Many owners of the houses of the old building are familiar with the problem of the destruction of the foundation. Over time, even the most strong base is inevitably deformed by virtue of a number of reasons. And there are two exit from this situation: on time to identify the problem and prevent destruction or wait for serious consequences, and fully change the constructive. In this article we will tell you how to prevent the second scenario and repair the foundation in a timely manner.

Causes and signs of the destruction of the foundation

There are many reasons for the destruction of the foundation, ranging from the use of low-quality materials during the construction and incorrect calculations, ending with banal natural wear or changed physical characteristics of the soil. Also, if you recently attached another floor or a balcony to the old house, the increased load can cause cracks not only in the foundation, but also in the walls.

Foundation flooding groundwater

The foundation of the house may lose its fortress due to the loss of soil strength on which it is installed. After some time under certain conditions, stable dense land can be paved and blur, and groundwater is climbing above to the surface. In this case, they are inevitably encountered on the foundation and begin to destroy it.

It also happens that the soil remains durable, but in a separate place under the foundation, the water flushes a small plot, and emptiness is formed. As a result, uniform pressure on the ground is broken, and the house is simply falling. As a rule, this happens on mixed types of soils - sandy or drum.

The foundation can also be asked in separate places where the inclusions of the Mergel or limestone are concentrated, especially if the soil oxidized in connection with the man-made situation. High acidity leads to rapid destruction of calcite, and the soil becomes unreliable.

Another reason for the deformation of the foundation "from under the ground" - seeding emptiness, which appeared as a result of oil production, coal, shale, shutters and other works. To build houses in such territories, the SNIP obliges to establish a reinforced concrete "belt", but if this rule is not respected, the building will fall under the ground, and the foundation of the house will be repaired.

Loss of carrier ability

But most often the cause of destruction lies in loss of bearing ability due to factors that are exposed from the outside - flood, additional buildings, low-quality building materials, etc.

When booking, the foundations often apply reinforced designs (bars, grid, beams). The most common water that does not have an alkaline or acidic reaction is capable of providing corrosion of metal in a rather short time and destroy the base, even if it stands on a strong reliable soil. Therefore, if you flooded the basement from the randomly broken tube, the consequences can be much fatal than cosmetic premises.

However, most often the premature repair of the foundation of the house passes due to the violation of the construction technology. One of the most common disorders is the wrong depth of the embedding. If the soil freezes 1.1-1.3 m, then the base is plugged only 60 cm, which is incorrectly in the root! Especially often it is found in the construction of garages or small country houses. Builders believe that if the construction itself is small, it does not need to be thoroughly plugged, but it is not necessary to navigate to the dimensions of the building, but on the characteristics of the soil.

Almost all the houses of the Soviet buildings today need major repairs of the foundation, because then for construction it was used, just say that it fell. More precisely, what is cheaper, then better. But the domestic mentality was so formed, and now you have to reap the fruits in the form of reckled foundations and cracked walls. In particular, it concerns buildings from silicate brick and slag concrete.

How to find a cause

To solve the problem, you need to find a reason. Of course, it would be possible to replace the whole foundation, but these works are too expensive both in time and in finance. To determine the cause of destruction in each individual case, an extensive study must be carried out. Ideally, you should call a special service that will evaluate the situation with special equipment, but such services are not suiced and sometimes may exceed the price of the building itself.

Fortunately, there are several ways that will allow themselves to identify the reason for the fault of the foundation of the house and decide whether it is worth the overhaul at all. Here it is necessary to make a reservation that in some cases cracks on the walls (frequent "symptom" of the fault of the foundation) may appear as a result of completely other processes that are not at all connected with the bearing capacity. So, having arisen, they will not "crawl" further and are not expanding, so they should be simply closed with putty and calmly live on. Another thing if the crack grows is a clear sign of the deformation of the foundation.

Observation of cracks

To track the process of destroying the foundation, determine whether the cracks continue to grow. If they are gradually revealed, it is necessary to identify the speed and specificity of the process. For this, across cracks are sticking special lighthouse markers.

The easiest lighthouse represents a "dusting" from a gypsum cement, plastering or gypsum solution, which is not deformed after frozen and does not give a strong shrinkage, but has a rather fragile structure in order to succumb to the cracks. Therefore, the cement-sandy solution in this case cannot be used - it is too strong.

Mix a little composition and impose a spatula on a crack so that the thickness of the "mallep" does not exceed 5 mm, and its dimensions were 10-12 cm in length (across) and 2-5 cm in width.

At each crack, install two lighthouse - down and at the top. Previously the base of the wall should be cleaned to ensure the best adhesion of the solution. While the "non-Plopping" does not frozen, apply a thin horizontal line on it with a spatula or wand corner. Note every lighthouse, squeezing the date and the sequence number of the installation on it. Transfer the data to the notebook to check after a while.

If the crack grows, the beacon will crack. Perform crack measurements in the bearing at an equal time interval in the place where you squeeze the horizontal line (it can be easily equal to the ruler). Based on the data obtained, it can be understood how quickly the deformation occurs, and how urgently requires repair of the foundation of the old house.

