Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 07/15/2026 Ask the Expert with Foster Foundation Repair

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07/15/2026 Ask the Expert with Foster Foundation Repair · WCHS Network Podcasts

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Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ADWCHS, it's
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Speaker 1: employees or WVRC Media, and.
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Speaker 2: It replies a good morning to you. You are listening
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Speaker 2: to Ask the Expert WCCHS, the Voice of Charleston. I'm
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Speaker 2: Dell Cooper. Thanks for tuning in on this absolutely gorgeous
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Speaker 2: Wednesday morning. It's going to be a hot one today,
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Speaker 2: temperature somewhere in the nineties, but it's going to be
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Speaker 2: clear and not much weather going to be in the area,
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Speaker 2: and it looks like it's going to be quite a
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Speaker 2: nice day. So good day for listening to the radio.
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Speaker 2: And we'll get your days started right here with Ask
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Speaker 2: the Expert. Joining me in studio this morning. Brett Hagen
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Speaker 2: is here. He is the owner of Foster Foundation Repair.
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Speaker 2: He's going to be having a discussion this morning, taking
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Speaker 2: your phone calls and your text if you have any
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Speaker 2: to talk about the foundation repair and issues around your home. Break.
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Speaker 2: Good morning. How are you doing this morning?
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Speaker 3: Doing very well?
1:06
Speaker 2: It is?
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Speaker 3: It is a beautiful morning, a beautiful week.
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Speaker 2: It is. I have no complaints about how things are
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Speaker 2: so far today, but there's all kinds of things that
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Speaker 2: we can get into this morning. It has been a
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Speaker 2: little bit wet around here that might either remind you
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Speaker 2: or maybe you've run into some issues around your property,
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Speaker 2: and I remind you residential or business some problems you
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Speaker 2: might have where you want to get a little bit
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Speaker 2: of some insight. You can give us a call this morning.
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Speaker 2: Three z are four three four five fifty to fifty eight.
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Speaker 2: You can also text over your questions to three z
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Speaker 2: are four non three five five zero zero eight. Threes
1:34
Speaker 2: are four nine three five five zero zero eight. I
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Speaker 2: think I had some text messages left over from last time.
1:38
Speaker 2: I look those up here in just a moment, but
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Speaker 2: before we get started, I thought it would be a
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Speaker 2: good time just to make sure that folks understand because
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Speaker 2: we segment off portions of your business and talk about
1:48
Speaker 2: those from time to time, but I want to make
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Speaker 2: sure folks have a nice overview of all the different
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Speaker 2: stuff that you do that includes, you know, from cross
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Speaker 2: space encapsulation to foundation repairing, things along those lines.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so foundation repair is of a broad term. There's
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Speaker 3: there's a lot of different aspects to it. There's a
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Speaker 3: lot of things that we do that some other companies
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Speaker 3: in the area don't the There's a lot of things
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Speaker 3: that we do that most every company does so, but yeah,
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Speaker 3: we are our Our bread and butter is residential foundation repair.
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Speaker 3: We definitely get into commercial work as well, but that
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Speaker 3: that is not our primary focus. There's just not as
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Speaker 3: much demand in the area for for for that industry,
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Speaker 3: in that industry.
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Speaker 2: Uh.
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Speaker 3: But but yeah, we we will stabilize foundations. If you
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Speaker 3: if you're unfortunate and you have a foundation issue that's
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Speaker 3: or a foundation that has settled uh or is suffering
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Speaker 3: from lateral displacement, we can address that. We will from
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Speaker 3: time much more rarely, but we will unfortunately have to
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Speaker 3: uh rebuild a foundation wall from time to time. We
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Speaker 3: finished one of those projects up maybe about a month
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Speaker 3: ago here in Charleston on the West Side, where we
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Speaker 3: had to support the house and rebuild two foundation walls.
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Speaker 3: One of the main things that this we we address
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Speaker 3: in this area's water, uh water infiltration. So we will
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Speaker 3: install waterproofing systems outside or water management systems inside to
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Speaker 3: that that keep the basement dry that well. With the waterproofing,
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Speaker 3: we keep the water out in general from the very
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Speaker 3: get go, and then with water management systems will will
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Speaker 3: collect it, collect the water and then remove it from
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Speaker 3: the house, either with a pomp or with gravity drains
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Speaker 3: or something of that nature. Cross spaces. WILL will do
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Speaker 3: general framing repairs UH in a crawl space if there's
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Speaker 3: been termite damage or or water related damage. And then
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Speaker 3: also in the crawl space, will we'll do an encapsulation,
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Speaker 3: which is a very nice uh upgrade to a to
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Speaker 3: a house in a crawl space. It really improves the
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Speaker 3: UH indoor air quality in a house.
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Speaker 2: So and that and those are and you can go
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Speaker 2: to your website and you have a whole menu of
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Speaker 2: different types of things that you do where it downs
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Speaker 2: down into specifics of some of these things. And generally speaking,
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Speaker 2: this is something that if folks want to contract or services,
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Speaker 2: you can give you a call right away. You get
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Speaker 2: on a schedule for an estimate, and then your work
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Speaker 2: comes as as as as it comes, depending when the
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Speaker 2: time of year and things along those lines. Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, certain projects are are not winter winter projects. Dig outs,
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Speaker 3: foundation water big excavations where we're waterproofing a foundation, we
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Speaker 3: tend to not well, We do not do those in
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Speaker 3: the winter. We try to do those in the summer
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Speaker 3: months when there's less like less likelihood of rain just
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Speaker 3: really compounds, makes it more difficult, extends the project out.
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Speaker 3: We also we also get into a lot of drainage improvements,
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Speaker 3: French drains, down down spout drains. We have a lot
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Speaker 3: of aging homes with aging drain systems, which really, even
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Speaker 3: in new construction are probably one of the most overlooked
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Speaker 3: aspects of the of the build is the drain in
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Speaker 3: ground drains that manage the surface the storm water, which
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Speaker 3: is ultimately what what typically will will end up causing
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Speaker 3: an issue with the foundation. We will get into some
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Speaker 3: new construction, typically we're going to get the house too,
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Speaker 3: or whatever the addition is or whatever it might be,
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Speaker 3: to a point and then hand it off to other
5:09
Speaker 3: contractors that might install drywall, electrical and all those those
5:12
Speaker 3: kind of things. And the last thing we probably the
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Speaker 3: big thing that we we build or repair our retaining walls.
