Did the Winter of 2022 affect the condition of your home’s foundation?
As Los Angeles homes weathered the effects of Winter 2022, it became apparent that the forecasts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center (“NOAA”) were pretty much spot on!* NOAA scientists had said that Los Angeles will continue to experience a “La Niña” weather pattern, with drier-than-average conditions, and that is mostly what homeowners in Los Angeles experienced.
As such, because Los Angeles homes are built on soft clay that expands during the rainy seasons and contracts during the dry seasons, it may be the case that your home’s concrete foundation has actually fared pretty well during our rainy season, and that it had not experienced the type of movement that can cause it to become brittle, drop, buckle, and crack.
Having said all that, having a drier-than-average rainy season is no guarantee that a home’s foundation has performed well! And so, what should be a homeowner’s next steps? Here are some tips!
Three foundation tips for Los Angeles homeowners following a rainy season!
Tip Number 1. The first tip our foundation repair professionals can offer you is that if your home was built in the 1950s or 60s, then you should definitely have your foundation inspected to see how it has been holding up. This is because foundation issues are very common in homes built during those “building boom” years, when home builders poured concrete foundation slabs as thin as 2 inches over unstable, uncompacted soil. If your home was built in the 1950s or 60s, you must inspect it as soon as possible.
Tip Number 2. If your home was built after the 1950s and 60s, then there is a “quick diagnostic” that you can do on your own, to check the health of your home’s foundation. Take a quick walk inside and around your home and ask yourself the following questions:
Indoors Check
- Are the plaster walls showing any cracks?
- Are the floors showing any cracks?
- Are the floors level, or are they sloping?
- Do the floor boards squeak when you walk?
- Are doorways and window frames sticking?
Outdoors Check
- Is your home’s stucco finish cracking?
- Does your home’s roof appear warped at all?
- Are your home’s walls leaning or bowing?
- Can you see doorway or window gaps?
- Is water pooling around the home?
If you answered “Yes” to any of the questions above, then you must have a foundation repair specialist come and inspect your home’s foundation. Note that even if you answered “no” to these questions, we still recommend you inspect your home’s foundation every few years, as it still could still be damaged and you wouldn’t necessarily know it!
Tip Number 3. At this point, you can just Google, “foundation repair near me” but here at Weinstein Construction, we hope you will give our foundation repair specialists a call! We offer homeowners such as yourself an absolutely free foundation inspection, at a convenient time for you!
Weinstein Construction’s Los Angeles home foundation repair crews will have the right solution for you, at the right price! call Weinstein Construction today at (800) 862-6582 for a free inspection and review of your home’s foundation!
Thank you, and please also note that the professionals at Weinstein Construction are also specialists in foundation replacement, as well as basement foundation waterproofing, leaky basement repair, and foundation cracks repair. We can also design and build French drain installation and employ drainage mitigation techniques!
* Adapted from, KTLA, “What NOAA’s spring predictions mean for California” by Alix Martichoux, posted on March 17, 2022.
