Bad Advice: Foundation Edition

Welcome to what’s probably the most dangerous form of bad advice - foundation repair. If you google “fix basement wall crack” or something similar, you’ll find plenty of DIY advice, and it all has one thing in common: it focuses on the crack itself and not what the crack means. It also doesn’t work. Ok, two things in common.

For about $100, you can buy a “DIY Wall Crack Repair Kit” that comes with injection foam, gloves, and goggles. Oh boy, a steal. It claims to fix up to 10 feet of wall crack up to ½” wide.

If you have a ½” wide crack in your wall you need to call us, not go to Home Depot.

Side note, the phrase “DIY Foundation Repair” should make you shudder. This is your HOUSE.

Sealing Cracks

As I said, most advice centers around fixing/repairing/sealing wall or floor cracks as the central focus of foundation repair. And that’s not wrong exactly, but even their methods aren’t permanent.

Similar to DIY waterproofing tips, the most common recommendations for wall or floor crack repair/filling are hydraulic cement, spackle, and spray foam. All of these will work for a short time if your only goal is to fill cracks. But there’s a problem.

The worrisome part of foundation cracks isn’t that they exist or that water may come through. What you should worry about is that cracks are a warning sign that your foundation is shifting and settling, and your whole home is at risk.

The only thing you can do for foundation problems is call in an expert. Solutions could require stabilization, excavation, even the advice of a structural engineer. Filling in a wall crack will not do anything for the bowing wall it’s on, and filling a floor crack won’t raise your home the two inches it sank over the course of the spring.