Fixing foundations in Regina’s shifty soil
It’s no secret that the soil in Regina presents a problem for homeowners and home builders, as the unstable gumbo can cause foundations to tilt and crack and allow water to seep into a home. Fortunately, a basement can be righted, repaired and reinforced even against Regina’s soil conditions.
“It’s just very elastic dirt. It’s always on the move – constantly,” said Terry Paun, who owns and operates RSR Construction with his wife, Terry. “The best way to describe it is that it’s just like building on bubblegum. It’s so soft, and the moisture content is so high … Especially in the cold winters, when it freezes, the amount of movement is just crazy.”
The problem has only been exacerbated by more recent conditions. “Now, the dry weather is causing the foundations to drop, because the moisture’s coming out of the ground,” said Paun.
Not surprisingly, some basements are simply constructed to be stronger and more stable than others. “It comes down to who the contractor is who built the home,” said Paun. “A lot of builders don’t build on piles, and they should. I know that it’s an expense, but, in the long run, it’s something that the customers should be requesting … Some use really heavy rebar, and they don’t have many issues, and others use next to nothing, and they just come apart like you wouldn’t believe.”
Consequently, Paun advises prospective home buyers to pay special attention to the foundations and even enlist their own assessment from a professional with direct experience.
“Sometimes, the home inspections are covered up,” said Paun, though he says that some inspectors do not even recognize foundational weaknesses. “Every year, we’ve got customers that have been ripped off by somebody trying to hide faulty basements.”
In the event of water inflow to your basement, the foundations themselves may not be to blame, however, and the problem may be solved through other adjustments. “Sometimes, it’s as simple as grade-correction outside,” said Paun. “You’ll find a lot of people that, when it sinks, they don’t fill it up, and they should, because, the deeper that it goes, the more water is flooding in.”
If the foundations themselves are indeed at fault, they may require new or better underpinning to stabilize the home from beneath. “If it’s a matter of half the house dropping, then it would be a matter of underpinning with screw piles, and then we basically lift the house up,” said Paun. “We put a pile every eight to nine feet, and we use bottle jacks to lift those.”
New technology has made the process of underpinning easier and more accurate. “It’s got to be done all together so it’s an even lift. That was the problem with bottle jacks: you have to have a man basically on every jack,” said Paun. “So, we’ve gotten away from that and we’ve bought a new system that actually lifts the whole thing evenly and all at once.”
On the other hand, if the basement walls are buckling without an overall shift in the foundations, then bracing will be a more appropriate remedy. “If it’s cracking – just a matter of some basic heaving – sometimes it fractures because of the weight of the dirt, which pushes the walls inward,” said Paun. “That causes the basement to fracture horizontally and vertically. If that’s the case, you can just brace it if it’s not that severe.”
Like underpinning, this often requires a great deal of digging. “If it has a lot of deflection in the wall, then we usually recommend excavating, and we straighten the walls out and then brace,” said Paun.
With the exterior basement walls exposed, an extra layer of waterproofing can be added to stop moisture before it even reaches the structure. “There’s a good half-dozen different manufacturers, and they all have different thicknesses,” said Paun. “We excavate around the home, put the blue skin up, and there’s a dimpled membrane that goes over top of it as well. It’s like a backup, but it also protects the membrane from getting rocks or sticks poking holes in it.”
In every case, Paun emphasizes that an engineer must be consulted before any action is taken. Many of the issues that he encounters are caused by a lack of foresight by previous builders, and an engineer helps him to fully assess a problem and consider the potential consequences of every solution. “We’ll do the initial survey and then go through an engineer,” he said.