5:21
Speaker 3: We have a lot of retaining walls in this area.
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Speaker 3: Uh we don't We don't really do a whole lot
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Speaker 3: with stone walls. Those that's a kind of an art
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Speaker 3: form that that is a very specialty, uh specialty work
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Speaker 3: that we do not address. And there's not a lot
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Speaker 3: that can be done to quote repair them. It's typically
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Speaker 3: if there's a failed issue, that's typically going to be
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Speaker 3: a partial rebuild or a full rebuild. If it's a rebuild,
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Speaker 3: we can we can certainly rebuild a new wall of
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Speaker 3: some other of some other method or style of the stone. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: it's that's an art form and and really it's it's
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Speaker 3: hard to find anybody that will work on them. I'd
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Speaker 3: love if there's anybody out here listening that does stone
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Speaker 3: retaining walls. I'd love to have a cover station with
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Speaker 3: you so I can refer to you and we have
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Speaker 3: projects that do need that work and that would be helpful.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, send us a text. We can send your information
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Speaker 2: over to Brett. That's three zero four nine three five
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Speaker 2: five zers or eight threes or four nine three five
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Speaker 2: five zers or eight be glad to do that. May
6:13
Speaker 2: you never know, MA make a connection online those things,
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Speaker 2: those things work out. You're welcome to give us a
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Speaker 2: call this morning if you have any questions as well.
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Speaker 2: Three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
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Speaker 2: Three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
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Speaker 2: You can find out more information online Foster Foundation Repair
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Speaker 2: dot com. That's Foster Foundation repair dot com and the
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Speaker 2: phone number is threes are four seven seven six sixty
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Speaker 2: two sixty three. We'll give those that information out a
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Speaker 2: little bit more again later on so you can get
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Speaker 2: all the information down. I did have one left over
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Speaker 2: text from last time that we didn't get to. Where
6:41
Speaker 2: did it go? Here? I just had it and then
6:44
Speaker 2: I scrolled up and lost it again. Oh, here we go.
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Speaker 2: This is from the six eight one five to one two.
6:53
Speaker 2: This is from last time. So listen caller. I hope
6:55
Speaker 2: you're still listening. We have water that comes through a
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Speaker 2: crack in the basement when it rains really hard. A
6:59
Speaker 2: company quoted us an interior drain system. Is that the
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Speaker 2: right fix for us? Or should we get a second opinion?
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Speaker 3: Always a second opinion. An interior foundation drain is a
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Speaker 3: very is a is a good product. We install them.
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Speaker 3: They are are They will probably likely be sold to
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Speaker 3: you as a water proofing system by many in the industry.
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Speaker 3: But they are a water management system, so we are
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Speaker 3: when we install this type of system, we are addressing
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Speaker 3: a symptom of another problem. The concern I have and
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Speaker 3: I'm always considering when when we're looking at installing a
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Speaker 3: water management system is the is the water outside the
7:40
Speaker 3: building can result or can cause a foundation issue, can
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Speaker 3: create excess lateral pressure on the foundation causing the water bow,
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Speaker 3: or it can it can soften the soil, allowing the
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Speaker 3: foundation to settle. So when when considering if that's the
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Speaker 3: most appropriate method, especially if you have a crack which
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Speaker 3: suggests the foundation is moved, we we certainly need to
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Speaker 3: feel very confident that we will not need to do
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Speaker 3: foundation repairs later because if if that's the case, uh,
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Speaker 3: then some other considerations need to be made. Maybe outside
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Speaker 3: there needs to be some some drain of drainage improvements performed. UH.
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Speaker 3: So these the risk is is lowered. But there there
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Speaker 3: are also various ways in interior foundation drain can be installed.
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Speaker 3: The way we install it is is very is very
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Speaker 3: different than than some others in the industry, and I
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Speaker 3: would caution that there are ways, uh the the way
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Speaker 3: a lot of companies will install it, there is risk
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Speaker 3: of creating a foundation problem that does not exist at
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Speaker 3: the moment, and that the essentially you can compromise the
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Speaker 3: support of the foundation in the way certain certain certain
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Speaker 3: companies install it these drains. So just something to be
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Speaker 3: very careful if ever that is the direction being recommended.
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Speaker 3: I'm of course I wouldn't be happy to have a
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Speaker 3: conversation and uh take a look at and provide your mindput.
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Speaker 2: That's great information and something that it's always worth getting
9:13
Speaker 2: a follow up one and having someone get a second opinion.
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Speaker 2: And Brett doesn't mind that at all, that you encourage
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Speaker 2: those types of things and for folks to be as
9:21
Speaker 2: educated as possible before they make their decisions. So he
9:23
Speaker 2: would be happy to be your your first estimate, your
9:26
Speaker 2: your follow up estimate, whatever it might be. There's no
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Speaker 2: problem with that.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, we did free estimates. Also, I think if you know,
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Speaker 3: if you're getting multiple opinions from multiple contractors. I just
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Speaker 3: gave this advice yesterday. I think it's important to contact
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Speaker 3: a third party engineer because the property I was at
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Speaker 3: yesterday had already been repaired about a decade ago, and
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Speaker 3: now they were suffering some additional cracks. And the company
9:54
Speaker 3: that was was out there last week or whenever they
9:57
Speaker 3: were out to give another estimate had some some recommendations
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Speaker 3: to which in some of those which I agreed with,
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Speaker 3: and then some of those I didn't, And then they weren't.
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Speaker 3: They weren't addressing the wall that was previously repaired that
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Speaker 3: was still moving. So certainly, and at that point, I
10:13
Speaker 3: feel it's very important. I don't want to always at
10:17
Speaker 3: that point I wanted to recommend an engineer, because I'm
10:20
Speaker 3: essentially going back on a different company that had already
10:22
Speaker 3: done a repair saying that that product wasn't performing. And
10:27
Speaker 3: at that point, I think it's appropriate to have a
10:28
Speaker 3: second opinion and somebody that's doesn't have any skin in
10:32
Speaker 3: the game when it comes to the repair side of
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Speaker 3: the process.
