Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 09/16/2026 Ask the Expert with Foster Foundation Repair

Transcript

09/16/2026 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
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the And a very pleasant good morning to you.
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  Speaker 1: You are listening to Your Voice of Charleston 580 WCHS.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for tuning in on what is, so
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: far anyway, a very beautiful Wednesday morning. Thanks for tuning in.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome you into the program. This is
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  Speaker 1: Ask the Expert, and in studio with us this morning,
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  Speaker 1: Brett Hoschen is here. He is the owner of Foster
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  Speaker 1: Foundation Repair, taking your phone calls, your text messages, and
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  Speaker 1: talking about various projects that Brett can help you out with.
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  Speaker 1: And he's in studio with us again this morning. How
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  Speaker 1: are you doing this morning?
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  Speaker 2: Doing well.
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  Speaker 3: Very busy.
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  Speaker 2: We're trying to wrap things up before it gets the
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  Speaker 2: weather turns and we're stuck inside for the rest.
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  Speaker 1: Of the year. That's the way it is with your industry, right?
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  Speaker 1: You have to really plan those out with indoor-outdoor jobs
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  Speaker 1: and different things along those lines.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we do both inside and outside, but we try
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  Speaker 2: to keep all our bigger excavations for the drier seasons.
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  Speaker 3: It just makes the project for.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone go better.
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  Speaker 3: It'll go quicker, so It helps us out.
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  Speaker 2: It also, we're out of the in and out much
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  Speaker 2: quicker for the clients. So they're not dealing with our,
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  Speaker 2: you know, sometimes we have to build a temporary bridge
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  Speaker 2: or something for them to get in their house. So
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  Speaker 2: certainly we try to keep those till it's drier.
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  Speaker 1: Foster Foundation online. It's fosterfoundationrepair.com. Fosterfoundationrepair.com. Their phone number is 304-776-6263.
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  Speaker 1: You can call us this morning, though, if you have
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  Speaker 1: any questions for Brett. You can give us a call
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  Speaker 1: at 304-345-5858. 304-345-5858 is our number here. You can give
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  Speaker 1: us a call. Text line number 304-935-5008.
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  Speaker 4: 304-935-5008.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, Foster Foundation Repair. It's in the name. Do basements,
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  Speaker 1: foundation repair, things along those lines is kind of what–
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  Speaker 1: You specialize in, of course, and Brett is an engineer,
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  Speaker 1: so always giving that perspective to the projects that he
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  Speaker 1: takes on. But one of the things that Brett thought
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  Speaker 1: we can kind of open up the show with this
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  Speaker 1: morning is talking about some maybe unique properties or circumstances
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  Speaker 1: that he's come across recently. Maybe that will jar something
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  Speaker 1: in the listener's mind, an issue that you're trying to
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  Speaker 1: address or something that's been waiting there. And you can
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  Speaker 1: call us a surrogate for someone as well. If you
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  Speaker 1: have a loved one that's been having some problems, maybe
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  Speaker 1: you can stand in for them or whatever that might be.
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  Speaker 1: You're welcome to give us a call this morning as well, 304-345-5858, 304-345-5858.
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  Speaker 1: So that's one of the things with the type of
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  Speaker 1: work that you do. I'm sure that you see in
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  Speaker 1: everybody's house. I mean, houses are like fingerprints, right? Even
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  Speaker 1: if you're in a subdivision where most of the houses
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  Speaker 1: look kind of the same, they're all different in some way, shape,
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  Speaker 1: or form.
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  Speaker 2: They are.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, they are very different.
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  Speaker 2: But what is unique or typically similar, I guess, is
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  Speaker 2: the soil that they were built on and also a
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  Speaker 2: lot of neighborhoods were built by one or very few people.
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  Speaker 1: Builders.
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  Speaker 2: My neighborhood, the neighborhood I live in in Winfield, I
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  Speaker 2: think there were three primary builders in there.
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  Speaker 3: But we're all blessed.
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  Speaker 2: We live in Crystal Springs, so we've got springs. So
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  Speaker 2: we all kind of deal with the same problems.
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  Speaker 3: It's common.
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  Speaker 2: I used to work for a gentleman named Sam Wood.
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  Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of people remember that name. He's
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  Speaker 2: still around and doing well. It's But he used to
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  Speaker 2: tell me it goes by the street, which is very common.
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  Speaker 2: Foundation problems go by the street. A lot of streets
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  Speaker 2: suffer from the same– the houses on the same street
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  Speaker 2: suffer from the same problems because you're on the same
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  Speaker 2: hillside dealing with the same conditions, whether it's water or
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  Speaker 2: unstable soil. But yeah, when I was brainstorming about what
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  Speaker 2: we could talk about today, I thought about three properties
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  Speaker 2: I've been to in the last week or two that
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  Speaker 2: were a little unique. all kinds of different scenarios. One
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  Speaker 2: of them, one of the properties I've been involved with
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  Speaker 2: for probably two to three years, maybe. I don't know
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  Speaker 2: that we've ever actually done any work other than maybe
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  Speaker 2: a very small crack seal job on it, but we've
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  Speaker 2: been involved with, with the owner in that one. But
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  Speaker 2: the first one was a house I went to yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: And it's a, it's a unique, unique situation just because
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  Speaker 2: of where it's located.
