In The Field: Fascinating Facts About Construction And Contractors

Subsidence is something that affects many houses due to different causes, but in all cases, it needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible. Subsidence means that the soil underneath your house is moving, and if nothing is done to fix it promptly, you need to do significant changes to your house's foundation. If you're house is suffering from subsidence, there are a few things you can try to do to fix it before calling in a contractor to have your house underpinned.

Leaking pipes

The first thing you should check if you start noticing signs of subsidence in your home is the pipes running through your building's foundation. Get underneath your house and examine all pipes for signs of leaking. Leaking pipes can change the properties of the soil that your house is standing on and thereby cause the subsidence. Have all leaking pipes fixed immediately. Wait for some time and see if the subsidence decreases when you've fixed the pipes. If it doesn't, you might need to call a professional to examine the foundation for you. Just remember that seasonal changes of the moisture levels in the earth can affect your house's condition as well, so if you notice the leaking pipe straight after a period of a lot of rain, you should give the soil a couple of months to dry up before you take any further actions.

Trees and bushes

If you can't discover any leaks in the pipes, you should examine the trees and bushes around your house. Plants sucking up the moisture from the soil underneath the house can also cause subsidence. If you have large trees close to your house, you should consider cutting them down to give the soil a chance to regain its normal levels of moisture. Cut down all larger plants close to your house and see if it stops the signs of subsidence in your house.

Underpinning

If neither of these things seems to be the problem, then it might be caused by the natural properties of the soil or by things beyond your control. Some sites are, for example, more prone to subsidence because of underground structures nearby. If this is the case, you need to call a professional and have house underpinning performed. This is an extensive procedure that is made to support the foundation of your house and rid it of the subsidence. House underpinning might take some time to have done, but afterwards, you won't have to worry about the state of the foundation of your house again.