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Speaker 2: In your opinion. One of the unique things that we
10:37
Speaker 2: have in this area is we have a lot of
10:39
Speaker 2: stock around here, like mid nineteen hundred's houses that people
10:43
Speaker 2: live in, they reconditioned sell I mean, you know, these
10:45
Speaker 2: things have been in our ecosystem of home ownership or
10:49
Speaker 2: renting or whatever it might be forever. If you're looking
10:52
Speaker 2: to buy one of these homes and for all intents
10:55
Speaker 2: and purpose, it seems like it's in good shape, but
10:57
Speaker 2: it was built in the fifties or the forties or
10:59
Speaker 2: something along those lines, and so that means over the
11:02
Speaker 2: years people have there's had to be some sort of
11:04
Speaker 2: repairs done, some sort of fixes or extensions built. Something
11:08
Speaker 2: along those lines is that a case where you would
11:10
Speaker 2: recommend for someone to take a look at that, an
11:12
Speaker 2: inspector to look at that, regardless, for someone to come,
11:15
Speaker 2: an engineer to look at it, regardless, for a foundation expert.
11:18
Speaker 2: I mean, what should your level of concern be on
11:20
Speaker 2: a home that's like that, that's maybe only sold a
11:23
Speaker 2: few times in the last thirty or forty years.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I definitely think it's wise to have
11:27
Speaker 3: somebody look at it periodically. The mid century homes that
11:31
Speaker 3: we have, they were typically constructed with terra cotta drain pipes.
11:35
Speaker 3: Most of those are long past their expected life expectancy. Also,
11:41
Speaker 3: the foundations, for example, basement foundation walls were typically built
11:44
Speaker 3: as unreinforced concrete masonry unit walls, which have very little
11:49
Speaker 3: lateral strength when it comes to lateral earth and water pressure.
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Speaker 3: And that's why we have so many walls that are
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Speaker 3: boeing or overturning that need to be addressed. So, yeah,
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Speaker 3: those and the other thing is we've got if the
12:03
Speaker 3: house is fifty sixty, seventy years old, it probably has
12:06
Speaker 3: mature trees that are have over the years discharged or
12:11
Speaker 3: dumped leaves and acorns and all that into the gutters.
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Speaker 3: And all that ends up washing down the pipes. And
12:17
Speaker 3: we're going to when I leave here, I'm going to
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Speaker 3: do a drain inspection up on up in South Hills.
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Speaker 3: We've already done some drain repairs on the front half
12:24
Speaker 3: of the house. We're going to look at the perform
12:26
Speaker 3: a drain inspection on the back half to see what
12:31
Speaker 3: can be done to address other issues that this customer
12:34
Speaker 3: is having. And that's one thing that is very important.
12:38
Speaker 3: As drain inspection. We do them on a limited basis.
12:42
Speaker 3: There's not really many people doing drain inspections regularly here
12:45
Speaker 3: regularly in our region, but they are. There's a there's
12:50
Speaker 3: a need for people to know the condition of their
12:52
Speaker 3: en ground drains, especially a pre purchase like during the
12:56
Speaker 3: home inspection type drained inspection. Those are drain and you
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Speaker 3: failed drains can result in major foundation issues and a
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Speaker 3: decent expense when it comes to having to replace them.
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Speaker 2: And those can be specifically you may not necessarily recognize
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Speaker 2: a problem on the surface if there's a if there's
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Speaker 2: a problem with the draining issues, so that's something that's
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Speaker 2: worth getting checked out.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean typically so going to show up
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Speaker 3: as water entry in a basement or a you know,
13:22
Speaker 3: some sort of foundation movement. I mean, that's that is
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Speaker 3: the mother of all causes of foundation movement. Is the
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Speaker 3: water too much or too little?
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Speaker 2: And yeah, that's the uh of course we need it,
13:32
Speaker 2: but that's also the enemy of everything, it seems like
13:34
Speaker 2: when it comes to your home and just how that
13:36
Speaker 2: thing is like a living organism. We talk a lot
13:39
Speaker 2: about the foundation, repair, the concrete, the block walls, the
13:42
Speaker 2: base of the house and things like that, but in
13:44
Speaker 2: order to fix those things sometimes there has to encroach
13:48
Speaker 2: onto the structure itself. From toime to tom when it
13:51
Speaker 2: comes to structure damage being done or that you see
13:55
Speaker 2: during the course of estimating for a repair or evaluating
13:58
Speaker 2: a project, is that something you guys also will help
14:02
Speaker 2: with with any sort of structural issues?
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Speaker 3: So yeah, this I mean, are are you like drywall fixes?
14:07
Speaker 2: Is that yeah? Or just yeah, like any yeah, anything
14:10
Speaker 2: along the lines of the house. I'm I'm really just
14:12
Speaker 2: fishing here, so I'm not I'm trying to think about
14:14
Speaker 2: what somebody that's contracting that runs into issues like, Okay,
14:17
Speaker 2: I have these issues, and I have some issues that
14:19
Speaker 2: are within the house structurally speaking, with the framing of
14:21
Speaker 2: the house. Or whatever it might be.
14:22
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll address the framing. If there's
14:25
Speaker 3: a failing beam or joist, or maybe somebody wants to
14:29
Speaker 3: take out a bearing wall, well we can. We can
14:31
Speaker 3: certainly address this the interior framing components of a house
14:37
Speaker 3: or a deck. I just we just finished an estimate
14:39
Speaker 3: this this morning for a deck in Charles and that's
14:41
Speaker 3: about twenty feet off the ground. It's going to be
14:43
Speaker 3: a very difficult repair. It's up in the up in
14:46
Speaker 3: the Greenbriar Street area. It's a very tall deck. So yeah,
14:51
Speaker 3: we do all kinds of different framing and structural repairs
14:55
Speaker 3: inside outside crawl spaces. Addicts that that that house had
14:59
Speaker 3: an attic own it that some of the there are
15:01
Speaker 3: some issues with the reof framing, uh that that we're
15:03
Speaker 3: going to address.
15:04
Speaker 2: As well, and things like sagging floors and stuff like
15:07
Speaker 2: that to diagnose the problem and figure out how the
15:10
Speaker 2: how those might need fixed. Yep.
15:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll come in during the inspection process or the
15:14
Speaker 3: estimating process, will come in and basically I'm going to
15:18
Speaker 3: let the homeowner tell me where they're having concerns. We'll
15:21
Speaker 3: focus on on that specific concern and then anything else
15:25
Speaker 3: that that that I may see will will address with
15:27
Speaker 3: them and at least make them aware of it and
15:31
Speaker 3: see if that's something they want to work on or
15:33
Speaker 3: estimate on at this point. But uh, yeah, so we're
15:37
Speaker 3: going to come in. We're going to focus on what
15:39
Speaker 3: what what issues you are having. If it is a
15:42
Speaker 3: sagging floor, we're going to identify the cause and then
15:47
Speaker 3: the typically the various repairs or or in some cases
15:53
Speaker 3: we won't repair anything. It's just one of those things
15:55
Speaker 3: where it it may be too intrusive and the risk
15:58
Speaker 3: of any type of failure or damage that kind of
16:02
Speaker 3: the risk does not outweigh the or the I guess
16:06
Speaker 3: the cost outweighs the risk in that case. I can
16:10
Speaker 3: remember how where we had that situation in Tays Valley
16:13
Speaker 3: not long ago. But yeah, so.
16:20
Speaker 2: One of the things I had started along that question
16:22
Speaker 2: as I ran across. Every once in a while, I'll
16:23
Speaker 2: try to find questions that people ask online or something
16:26
Speaker 2: like that that I think that might be an interesting
16:28
Speaker 2: question for us to address one here. And I ran
16:30
Speaker 2: across one that I think was on a Reddit post
16:32
Speaker 2: for home improvement, but it had to do with a
16:35
Speaker 2: guy that had noticed one day he had been living
16:38
Speaker 2: in a house for just short of two years, and
16:39
Speaker 2: he noticed one day when he was cooking breakfast that
16:42
Speaker 2: the oil was all rolling into like one side of
16:44
Speaker 2: his pan, which previously hadn't been doing before. So it
16:47
Speaker 2: seemed like his stove was uneven. So he immediately went
16:51
Speaker 2: to get a balance for his floor, which he, I
16:53
Speaker 2: guess had never done before, and he noticed that there
16:55
Speaker 2: was a grade of some sort in his floor in
16:57
Speaker 2: the same direction. The thing that he doesn't know is
16:59
Speaker 2: he never put a balance on the floor before, so
17:01
Speaker 2: he doesn't know if the stove somehow or another settled
17:03
Speaker 2: down in the and the h and the balance of
17:06
Speaker 2: the stove it self dropped, or if something happened in
17:08
Speaker 2: the foundation of his house within those relatively short amount
17:11
Speaker 2: of time that would cause like for him to be
17:13
Speaker 2: able to notice the oil when he's cooking food or
17:15
Speaker 2: something like that. And he was having a little bit
17:17
Speaker 2: of an existential crisis, like, I have no idea if
17:18
Speaker 2: this is something that just happened, if I just noticed that,
17:20
Speaker 2: what the deal is with it? What should I do
17:22
Speaker 2: about it? And I was like, well, it seems like
17:24
Speaker 2: that there's a there would be a way to evaluate
17:26
Speaker 2: that sort of problem you know, if he were actually
17:28
Speaker 2: having one.
17:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say Normally these things develop over periods
17:32
Speaker 3: of time and not in a short, you know, very
17:36
Speaker 3: short period of times. Certainly, a foundation issue of like settlement,
17:40
Speaker 3: if if a corner of the foundation has been unsupported
17:43
Speaker 3: by the soil, maybe at some point the weight of
17:46
Speaker 3: the structure finally it surpasses the strength of the footing
17:51
Speaker 3: and it breaks kind of all in all of a
17:53
Speaker 3: sudden fashion. But typically these things are very long term,
17:56
Speaker 3: slow developing processes, and then those situations, you know, will
18:02
Speaker 3: evaluate and typically we're going to be able to tell
18:04
Speaker 3: you what the problem, well, we would be able to
18:05
Speaker 3: tell you what the problem is and what the fix is, uh,
18:08
Speaker 3: whether it's the water damage or the termites or uh.
18:11
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's an offset bearing wall.
18:13
Speaker 2: Uh.
18:13
Speaker 3: So there's there's weight from above being applied to maybe
18:16
Speaker 3: the wall behind the stove that is causing that that
18:20
Speaker 3: floor system that sag in that area, and we'll be
18:22
Speaker 3: able to identify that. And and typically it's in a
18:26
Speaker 3: situation like that, it is it's a reinforcement, either adding
18:30
Speaker 3: additional beams and footings or additional choice or something of
18:34
Speaker 3: that nature. A really good time for uh, for a
18:39
Speaker 3: person to get an evaluation on a house is is
18:41
Speaker 3: before any any planned remodels, because typically a remodel like
18:45
Speaker 3: a kitchen or a bathroom, UH, normally that's going to
18:48
Speaker 3: end up with additional weight being added to the floor
18:50
Speaker 3: because typical products that are installed to there are going
18:54
Speaker 3: to be heavier than than of the past. We get
18:57
Speaker 3: a lot of stone countertops and and the time to address,
19:01
Speaker 3: you know, any any deficiencies is before this new these
19:04
Speaker 3: new materials are installed. I looked at a house maybe
19:09
Speaker 3: two weeks ago in which they did a pretty pretty
19:12
Speaker 3: significant bathroom remodel. Added a lot of weight, but they
19:15
Speaker 3: installed everything to the floor as it was sloped, and
19:19
Speaker 3: at that point they wanted after this was all done,
19:22
Speaker 3: they added this weight, they started getting some additional cracking
19:25
Speaker 3: and noticed the sloping floors more so than they ever
19:29
Speaker 3: had before. The problem is is for us now to
19:32
Speaker 3: come in and lift it back to level, we would
19:35
Speaker 3: end up damaging all that new new material installed. So
19:39
Speaker 3: before any planned remodels is a very wise time to
19:42
Speaker 3: have someone competent UH an engineer to come out and
19:47
Speaker 3: evaluate the building and say, yeah, your your your floor
19:53
Speaker 3: system is is adequate to support the new loads that
19:55
Speaker 3: are going to be applied.