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  Speaker 3: It's down in Culloden.
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  Speaker 2: And, and I was, the second contractor to come in
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  Speaker 2: and take a look at it and provide an estimate.
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  Speaker 2: The owner told me there was somebody else coming later
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  Speaker 2: that afternoon. And that's common. And I pretty well expect
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  Speaker 2: that most clients are going to have multiple contractors give
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  Speaker 2: an estimate. But typically what they are, I don't want
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  Speaker 2: to say typically, but sometimes what that comes with is
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  Speaker 2: three very different scopes of work. And as I sat
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  Speaker 2: down to talk with this gentleman about What I was
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  Speaker 2: seeing in my approach, I kind of suggested, I suspect
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  Speaker 2: my recommendations are very different than what he had already received.
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  Speaker 2: And he confirmed that that was the case. So again,
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  Speaker 2: this house is in Culloden. It is in the old
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  Speaker 2: Taze Valley River Basin. So we have very unique challenges
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  Speaker 2: along that line. If anybody's sitting in front of their computer,
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  Speaker 2: pull up a topographic map and zoom in on the
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  Speaker 2: Taze Valley area and you'll notice a very distinct, what
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  Speaker 2: looks like a river basin that flowed from the Canal
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  Speaker 2: River at the St. Albans Bridge pretty well to Huntington.
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  Speaker 2: It is a very distinct, depressed area. That's where we
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  Speaker 2: get the name Taze Valley. It is an ancient, Taze
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  Speaker 2: Valley River was an ancient river millions of years ago.
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  Speaker 2: But in that basin, we have very unique conditions. We
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  Speaker 2: have fairly flat ground, so it's been very good for building.
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  Speaker 2: There was a housing boom in the Which is actually
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  Speaker 2: when I moved into the state. My family moved into
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  Speaker 2: the state. It was in the 90s during that housing boom.
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  Speaker 2: And we live in the Winfield area, which is very
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  Speaker 2: close to that basin. But it is not within the basin.
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  Speaker 2: But anyways, there's a lot of very expansive clay soil
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  Speaker 2: in that area. And basically what happens with that– and
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  Speaker 2: I talk about this a lot.
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  Speaker 3: I know that.
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  Speaker 2: But when it dries out during a drought, the soil shrinks.
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  Speaker 2: Typically the house moves with it, drops down. And then
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  Speaker 2: we get– the soil rehydrates. We get to saturated soil
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  Speaker 2: conditions and oftentimes the soil will swell and bring the
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  Speaker 2: house right back to where it once was. In this case,
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  Speaker 2: it was evident to me that there has– there was
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  Speaker 2: some deferred maintenance. It looks like it was probably an
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  Speaker 2: estate and there was vines overgrowing and things of that nature.
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  Speaker 2: But this house actually looked to me like it had
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  Speaker 2: been going up and down through drought. saturation periods of times,
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  Speaker 2: cyclical seasonal movement for so long that it had actually
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  Speaker 2: started to what I call walk. So there had been
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  Speaker 2: some lateral movement of this where it had actually kind
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  Speaker 2: of moved laterally.
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  Speaker 3: So it didn't just settle, but it had moved laterally.
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  Speaker 2: But the biggest problem at this particular house is there
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  Speaker 2: were cracks, pretty substantial cracks around the– in the brick
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  Speaker 2: veneer and in the Garage floor, the driveway, there were
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  Speaker 2: large separations between sections of slab of the driveway where
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  Speaker 2: things had moved over the years. But the biggest issue
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  Speaker 2: even outside of the cracks, there was definitely measurable settlement.
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  Speaker 2: I think I measured up to two and a half
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  Speaker 2: inches at the largest variance from the high point to
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  Speaker 2: the low point in the foundation. Yeah. but the biggest
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  Speaker 2: concern here was the water. Uh, the water was the
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  Speaker 2: source of the issue there in the crawl space. There
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  Speaker 2: were some damn conditions around the perimeter, nothing crazy, no
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  Speaker 2: two inches. It wasn't two inches of standing water, but
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  Speaker 2: it was clearly that it was clear to me that
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  Speaker 2: this house regularly was getting wet from during rain events. Um,
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  Speaker 2: and that was causing the soil to swell and then
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  Speaker 2: it would dry and it would shrink. So, um, Oftentimes
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  Speaker 2: in a situation like this– and I'm not privy to
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  Speaker 2: what the other contractor's scope of work was. But the
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  Speaker 2: kind of– the no-brainer is it's got foundation cracks, so
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  Speaker 2: we need to underpin it. We need to stabilize it
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  Speaker 2: to prevent it from ever moving again, which to me
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  Speaker 2: is– in this case, I would not necessarily agree with
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  Speaker 2: it because first off, you have to address the water.
