Sinking slabs can damage your valuable structure in a number of ways. We’ll take a look at five of the most common threats that unstable soil can pose to your building. (It’s important to understand that weak soil and dangerous voids beneath your foundation can be detected BEFORE any of this damage occurs. For more on that subject, see our blog post on soil imaging and testing.)

1. Warped and/or Broken Floors

Unreliable soil beneath a foundation can cause it to shift. Even small shifts can make the floors buckle or even crack. How much would it cost you to replace the floors in your structure?

2. Cracked Walls

A slipping foundation can also damage sheet-rock or concrete walls. Your walls are not strong enough to keep the foundation from moving. It’s the other way around, unfortunately.

3. Stuck or Scraping Doors

Your door frames are also at risk. The minute the wall or floor starts to shift, the door frames can warp and make the doors difficult or even impossible to open and close.

4. Dislodged Molding

Perfectly installed moldings really add character to a room. Once they start getting dislodged and sticking out here and there, however, they can become a black eye (and a sign of deeper foundation issues that could have been prevented).

5. Unstable Trees, Flagpoles, Lamp Posts, etc.

If you have any large trees, flag poles or lamp posts that could hit your house if they fell down, you have one more reason to get your soil tested. Unreliable soil can undermine these objects as well.

It May Not Be Too Late

The good news is that, even if you are already seeing some of these types of damage on your property, GCS may still be able to repair your soil and level your slab or structure with high strength polyurethane foam.