19:57
Speaker 2: I have great information has always bread Hashen is here
19:59
Speaker 2: owner a foster fe foundation for fair. You give us
20:01
Speaker 2: a call this morning. Three zer a four three four
20:02
Speaker 2: five fifty eight fifty eight three four five fifty eight
20:04
Speaker 2: fifty eight. You can text threes are four none, three five,
20:05
Speaker 2: five ers or eight to have a couple of texts
20:07
Speaker 2: that came in. I'm going to get one here before
20:09
Speaker 2: we go to the break. We'll take our break and
20:10
Speaker 2: come back with the next. This one I wanted to
20:12
Speaker 2: get out because I think I don't know if it
20:14
Speaker 2: was last show or the show before last. We had
20:15
Speaker 2: a we had a question about this right before we
20:18
Speaker 2: left the air. So I want to make sure that
20:19
Speaker 2: we've got the information out there. Six eight one two
20:22
Speaker 2: nine four. We want to fixed income and just found
20:24
Speaker 2: out we likely have a foundation problem. Is there any
20:26
Speaker 2: financing available? And how does it work? So I just
20:29
Speaker 2: bring that up because I didn't know in all the
20:30
Speaker 2: years we've been doing the show together, you guys do
20:33
Speaker 2: offer do provide at least an option for financing if
20:36
Speaker 2: somebody needs to look that way.
20:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we have we have I guess we're partnered.
20:41
Speaker 3: I don't know exactly how it works. This is my
20:43
Speaker 3: wife's department, but we we do have a financing option
20:46
Speaker 3: through Green Sky. Of course there are we've touched base
20:50
Speaker 3: with Huntington Bank. They have a unsecured financing option for
20:54
Speaker 3: home renovations. There's always the home equity line of credit.
20:58
Speaker 3: So yes, we're there. We do have financing options. The
21:02
Speaker 3: Green Sky is an unsecured financing options, so it basically
21:07
Speaker 3: you're not putting up any collateral like your house or anything.
21:10
Speaker 3: So the rates tend to be higher than if you
21:12
Speaker 3: were to go with like a home equity line of
21:14
Speaker 3: credit in most cases. But yes, we do have financing options.
21:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's something to keep in mind. And just
21:21
Speaker 2: as somebody that worked on the mortgage side of that,
21:23
Speaker 2: these are not unusual types of loans or anything. I
21:25
Speaker 2: mean you can find an option either through through Foster
21:28
Speaker 2: Foundation Repair and the financeswers are very used to these
21:31
Speaker 2: types of work. I mean they know exactly what's going
21:34
Speaker 2: on here, so they can work with you to get
21:36
Speaker 2: these types of things done. For sure. If that's something
21:38
Speaker 2: you need to look into, let's do this. Let's go
21:40
Speaker 2: ahead and take our break. When we come back, we
21:41
Speaker 2: have one more text question before we get to some
21:43
Speaker 2: more conversation today. This has to do with patios. It
21:45
Speaker 2: has to do with patios, So if you have any questions,
21:47
Speaker 2: you can give us a call three zer a four
21:48
Speaker 2: three four five fifty eight fifty eight three four five
21:50
Speaker 2: fifty eight fifty eight. You can text threes are a
21:51
Speaker 2: four non three five five zero zero eight. Will take
21:54
Speaker 2: a break and be back right after this. You're listening
21:56
Speaker 2: to ask the Expert with Bret Hashton from Foster Foundation Repair.
21:59
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23:01
Speaker 2: Do you're listening to. That's the expert five adw chs,
23:16
Speaker 2: the Voice of Charles and thanks for tuning in and
23:18
Speaker 2: starting your day on the Voice of Charles and five
23:20
Speaker 2: adw chs. Hope you have your cup of coffee, or
23:22
Speaker 2: you're driving into work, or maybe you're already there and
23:24
Speaker 2: listening at your desk wherever you are, Thanks for tuning
23:27
Speaker 2: in this morning. Brad Hotchen is here. He is the
23:28
Speaker 2: owner of Foster Foundation Repair Online, Foster Foundation Rerepair dot com,
23:33
Speaker 2: Foster Foundation Repair dot Com. Their number is three zero
23:35
Speaker 2: four seven seven six sixty two sixty three seven seven
23:38
Speaker 2: six sixty two sixty three. However, you can call us
23:40
Speaker 2: this morning at three zero four three four five fifty
23:42
Speaker 2: eight fifty eight three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
23:44
Speaker 2: You can also text three zero four none three five
23:46
Speaker 2: five zero zero eight, And that is what the three
23:48
Speaker 2: zero four seven six one did. My patio is pulling
23:52
Speaker 2: away from the back of the house and there is
23:53
Speaker 2: a gap forming. Could that be related to foundation movement
23:57
Speaker 2: or just normal concrete movement?
23:59
Speaker 3: So I would say it depends like like always. I
24:03
Speaker 3: actually looked at a house that was the description that
24:06
Speaker 3: was given to me from our admin UH, that their
24:09
Speaker 3: patio was pulling away, and and really what it was
24:11
Speaker 3: it was a It was a concrete slab at the
24:14
Speaker 3: back of the house. It was at at the elevation
24:18
Speaker 3: of the main floor, and there was a full basement below.
24:21
Speaker 3: And what was actually happening in that case is the
24:23
Speaker 3: basement wall was being pushed in by the soil UH
24:29
Speaker 3: and also the water. The patio was actually sloped toward
24:32
Speaker 3: it was pulled away, but it had sloped. There was
24:34
Speaker 3: a separation between the patio and the wall, but the
24:37
Speaker 3: patio was sloped toward the house. So water is being
24:39
Speaker 3: directed that toward the foundation. So what it was ultimately
24:42
Speaker 3: happening is all the pressure from the water and the
24:44
Speaker 3: soil was pushing the wall away from the patio. So
24:47
Speaker 3: it just depends. Certainly, it depends on the type of patio.
24:51
Speaker 3: There's a lot of a lot of different descriptions of
24:55
Speaker 3: what a patio might be. Uh, it could be that
24:58
Speaker 3: the patio is if it's a slab on ger that
25:00
Speaker 3: it is just literally settled away from the foundation, or
25:04
Speaker 3: if it's an elevated patio that it has pulled away,
25:06
Speaker 3: that the foundation supports have settled and it's pulling away.
