{"id":1997,"date":"2022-07-04T03:13:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T03:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatblueprint.com\/?p=1997"},"modified":"2023-04-14T13:42:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T13:42:32","slug":"is-settling-a-foundation-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatblueprint.com\/is-settling-a-foundation-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Settling A Foundation Issue?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The foundation is essential to any home as it serves as its base. There are many types of foundations depending on multiple factors from the environment(Ex. Soil, Topography, etc.) or the building itself (Ex. Weight, Building Footprint, etc.). The question now is if settling is a foundation issue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Settling is a foundation issue often caused by problems with the soil supporting your foundation or house. As time goes on, your home will sink into the ground as it settles, which is a regular occurrence and is often done in a controlled manner by the engineer. The problem is that a house can settle too much into the ground, causing your home to become uneven.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To understand settling, we first need to understand the basics of foundations and soil. These are two main parts of carrying a home upright, so if any of these two are negatively affected, it will cause uneven settling in the long run. Aside from that, external factors can also affect how these two(foundation and soil) perform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Settling is an expected occurrence for all buildings. It only makes sense that the soil will have to move a bit to adjust to the weight of a new building. This is often controlled and calculated so that the ground changes evenly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Settling becomes an issue when this soil adjustment is overdone, and the foundation becomes uneven. Generally, the soil has either become too soft or was moved too much for this to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The foundation itself can also be the cause if the engineer miscalculated the loads or a contractor doesn\u2019t build your foundation correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s so much more than what meets the eyes when building construction, especially for foundations. Each part of your house works together to ensure it remains standing. Something as simple as putting a tree in the wrong place in your lot or having improper site drainage can affect your foundation\u2019s performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With all these said, we first need to identify the type of settling occurring in your home for us to be able to tell if it is an issue you should be concerned with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are three primary types of settling that a foundation can experience which are namely, a uniform settling, a tipping settling, and a differential settling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The foundation sinks into the ground evenly. Uniform settling is routine and has happened over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The foundation sinks into the ground unevenly. Contractors and engineers can still repair this settling by installing additional parts for the more sunken part of your foundation to make it level again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Only part of the foundation settles, while the rest stays on the same level. This is the most damaging type of settling that often causes cracks in lower levels of the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many factors can cause your foundation to settle in a certain way. Generally, a geodetic engineer determines how the soil will interact with your building and, from there, makes recommendations on how the building should be constructed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a typical home, you\u2019ll probably have anywhere between 9 to 15 foundation columns throughout your home. Since houses are designed with efficiency and cost-effectiveness in mind, they often uniformly space the columns into a grid and use the same type of columns for each footing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In discussing how loads work, starting from the top to the bottom is best. You have your floors, columns, beams, and foundation. Weight(from people, objects, and the building itself) initially goes to the floors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From there, the floors transfer that weight to the supporting beams and columns. The columns thoroughly move the loads down to the foundation. The foundation then disperses that load as uniformly as possible to the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why each structural component of a building is connected, which is evenly distributed weight instead of letting it to a single area. We can see how the differential type of settling can be pretty dangerous since it can end up causing structural components to break if left unattended for too long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are two main reasons why a foundation would settle which is either:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is always a possibility that the Contractor or Engineer built the foundation unevenly or incorrectly. A foundation built on uneven depths or elevations will cause building loads to be unbalanced, thus causing one part of the building to settle in more profound than the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The soil\u2019s ability to handle loads is affected by environmental conditions( Rain, Sunshine, Snow, Plants, etc.). This tends to happen when<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selling can be a big problem because the weight of the building doesn\u2019t get adequately distributed to the ground. Engineers do a lot of different kinds of calculations to ensure that a building can stay up safely and efficiently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can imagine a table with four legs with one leg resting on a soft surface while the others are on a hard surface. If you put weight on the softer end, that table\u2019s leg will sink and cause the entire table to become slanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same is true for a settling foundation and the house on it. Since soil is quite soft, it will need to adjust to the shape and load of the building for it to be able to stand up properly. This is fine, but when too much adjustment takes place, that\u2019s when settling becomes an issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember also that soil is easily affected by other natural factors that can affect its properties( Ex. Lack of moisture makes soil brittle, while too much humidity will make it too muddy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Is Settling A Foundation Issue?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Types of Foundation Settling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>Foundation: How it works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>How does foundation settling happen?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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