If the horizontal line on two halves of the lighthouse has shifted in height (one half below, the other is higher), then the house is experiencing a shrinkage, and falls into the ground from the other side where the line is lower.

Dark Schurf

Another type of study that can be conducted independently is a visual inspection of the foundation. It occurs as follows - 2 or more shurts are digging next to the foundation (the pit depth to the base of the foundation and about 100 cm long), while making an inclined wall to be more convenient to descend and work. If necessary, the shruffs wall are strengthened with spacers.

Frames are needed in those places where the bases are noticed, and deformations are most clearly manifested. Through this pit, you can access the outer part of the foundation and determine the cause of its destruction - flooding, corrosion or something else.

Analysis of the situation takes several days. Thus, the level of groundwater will be visible after 24-48 hours. Taking advantage of acids and alkali tests in them, it is possible to determine the degree of aggressiveness of the medium. Tests with lactium paper can be purchased in agricultural chemistry and gardening stores.

Only after the identification of the cause can be processed to the repair of the foundation of the old house.

Repair work

Before repair, you should give a sober assessment of the situation - whether you can cope with the problem with your own or better hire a professional work brigade. If the degree of deformation is too large, for example, an increasing flooding or a large landslide, then for the fixing of the foundation it will be necessary to attract special techniques. Fortunately, in most cases, you can still cope with your own.

The main thing during the repair of the foundation of a brick house is to prevent its further deformation and precipitation. When working with the foundation of the stone house, in no case cannot be done, since the high load of the building box will immediately trigger the roll towards emptiness.

When flooding

Foundation flooding is one of the most frequent problems, especially among dacnis. If the reason lies in this, it is necessary to build a drainage or organize a drainage system. If the flooding is due to the abundance of wax or rainwater, which goes into the ground, you should build a kind of barrier - a protective waterproof pad around the foundation with a width of at least 80 cm. This barrier will direct water on specially provided grooves.

In the case of raising the level of groundwater closer to the surface, you will need to install the drainage system. For the most part, it is an elementary trench-closed trench around the perimeter of the foundation, digging in the place where the water level should be reduced. Perforated pipes are placed on the bottom and covered with a gravel pillow. Thus, surplus groundwater will go into a storm sewer or another place due to the embossed slope of your site.

If the foundation is above the depth of freezing

Why is it so dangerous to lay the foundation above the depth of the soil freezing? If it is a little to dream and imagine how seasonal changes underground occur, everything falls into place. The foundation and box of the house give a strong pressure on the ground. Under the foundation proceeds underground water, which freeze with the onset of cold weather. As is known from the initial course of physics, turning into ice, water increases in volume. And if the depth of the primer of the soil is greater than the depth of the basement of the foundation, then the ice will simply pour out the foundation, and it will make it unevenly. As a result, the house will glance, the foundation from the tremendous pressure will crack.

Of course, the situation depends on the degree of bunchiness (the bunch of expansion during freezing), but over time the properties of any soil can change.

1 - Promperzable soil, 2 - a fountain of the foundation.

With strong destruction

The most time-consuming and serious case is the strong destruction of the foundation when the bearing ability is almost lost, and urgent recovery is required. Once again, we will prevent a special technique and professional skills here, so it is worth considering the option of hiring brigades.

Based on these research, it is necessary to determine what conditions led to the fact that the foundation is in such a state. Next, the conditions should be changed (omit the level of groundwater, for example) and restore the integrity of the support of the house. To do this, amplify with replacing or repairing layer of waterproofing.

How to properly strengthen the foundation

Very often inexperienced masters, producing the foundation of a wooden house or a brick building, make an improper gain, which leads to even more planning consequences.

Important: To enhance the foundation, it is not necessary to drill through holes in the old basis to install an anchor there. Especially one no longer should just drive pieces of fittings in the available seams of block foundation or natural stone. Usually, after this, the construction-builders are poured with a dug trench by cement-sandy solution, calculating that the constructive extended in this way will improve the carrying capacity. In reality, such a concrete array around the house maximum performs the function of the scene, but practically does not affect the fortress of the foundation. At the same time, financial, physical and temporary costs are completely incommensurable with the effect obtained.

So how to properly strengthen the foundation? To do this, you will need to take more large-scale actions so that the destroyed bearing elements last another decades. If you cannot restore them, you need to bring a new foundation under the box.

For houses built of brick or other small masonry materials, the foundation follows with separate segments, alternately dug and concreting each of them. The maximum length of each segment should not exceed 80 cm. If you work with highly cracking sites, the substrupture and at all should be minimal - 2 times less than the distance between cracks. Ideally, for compliance with the balance of the load, it is necessary to make subpoppers at the same time from 2 sides of the house.

Repair of the old foundation of the wooden house (timber, logs) is much easier. First, it is necessary to strengthen the areas along the edges of the bars or logs, and then between the supporting elements calmly produce work, making the foundation stronger and wider (up to 2 m).

Remember that any manipulation with the foundation of the already built home is counted for work with an elevated level of danger, as well as any actions to restore structures in disaster state. Do not work alone and without damps, carefully think over each action and, at any convenient case, use the safety elements - jacks, backups, etc.