25:10
Speaker 3: But if it's a slab on grade and you've got
25:12
Speaker 3: a basement, a lot of times that separation is from
25:15
Speaker 3: the back wall bowing inward or being pushed inward, and
25:19
Speaker 3: a lot of times when you see that kind of movement,
25:21
Speaker 3: the entire house is sort of raked toward the front.
25:25
Speaker 3: There's there's the pressure on the back is then transferred
25:28
Speaker 3: into the the floor system, the main floor, and it's
25:31
Speaker 3: it pushes right through the front of the house, which
25:33
Speaker 3: will oftentimes cause stairstep cracks on the sidewalls near the
25:37
Speaker 3: front of the house. So very common.
25:40
Speaker 2: That makes extend that out just a little bit. We
25:41
Speaker 2: were talking about patios. Let's talk about driveways and things
25:44
Speaker 2: along those lines. Is there any like quick and dirty
25:46
Speaker 2: rule as far as you know, driveways are going to crack.
25:49
Speaker 2: I think that that happens without it being a pardon me,
25:51
Speaker 2: without it being a major structural issue. Is there any
25:53
Speaker 2: quick and dirty rule that the type of cracks or
25:55
Speaker 2: types of cracking or quickness or something like that that
25:58
Speaker 2: somebody might see and be like, Okay, well maybe this
25:59
Speaker 2: could be a problem. So not so much.
26:01
Speaker 3: In concrete. A lot of times that's caused by freezing
26:04
Speaker 3: and thawing or expansion and contraction of the soil poor subgrade.
26:09
Speaker 3: I mean, most concrete slabs that we tear out are
26:12
Speaker 3: sitting right on dirt. There's no gravel, there's no no
26:16
Speaker 3: drainage concept of drainage provided for them. So normally concrete
26:21
Speaker 3: cracks exterior are are not related to foundation movement. Roots.
26:27
Speaker 3: Roots can certainly heave a concrete sidewalk or driveway and
26:31
Speaker 3: cause it to crack cracks and say a basement floor
26:37
Speaker 3: tend that's kind of a Sometimes it is evidence of
26:42
Speaker 3: foundation movement, sometimes it's not. It really just depends on
26:44
Speaker 3: the scenario, and that just requires a full evaluation of
26:49
Speaker 3: everything else to put those cracks in the perspective.
26:52
Speaker 2: Same thing with like a garage floor where you're parking
26:55
Speaker 2: your truck or whatever all the time and some cracking
26:57
Speaker 2: develops there.
26:58
Speaker 3: Yes, so most most garage floor basement floors in our
27:02
Speaker 3: area are what are called a floating slab. So when
27:06
Speaker 3: the house is being built, they pour the footing, they
27:09
Speaker 3: build the block walls, and then sometime down the road
27:12
Speaker 3: they come in and pour concrete inside the foundation. So
27:17
Speaker 3: the typically the slab is not a structural component, except
27:20
Speaker 3: for say the basement stairs or the basement walls. That's
27:27
Speaker 3: I would say most common. Now there are actual structural slabs.
27:31
Speaker 3: There are monolithic slabs that we do run in two
27:33
Speaker 3: from time to time. I don't know the percentage, but
27:37
Speaker 3: I would say less than five percent of homes in
27:39
Speaker 3: our area would be a monolithic slab. And then there
27:43
Speaker 3: are certain times when the contractor when it's being built,
27:47
Speaker 3: will either put your basement support posts on just the
27:51
Speaker 3: four inch lab, which would not be a good practice,
27:54
Speaker 3: or maybe they'll they'll dig it into enlarged area out
27:57
Speaker 3: where the post is supposed to be and do it
28:00
Speaker 3: can slab at each post, So sometimes there are the
28:03
Speaker 3: slab is structural, but probably more often than not, your
28:06
Speaker 3: typical say mid entry house or something like that, that's
28:08
Speaker 3: typically not going to be a structural slab, so cracking
28:12
Speaker 3: of that nature. It can be caused by a foundation
28:14
Speaker 3: of movement, but oftentimes it's a shrinkage, crack or a
28:17
Speaker 3: settlement of the supporting soil of the slab only.
28:21
Speaker 2: And that's where these things really and that's why it's
28:23
Speaker 2: great to get to get somebody either to give you
28:25
Speaker 2: an estimate or you've mentioned many times on this on
28:28
Speaker 2: this show before that estimates don't always lead to recommendations,
28:31
Speaker 2: and sometimes, hey, there's not really much we can do here.
28:34
Speaker 2: This is just cosmetic. Probably the the fix isn't worth
28:37
Speaker 2: the effort, whatever it might be. You'll be honest about
28:40
Speaker 2: those things.
28:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, that actually that was the happen that happened yesterday
28:44
Speaker 3: the individuals having water entry that she described it as
28:48
Speaker 3: tracking in uh into the basement where there were utilities
28:53
Speaker 3: penetrating the wall. The house had already the house had
28:56
Speaker 3: actually been flipped by a local contractor, UH, and they'd
28:59
Speaker 3: already done an interior. Your foundation drain system in the
29:02
Speaker 3: entire basement didn't look bad. It wasn't We didn't do it,
29:04
Speaker 3: but it looked like a pretty good system. But my
29:07
Speaker 3: focus was this water entry concern. So we went out
29:10
Speaker 3: and looked outside and she definitely had drainage issues. The
29:13
Speaker 3: concrete patty was sloping toward the house, but the penetration
29:17
Speaker 3: where the water was coming in and it probably had
29:19
Speaker 3: two inches was elevated two inches above where the water
29:22
Speaker 3: entree was occurring, so it was pretty unlikely it was
29:23
Speaker 3: the patio. Ultimately, what it was is this house had
29:27
Speaker 3: vinyl siding, and the vinyl siding has a component called
29:30
Speaker 3: J channel at the bottom and it's it will collect water,
29:34
Speaker 3: but typically or the J channel is supposed to have
29:37
Speaker 3: holes in it that let the water drain out or
29:40
Speaker 3: it drains to the ends of that J channel, So
29:43
Speaker 3: it's literally if you can imagine a J, it's shaped
29:45
Speaker 3: like a J. But what was happening is water was
29:49
Speaker 3: collecting in that jay and it was being diverted the
29:51
Speaker 3: way the sighting was installed, that J channel was installed,
29:54
Speaker 3: it had a slight pitch toward the house, so that
29:56
Speaker 3: water was being directed to a corner where water was
30:00
Speaker 3: all building up where that penetration was. So in this case,
30:05
Speaker 3: My recommendation her to her was just drill some holes
30:08
Speaker 3: in the J channel the bottom of the Jay channel
30:09
Speaker 3: to let the water drip out, and snip the J
30:13
Speaker 3: channel at the end where the water was accumulating to
30:15
Speaker 3: give it a path out so it was not accumulating. So, yeah,
30:18
Speaker 3: it was a home owner or something the home owner
30:20
Speaker 3: should be able to fix with, you know, a typical
30:23
Speaker 3: little toolbox that most people own.
