Name: Diamond Certified Experts: Assessing Your Home's Foundation
Uploaded: 2015-07-31T18:52:46Z
Channel: Diamond Certified Resource

BRISBANE — Host, Sarah Rutan: To ensure earthquake safety, you’ll want to know the condition of your home’s foundation and whether it needs to be repaired or reinforced. Today we’re in Brisbane with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Christopher Wells of Christopher Wells Construction to learn more.
Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Christopher Wells: Hi. My tip is regarding concrete foundations in the San Francisco and North San Mateo County area. Most of the houses that I work on are in those areas, and they mostly have what we call perimeter foundations as opposed to a slab foundation.
Houses that were built in the early part of this &#8211; of the previous century &#8211; like the 1920’s and thirties &#8211; may have foundations where the builder used local materials, which was not a good thing. If they use local sand, it would have impurities in it, and that leads towards degradation of the concrete. They also probably didn’t use enough portland cement, which was very expensive in those days.
You can identify that if you go down into your basement, and take a hammer or a screw driver to your foundation, and try to scrape off pieces of your foundation. If you’re successful, that means you should probably call an engineer and have him look at the foundation, because you may need repair.
Another problem that we often see is differential settlement of the foundations. Because, in the old days, they didn’t build foundations with as large a footing as we use nowadays. So, the foundation components will sort of knife down through the ground. What you can do to look for that is keep an eye on the interior of your house for diagonal cracks in walls above doors and windows. And, if you find that a door or a window that has been functioning okay in the past suddenly gets jammed, shut, or won’t open, then you may have a settlement problem. And, you should also call an engineer for that.
Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.
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Christopher Wells, Owner of Christopher Wells Construction, Inc., a Diamond Certified company, gives some helpful tips on go down to your basement with a hammer or screwdriver and attempt to scrape off a piece of the foundation concrete.

Assessing Your Home's Foundation from Christopher Wells of Christopher Wells Construction, Inc.

with Christopher Wells of {BR} Christopher Wells Construction, Inc.

Video: Assessing Your Home's Foundation

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Diamond Certified Experts: Assessing Your Home's Foundation

Assessing Your Home's Foundation

to ensure earthquake safety you'll want
to know the condition of your home's
foundation and whether it needs to be
repaired or reinforced today we're in
Brisbane with diamond certified expert
contributor Christopher wells of
Christopher Wells construction to learn
more hi my tip is regarding concrete
foundations in the San Francisco and
north san mateo county area most of the
houses that I work on or in those areas
and they mostly have what we call
perimeter foundations as opposed to a
slab foundation houses that were built
in the early part of this of the
previous century like the 1920s and 30s
may have foundations where the Builder
used local materials which is not a good
thing if they use local sand it would
have impurities in it and that leads
towards degradation of the concrete they
also probably didn't use enough Portland
cement which was very expensive in those
days you can identify that if you go
down into your basement and take a
hammer or a screwdriver to your
foundation and try to try to scrape off
pieces of foundation if you're
successful that means you should
probably call an engineer and have him
look at the foundation because you may
near appare another problem that we
often see is differential settlement of
the foundations because in the old days
they didn't build foundations with as
large a footing as we use nowadays so
the foundation components will sort of
knife down through the ground what you
can do to look for that is keep an eye
on the interior of your house for
diagonal cracks in walls above doors and
windows and if you find that a door or a
window that has been functioning okay in
the past suddenly gets jammed shut or
open then you may have a settlement
problem and you should also call an
engineer for that to learn more from
local top-rated companies visit our
diamond certified expert reports at
experts Diamond Certified org

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