Serving Kansas and Missouri

Being in Kansas City, a factor to consider relating to the health of your foundation is the freeze / thaw cycle. This is one reason that small basement cracks tend to become large ones.

In addition to many other weather related impacts, water tends to move into cracks. With the cold weather, that water freezes, and expands.  Typically, water expands about 10% when it freezes. Research has shown that this water expansion can cause damage to concrete.

Ice-Crystals Of course, when the ice melts, it shrinks, allowing more water to fill into the foundation crack.

The challenge, of course, is that weather in Kansas and Missouri tends to move rapidly from hot to cold and freezing to thawing. Even within the same day.

Repeated freezing and thawing (and the related expansion and contracting) over the course of time can have a negative impact on your foundation.

The answer, of course, is to ensure those cracks are filled and reduce the probability of being hurt by the freeze / thaw cycle. Patching, injecting, and waterproofing cracks is the suggested protocol, ideally from the outside.

Foundation 1 can help you assess the weaknesses in your foundation and where foundation repair and basement waterproofing will most benefit your home. As you might imagine, there are a number of approaches, and our team has expertise at helping identify which approaches are most appropriate in your specific situation.