30:26
Speaker 2: That's a great tip. And yeah, and something along those
30:28
Speaker 2: lines really gives the homeowners some peace of mind. And
30:31
Speaker 2: as a homewner, I always like when I can do
30:33
Speaker 2: something myself that's kind of you know, gathering it up,
30:35
Speaker 2: you know, where I can kind of fix it and
30:36
Speaker 2: feel pretty good about it. So I mean, that's that's
30:38
Speaker 2: a great recommendation. And again that's just something that you
30:40
Speaker 2: offered after coming out to take a look at it.
30:42
Speaker 3: Yep, yep, there's no charge for that, that estimate or
30:44
Speaker 3: you know, those recommendations that we were out there to
30:47
Speaker 3: look at see if there's something we can we can
30:49
Speaker 3: help someone with, and if there's not, then then we
30:52
Speaker 3: tell them what to do and hopefully that helps.
30:54
Speaker 2: You still have time to get in this morning, if
30:55
Speaker 2: you have any questions of your own threes or four none,
30:58
Speaker 2: three five fives. Here was your eight of our tax
31:00
Speaker 2: lin number. Threes are four nine, three, five, five zeros
31:02
Speaker 2: or eight. You can also give us a call this morning.
31:03
Speaker 2: Three zerre a four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
31:05
Speaker 2: Threes are a four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
31:08
Speaker 2: One surface that I had. I had this from my
31:10
Speaker 2: notes from the last show that we did, and we
31:11
Speaker 2: didn't get around to talking about it, and I don't
31:13
Speaker 2: remember us talking a lot about it. But a service
31:16
Speaker 2: that's listened on your website talking about house leveling. What
31:18
Speaker 2: is house leveling?
31:20
Speaker 3: So that would be if you if you've had sagging
31:22
Speaker 3: floor or something.
31:22
Speaker 2: Okay, So that's sort of what we talked about.
31:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, So a lot of houses in Taye Valley were
31:27
Speaker 3: built with compressible wood shims that were placed between the
31:31
Speaker 3: beam and the post. And that's because when the house
31:34
Speaker 3: was built, they weren't shooting it with a laser or
31:37
Speaker 3: a level to make sure the top of their foundations
31:40
Speaker 3: were perfectly level, so they would use these compressible wood
31:42
Speaker 3: shims to level it when they were actually building the
31:46
Speaker 3: floor system. But as the house was built, more weight
31:48
Speaker 3: was added, people moved in, those shims started to crush.
31:52
Speaker 3: So in that case we can come in and lift it,
31:54
Speaker 3: level it, reshim it with a steel plate so it
31:56
Speaker 3: won't it won't compress. Again, pretty pretty basic concept. I
32:01
Speaker 3: mean we will lift, we can lift and level with
32:03
Speaker 3: say the foundation when when there's been settlement of the
32:06
Speaker 3: perimeter foundation walls, we will uh, we will lift. When
32:11
Speaker 3: lift and level it, typically the goal is to close
32:13
Speaker 3: a crack, or maybe it's settled at a door opening
32:18
Speaker 3: and the door no longer works correctly, or in those
32:21
Speaker 3: scenarios we're trying to lift it to make the door
32:24
Speaker 3: functional once again, not necessarily make the house level or
32:29
Speaker 3: even on a flat plane, which are different concepts, but essentially, yes,
32:34
Speaker 3: we can. We can lift it, level it to the
32:35
Speaker 3: extent it makes sense without creating other issues. And there's
32:41
Speaker 3: there is some risk with lifting the leveling and that
32:43
Speaker 3: that we we do address that with clients because when
32:47
Speaker 3: when a house settles, say it has brick veneer or
32:50
Speaker 3: a concrete block foundation, debris has broken off and fallen
32:53
Speaker 3: into those cracks. So when you start to lift and level,
32:57
Speaker 3: there is some you can end up kind of the
32:59
Speaker 3: crack does want to necessarily want to go back to
33:01
Speaker 3: fully closed. It won't do that every time unless some
33:05
Speaker 3: pretty extreme steps are taken, like grinding out the entire
33:09
Speaker 3: mortar joint and then took pointed at when it's done,
33:12
Speaker 3: which can all be done, but unfortunately, by the time
33:15
Speaker 3: the foundation is stabilized and repair, that's typically enough money spent.
33:19
Speaker 2: So if you have inquiries or you want to follow
33:21
Speaker 2: up on any of these questions and topics that we
33:23
Speaker 2: talk about this morning, you could give Foster Foundation Repair
33:25
Speaker 2: a call. Therefore number three zer A four seven seven
33:27
Speaker 2: six sixty two sixty three. Threes are four seven seven
33:29
Speaker 2: six sixty two sixty three. So I have a couple
33:31
Speaker 2: of minutes this morning if you want to try to
33:33
Speaker 2: get in on the text line three zero four nine
33:35
Speaker 2: three five five zero zero eight threes are A four
33:37
Speaker 2: nine three five five zero zer eight. I thought i'd
33:39
Speaker 2: take a minute. We've talked about some issues that I've
33:41
Speaker 2: had before, mostly off here. I don't like to put
33:43
Speaker 2: them on there, but this might be instructive for some
33:45
Speaker 2: some clients that are out there. I've had an issue
33:47
Speaker 2: for years now with my home with some problems with
33:50
Speaker 2: moisture around the home. It's too humid during the day,
33:54
Speaker 2: various troubleshooting methods throughout the time. I just recently ran
33:57
Speaker 2: a little loads moisture test overnight and also monitoring like
34:03
Speaker 2: when the humidity goes up during the day. It's definitely
34:05
Speaker 2: something to do with overnight due point soil getting wet
34:10
Speaker 2: because I have an unfinished cross space under the back
34:13
Speaker 2: side of my house and that's the part of my
34:15
Speaker 2: house that just gets super super humid all the time.
