bretton in the next
for the next fifteen minutes or so, you can give
us a call three zero four three four five fifty
eight fifty eight. We'll thank Greak can be back right
(23:13):
after this. You're listening to ask the expert with Foster
Foundation Repair on WCHS the Voice of Charleston.
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Hey, that's a John T two and you're listening to
as the expert w c HS the Voice of Charleston.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I'm Del Cooper.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
You can call us this morning if you want to
ask Brett Hutchon from Foster Foundation Realfair any question about
your foundation how to repair it. We've had a lot
of strange weather in the Canall Valley over the last
couple of years. We've gone from drought to extreme to
extreme wetness and frankly some some sub zero degree temperatures too.
Not as much the last couple years, but man, three
years ago, I know we had that snap around Christmas
(25:55):
time where we were below zero for about a week straight.
So it's hard to tell what happens with your foundation. Heat,
cold water, all those things can play some pretty massive
Tuney join your on your foundations and basements, right.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Yep, Mother nature is relentless undefeated, as it turns out, Yeah, undefeated.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
We did have a text question about patio slabs while
we were on break, just wondering if there's anything they
can do.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Let me see, where did it go?
Speaker 3 (26:20):
My concrete patio is sinking? How can I get that fixed?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So I would say it depends on depends on what's
causing it. A lot of times if it's a newer home.
A lot of times it's the soil around the foundation
was not backfield adequately, and over time the soil consolidated
or settled, and so did the pad. Most concerning would
be if the pad is settled and is now diverting
(26:46):
water towards the house. That's going to result in either
water entry or excess hydrostatic pressure on the foundation. But
the fix, again, it kind of depends on the situation.
Of course, you can tear it out and replace it,
which is really typically the direction. Well that's the direction
(27:06):
we will go, unless it's unless we don't. There's there's
methods in which a slab can be raised, which works
sometimes not all the time, but they also don't address
just by simply raising a slab, you're not addressing the
root cause if there is something that is causing that
that issue. So if if there are there are certain
(27:29):
applications where a grout pump is applicable. We do small
grout pump jobs we don't do We don't have the
equipment to do large grout pumps or foam injections. It's
not a it's not a market that I want to
be in. There's, in my opinion, too many times it's
appropriate to actually take it out and replace it. But
(27:53):
in some cases it can be lifted. It's it's it's
if it's right up against the house, there is risk
of exerting pressure on the foundation of the house. So
the installer has to be very skilled and very careful
because anytime you inject a material under pressure that is
a liquid, it's observing pressure in three hundred and sixty degrees,
So the force that it takes to lift it, you're
(28:14):
putting on your foundation. If you're right there on your foundation,
you also run the risk of filling pipes. If there's
pipes under the ground that are the cause of the
failure or the settlement, you run the risk of actually
filling the pipes up and reading the fine print of
the contracts of companies that do this, those are not
(28:35):
covered under their warranty. That's unfortunately, that is a risk
that you assume as the owner. So basically you have
the You can lift it through injection, injecting material below
it under pressure, or it can be taken out and replaced.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Very good, great information from Brett Hashton from Foster Foundation Repairing.
Give us a call this morning. Threes or a four
three four five fifty to fifty eight text threes are
four nine three five five er ars or eight. This
is a question that I came across. It was unanswered
on a forum. I forgot all about it and I
just came across it after a heavy rain. White stains
on the basement walls. Is that a bad sign?
Speaker 4 (29:06):
So that is likely efflorescence, which is evidence of water
seeping through the block or the concrete, and as the
water is moving through, it's picking up minerals and salts
in the concrete or the block. And then once the
water gets to the inside surface of the wall, it
evaporates and leaves those minerals behind. So it is evidence
of some minor water. If it's just efflorescence that white
(29:28):
powdery material, it is evidence of some minor water seepage.
It could in some cases be evidence of condensation. But
that you know, that's just going to take somebody figuring
out what the culprit is. But ultimately that's something you'd
want to look at doing some taking a look in
the area and seeing seeing if you can divert water
(29:48):
away from the foundation, and that that could result that
But ultimately it suggests that the waterproofing or damp proofing
system on the exterior is not fully functional anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yea, that I thought of a question a little bit ago,
and I forgot about it. But this kind of dovetails
into that a little bit still too, so I wanted
to ask about this. You mentioned something earlier that a
lot of basements in this area were made to get damp,
not wet, but damp. You know, they weren't meant to
be completely to be completely dry. If you're somebody that
has a home owner and you have one of these
basements and you're like I have a relatively small home.
(30:21):
I want to expand my livable square footage en if
it doesn't, you know, go towards home value or anything.
I want to finish my basement or partially finish my
basement or something along those lines. That's really a major
consideration that you have to take in place. You probably
want to have that upgraded from allowing dampness, and you
want to take the next step if you can before
you want to go through and finish that in any way.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Right, Yeah, So you in nant event, you have two options. Essentially,
you can do a next year waterproofing system, which is
very viable. It's the most appropriate means to address a
water related issue, so that that requires excavation of the
yard and it is a it's one of the more
(31:02):
labor intensive projects that we would undertake. The other option
to do would be to install what is called an
interior foundation drain. A lot of the industry refers to
that as as refers to that as basin water proofing.
