Foundation Problems in Texas? Find out what you need to know!

[Music] hey everyone it's bob mccraney with texas pride realty group and i am absolutely excited to have martin montgomery here today martin is a structural engineer he owns rcs enterprises martin tell us a little bit about structural engineers and a little bit about yourself uh well i've been um texas a m ag graduating and all that and i've been practicing engineering for um almost 30 years now and um what we do is design foundations new uh we inspect existing homes where there's been evidence of foundation movement uh we look at homes that somebody may want to modify take out a wall or add beams in the ceiling and open a room up and you get a more open floor plan so what we do is support the inspection and engineering of that and help folks understand how foundations work why they do what they do and what they can what steps they can take to remediate or have uh keep the foundation from having issues okay so why do texas foundations are specifically dallas fort worth foundations have so much trouble yeah you know it's kind of remarkable this area is uh in the whole us is there's a high concentration of population and a high concentration of all the foundational problems in the country and that's primarily because the soil type in this area is clay and depending on where you're at within the dallas metro area extending north oklahoma and south really all the way to san antonio to parts of the coast uh foundation's the number one cause by by far is the clay soil is moving because clay is is like a sponge if it gets wet it's going to swell up and if it gets dry as to the shrink and if a foundation is sitting on top of that it's going to follow the ground and follow the soil where it goes so it makes to kind of understand and what steps you can take to keep it consistent which can prevent the movement and the resulting interior distress exterior stress you know sheetrock cracks um those kind of things from occurring okay so yeah i was about to ask what would somebody normally see let's say i'm out showing a house now you and i have known each other for quite a while so i i quote you all the time um and and so what would be something somebody would notice as they're walking through our house and go hey maybe that's foundation issue yeah the first thing you typically see would be shoot rock cracks uh when you walk on the inside of the house you'll see them above doors above openings uh you may notice unless you get closer to the edge or um you feel a slope to one direction it may be located on this corner and not over in these other areas so the first thing you typically would see would be cheaper cracks sticking doors where a door won't open or closed door may swing in one direction and kind of stay those are typically the indications of foundation movement and as the foundation moves the framing moves different and causes the cracking to occur okay so i i sell new construction homes and one of the things they always do is they come out and put this cute little tiny tree in the front yard and then you and i see that tree 20 years later when they go to sell the house tell us about how close could a tree be to a house yeah you know trees are the cause of probably 95 percent of all the foundation movement that we have that we deal with on a day in day out basis um on a new home small tree very suddenly see any problems with the foundation until you fast forward about 10 years and all of a sudden as you mentioned that little tree is now you know larger and it's big enough that its roots have reached the foundation and it begins to take moisture out of the soil uh below the foundation resulting in eventually what will be moving when you get to year 15 and year 20 that tree is now huge and it will have a big impact on not just one area maybe the whole side of the house or driveways sidewalks and other things and so trees are the primary cause of foundation and you know the thing that most people understand there's ways there's to mitigate the effects of trees uh without taking the tree out in most cases and you know putting in root barriers doing other steps better managing shrubs and vegetation there's a series of things again what we're ultimately looking for is improved control of the moisture in the soil the more consistent we can control it the more we can eliminate foundation movement okay so martin how would somebody contact you uh the easiest way is to call the office um at 972-727-8572 uh becky does all my schedules she'll work out time and day that kind of meets my schedule and meets a prospective buyer or seller's schedule and then i i will meet them on site i'll do an evaluation takes typically about an hour and then i'll discuss and walk them through what i see specifically what i recommend and why help them understand not only what to do but why they have a problem very important for us to help educate and let people understand and then we'll ultimately within a day or so follow up with a report where it's specific what i saw measurements and then specific recommendations based on what's needed at a particular home say your number one more time uh the phone number is 972-727-8550 and you can also go online to our website at rcs enterprises.net and um look it up there's automatic links you can send an email in and that gets the ball started from that aspect and kind of shows you what we do a little bit as well so but um in a hurry when things are kind of moving phone call will work and usually we can get schedules within a few days and you know get the whole process done and roll them and keep the process of buying selling moving right along okay martin will you come back in a quarter and talk to us again sure will anytime just let me know thanks for being here you bet we'll see you now

Channel: Texas Pride Realty

Views: 161

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: foundation issues on a house, foundation issues vs settling, foundation issues in old homes, foundation issues cost, foundation issues texas, foundation issues home, foundation issues or settling, dallas home foundations, slab foundation, slab foundation construction, slab foundation repair, slab foundation for house, slab foundation plumbing, slab foundation cracks, slab foundation vs crawl space, slab foundation problems, pier & beam foundation, home improvement

Id: 7NvG43HsXyM

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 10 2020