34:18
Speaker 2: And indeed it creates condensation overnight on like plastic that
34:22
Speaker 2: I can set down underneath there. It creates moisture that
34:25
Speaker 2: has there on the top. The gold standard, of course,
34:28
Speaker 2: would be some sort of encapsulation. But it's hard to
34:31
Speaker 2: get to this thing the way it was built on.
34:32
Speaker 2: All I have is an old basement window that gives
34:35
Speaker 2: me access to the to the cross space. There's only
34:38
Speaker 2: like a two foot gap or something. I mean, it's
34:40
Speaker 2: hard to get to.
34:41
Speaker 3: And that's a common scenario with additions. They typically don't
34:46
Speaker 3: do them as well as I don't want to say typically,
34:48
Speaker 3: but it's common to see them done not as well
34:50
Speaker 3: as they should.
34:50
Speaker 2: And this is like, you know, one hundred years old, almost.
34:52
Speaker 3: Eighty years old, So getting a sheet of plastic down
34:55
Speaker 3: there would certainly help if possible. There are other things
35:00
Speaker 3: that can be done. There is a fan system called
35:03
Speaker 3: the ATMOCS fan system, and what this system has is
35:07
Speaker 3: it has a brain, a central computer, but then it
35:12
Speaker 3: also has multiple fans associated with it. And what I
35:17
Speaker 3: do anytime we've we've installed one of these is I
35:20
Speaker 3: provide the manufacturer with a drawing. They provide us with
35:24
Speaker 3: a planned system installed. So typically it'll include one exhaust
35:29
Speaker 3: fan to the exterior, one intake fan to the interior.
35:33
Speaker 3: Oftentimes it'll have a hygrometer outside and inside as well
35:37
Speaker 3: as a wood a wood moisture sensor, moisture content sensor,
35:42
Speaker 3: and then the brain decides how and when the system
35:45
Speaker 3: should operate, so it moves air in and out of
35:47
Speaker 3: the crawl space. Interesting when the conditions are most conducive
35:51
Speaker 3: to drying.
35:52
Speaker 2: Does that even work for one that doesn't have plastic
35:55
Speaker 2: down If you only have a cross space, it will I.
35:57
Speaker 3: Mean it's going to be sent Yeah, it's the moisture.
36:00
Speaker 3: It's sensing the moisture, moisture. The vapor barriers there too,
36:05
Speaker 3: as water evaporates from the earth is to essentially the
36:08
Speaker 3: moisture condenses on the underside of the plastic and drains
36:11
Speaker 3: it back into the earth. Gotcha limits how much actual
36:14
Speaker 3: water vapor enters the crawl.
36:15
Speaker 2: Space, So that would really help out from that regard
36:17
Speaker 2: if I could put it down back of the house.
36:19
Speaker 1: Correct.
36:20
Speaker 3: Now, one other thing to consider with this, and my
36:22
Speaker 3: best friend had this scenario where his HVAC system. He
36:26
Speaker 3: has a basement and a crawl space, and his HVAC
36:31
Speaker 3: system was in the basement and his system was creating
36:35
Speaker 3: negative air pressure on the interior of the building, so
36:39
Speaker 3: it was actually pulling air from the crawl space into
36:43
Speaker 3: the basement and he was having a condensation issue. And
36:47
Speaker 3: we he and I messed around with this for a while,
36:49
Speaker 3: and ultimately we determined if he kept his basement door open,
36:54
Speaker 3: the negative pressure went away really and it essentially the
36:59
Speaker 3: system became balanced. So essentially it was as simple as
37:03
Speaker 3: for him, it was as simple as installing a lover
37:05
Speaker 3: event in both of his doors, and it fixed his issue.
37:08
Speaker 2: So that allowed for the basement to vent through his
37:11
Speaker 2: door instead of keeping his door open, and it allowed
37:12
Speaker 2: it to Yeah, I wonder if I should test that,
37:14
Speaker 2: because that's exactly my setup. I wonder if I should
37:16
Speaker 2: just leave my door open for a couple of days
37:17
Speaker 2: and see what happened.
37:18
Speaker 3: It's been it's been a long time, but I believe
37:20
Speaker 3: he had a large return right next to his You know,
37:24
Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of systems will have a
37:25
Speaker 3: big return event right next to their air filter. Yeah,
37:28
Speaker 3: and that's where most of the pressure comes from.
37:31
Speaker 2: That's exactly mine. Yeah.
37:32
Speaker 3: So in that case, I had. This is back when
37:34
Speaker 3: I was doing inspections regular and I had fancy little
37:37
Speaker 3: devices that would be able to determine where air was flowing.
37:40
Speaker 3: But yes, that fixed. His problem was two five dollars
37:43
Speaker 3: louver events on his door.
37:45
Speaker 2: So I'm going to, uh, I'm going to test leaving
37:48
Speaker 2: my door open overnight for a couple of nights to
37:49
Speaker 2: see what happened during the day. For a couple nights,
37:51
Speaker 2: see what happens. Great tips, that's what happens. And then
37:53
Speaker 2: luckily I sat here across from Brett. But next time
37:55
Speaker 2: you need to call in to hopefully get some resolution.
37:58
Speaker 2: Foster Foundation Repair online. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot com.
38:01
Speaker 2: Seven seven six sixty two sixty three threes are a
38:03
Speaker 2: four seven seven six sixty two sixty three seven seven
38:06
Speaker 2: six sixty two sixty three rank you. Thanks so much
38:08
Speaker 2: for your tom. Appreciate you coming in yep, see you
38:10
Speaker 2: next month, See you next month. That is Brett Hodchmon
38:12
Speaker 2: from Foster Foundation Repair. Dave Allen is up next. I'll
38:15
Speaker 2: be back this afternoon at three o six. Have a
38:16
Speaker 2: great day. Everyone listening to the Voice of Charleston five
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