It is not. It's an interior water management system. So
when when this type of system is installed, the water
is in the house, it is collected and diverted either
(31:25):
to a sump pump or back outside of the house
through through a gravity drain, and then the perimeter foundation
walls are covered with a either a sheet plastic or
we normally are going to use rigid plastic sheets four
by eight sheets of plastic that are adhered to the
foundation with plastic rivets.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Uh there.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
We tend to go that route because it's a very
heavy material that is very terar resistant or damage resistant,
whereas some of the other contractors are going to use
sheet plastic which can tear very easily, and then you
tape your tear. It's about the only option because it
all extends below the concrete once it's all finished, so
you can't just easily take a piece out and replace it.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Great information yet again, and get ready to wrap up
the conversation coming up here pretty soon. About three and
a half minutes left in the program. You can get
in a text message if you like, threes or four nine, three, five,
five zero zero eight, probably running weight for a phone
call at this point. A couple questions that I had
that I don't think we've ever brought up before, and
probably on me for not asking this. I'm assuming the
answer to this one's probably yes. But for people that
(32:29):
are having insurance work done that had damage done with insurance,
you work with insurance companies.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
We don't do a lot of insurance work. That's just
not a route we've wanted to go. There's normally a
time constraint to that, and our schedule stays pretty booked.
We can certainly work with our insurance and we have
in the past, but it's not there's a whole industry
of I understand how that works also also industry insurance.
(32:53):
Excuse me, it doesn't typically cover our bread and butter
kind of construction work. We don't do wind damage to roofs.
A tree falls in a house that's getting into roof
the framing, we would certainly do drawwall we try to
stay away from. We tend to do the heavy structural
part and then either bring in a subcontractor to do
(33:16):
the finished work or allow the owner to do it
themselves or contract with another contract.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
And if you use foster correctly, a lot of could
be preventive and you won't have to worry about these
things in the future anyway.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Good, that's probably the best thing for it.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
And then the last question I had was for massive projects,
do you guys yourself offer any avenue to financing, like,
do you work with any banks or is that just
something you'd ask for the clients to occur.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
No, we do have an option for financing through Green Sky,
which is a fairly common industry in the industry, So yeah,
we do have options through that.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
So one stop if that's what you need to If
that's what you need to do, let me make sure
that I get the information out to you again before
we have to leave the airwaves this morning. Foster Foundation
Repairs located here in Charleston, of course, forty two twenty
six Woodroum Lane and phone number threees are A four
seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Threes are A
four seven seven six sixty two sixty three. You can
find out all kinds of information on a great new
website that has very detailed services and information that you
(34:10):
can find. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot com. Foster Foundation
Repair dot com. You can check it out over there.
We have a ton of a history of a podcasts
that we've done together. You can find those as well
at WCHS network dot com. Slash podcast there's all kinds
of our expert podcasts will be in there and you
can scroll through and find all of the previous ones
we've did if you want to go back and listen
to any of those, because we try to do those
from time to tom As far as I know that
(34:31):
you've mentioned a few times, your industry is projects can
take some time. You I'm sure get very busy. So
as far as what folks are looking at right now,
they're to contact Foster Foundation Repair, what kind of tom
frameworly looking at for work to get done.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
We typically stay in the four to six month period
and we're doing. I mean the jobs we're doing are
typically the larger. You know, there's there's only a few
companies that will will take on the projects we undertake,
and I mean there's a lot that we also do
that other companies will take on, but the larger excavations,
(35:07):
foundation rebuilds, those are the kind of things that that
we're willing to take on. We had one of those
come in where a foundation wall had actually collapsed that
we were we were looking at to do. I think
that one is not going to go right at the moment,
but we were We're in the process of getting ready
to mobilize the go temporary brace temporarily brace the other
walls so they didn't collapse because they were that bad.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
So so a little bit of a leadway. But that's
industry standard to this point. And you can if you
have any questions this, of course, that's something that you
can you can call about now. You can call Foster
Foundation Repair their phone number three zero four seven seven
six sixties two sixty three. Three zero four seven seven
six sixty two sixty three. Right, we'll be back here
the second Tuesday of next month. This is second of
the third. This is a second, right second, Pretty sure,
(35:50):
that's right. I'm terrible with that. I don't know why
of next month that you can tune in and follow up.
If you have questions, write them down somewhere so you
don't forget, and then the next time you hear it
Bred on the airwaves, give us a call, shoot us
a text, get your questions answered, or even better, just
give Bred a call over at Foster Foundation Repair that
phone number one again, three zero four seven seven six
sixty two sixty three three zero four seven seven six
(36:10):
sixty two sixty three. Thank you so much for tuning
in today. That's going to do it for me. Coming
up next is gonna be Dave Allen on five eighty Live.
He is going to be followed by Dave Wilson and
TJ on Talkin And I'll be back this afternoon with
Dave Weekly for Hotline at three o six. Have a
greatday everyone, Brett, thank you so much for your time.
Appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (36:29):
Yes, thank you.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
We'll see you next time. You're listening to the Voice
of Charleston five eighty w c HS.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Fight E c HSA MTY six point five.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
That's on Charleston one oh four point five cross Lay
WVRC Media Station.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
We're proud to live here too.
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