Shifting Soil Can Damage the Foundation of Your Oklahoma City Home

Unless you live in a seismically active area, you probably can't feel the earth move beneath your feet, but it does. And given enough time, that unfelt movement of shifting soil beneath your Oklahoma City home can have a damaging effect on your foundation and basement walls.

Too much sand in the soil composition will make the soil unstable. It may not hold together well under pressure and will shift as the pressure around it changes. Much of the cause for shifting soil in Oklahoma City is the seasonal change of the water content in the soil. During dry, arid spells, the soil loses its moisture and shrinks, then expands as it soaks up and retains moisture during the wetter months. Soil composed of a lot of organic matter will not compact sufficiently to hold the weight of a structure, especially as the matter decomposes.

When the soil beneath your home or business shifts, the inflexible concrete of your foundation also shifts, then cracks. You can see signs of foundation problems in your Oklahoma City home, both inside and outside. For instance:

• Diagonal cracks and separation in the corners of your interior drywall.
• Doors and windows become uneven and stick.
• Floorboards and wall trim no longer fit flush to the wall and buckle.
• Wooden floors sag and creak or feel "bouncy."
• Visible jagged or stair-stepped cracks in the foundation and masonry.
• The concrete has crumbled where the excessive water damage has compromised the ability of the concrete to withstand the external hydrostatic pressure.