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  Speaker 2: If you don't address the water, the risk of– if
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  Speaker 2: we stay– if we stabilize a portion of the foundation,
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  Speaker 2: if you don't address the water, the rest of the
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  Speaker 2: house has the potential to continue moving. And the idea
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  Speaker 2: is when we stabilize a house with, say, a helical pier,
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  Speaker 2: we drive that helical pier down to soil much deeper
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  Speaker 2: than what is at the surface, should be unaffected by
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  Speaker 2: the seasonal changes in the moisture content of the soil.
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  Speaker 2: And we take that down either into very dense, deep soil,
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  Speaker 2: or in some cases down to bedrock, which is solid.
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  Speaker 2: And so wherever we've we put these helical piers, the
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  Speaker 2: foundation will not move or will move very minimally to
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  Speaker 2: the extent that it's unnoticeable. Whereas the rest of the
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  Speaker 2: foundation that was not underpinned will continue to move seasonally
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  Speaker 2: with the soil. And I've seen this plenty of times
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  Speaker 2: where a contractor will be chasing the cracks. So they'll
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  Speaker 2: stabilize a corner of the foundation. And then five years later,
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  Speaker 2: they've got to come in and stabilize the next 20
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  Speaker 2: feet because that's where the cracks are now showing. And
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  Speaker 2: it's because you have a section of the foundation that
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  Speaker 2: is on soil which will expand and contract next to
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  Speaker 2: a portion of the foundation that is on a deep,
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  Speaker 2: rigid foundation. So that's a common condition. So in this case,
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  Speaker 2: what I recommended to the owner, which is– it's a
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  Speaker 2: unique situation because he's trying to sell the house. He's
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  Speaker 2: trying to get this in a position where he can
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  Speaker 2: sell it. So in my opinion, the most appropriate steps–
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  Speaker 2: on a property like this are not a– there's no
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  Speaker 2: immediate quick fix.
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  Speaker 3: It's to address the water.
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  Speaker 2: There are certainly areas of the foundation we could stabilize
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  Speaker 2: with underpinning. But address the water to dry the soil
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  Speaker 2: out to make it more consistent the moisture content more consistent,
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  Speaker 2: so we're not having those large swings. We're reducing the
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  Speaker 2: amount that the shrink and swell potential is by managing
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  Speaker 2: the water, and then monitor it for a period of
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  Speaker 2: time to determine if helical piers, if foundation stabilization is
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  Speaker 2: actually needed, and And also if it is needed, where
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  Speaker 2: it is needed because I could point to any point–
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  Speaker 2: any location on this house, I could point and justify.
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  Speaker 2: You could stabilize this portion of the house. So the
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  Speaker 2: idea would be to pinpoint an area where active movement
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  Speaker 2: would be occurring versus in this case throwing a dart
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  Speaker 2: at the problem and probably being back in five years
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  Speaker 2: and continuing throwing darts at it.
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  Speaker 1: And this is something– like you mentioned that this homebuyer
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  Speaker 1: was looking to sell their property. I mean obviously there
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  Speaker 1: would be lender issues and so forth too if there
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  Speaker 1: were foundation problems discovered and different things along those lines.
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  Speaker 1: But I mean the bottom line is that you need
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  Speaker 1: for this thing– I mean if you're talking about real
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  Speaker 1: estate or whatever, you can't have a situation where you're
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  Speaker 1: back in five years or seven years or whatever it
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  Speaker 1: might be. You really need a longer-term solution than that.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's not good for anybody. It's not good for me,
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  Speaker 2: the contractor. It's not good for the person who's trying
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  Speaker 2: to sell the house today or the buyer because now
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  Speaker 2: you're looking at the potential where there could be potential
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  Speaker 2: litigation because a house was fixed and bought. and the
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: liability is transferred, and that always turns into a messy situation. So, again,
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  Speaker 2: in this case, my recommendation is going to, and I
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  Speaker 2: haven't even worked the estimate up. I was there yesterday afternoon,
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  Speaker 2: but I'm going to be recommending to this individual that
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  Speaker 2: we excavate and waterproof the foundation, install a new foundation
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  Speaker 2: drainage system, replace all the downspout drains with new in-ground drains,
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  Speaker 2: which is part of what we do when we do
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  Speaker 2: a waterproofing system. And then recontour the ground. There's an
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  Speaker 2: area where the ground is depressed and directing water to
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  Speaker 2: the foundation. So essentially my first step in this case
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  Speaker 2: is going to be addressing water and water alone with
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  Speaker 2: maybe some localized foundation underpinning where the most severe movement
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  Speaker 2: is to try to bring that back up to where–
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  Speaker 2: closer to where the rest of.
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  Speaker 1: The house is. I find it interesting when you talk
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  Speaker 1: about recontouring a yard. What usually goes into something like that?
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  Speaker 1: Is that something– do you have to like bring soil
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  Speaker 1: in and actually look at reshaping how the yard navigates
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  Speaker 1: with water and everything? Is that what you're looking to
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  Speaker 1: do is to divert some of the water?
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  Speaker 3: It can include bringing dirt in. Normally, it's not.
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  Speaker 2: Normally, it's just reshaping it to create what is called
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  Speaker 2: a drainage swale, which is just– It's a drainage ditch.
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  Speaker 3: It's a very shallow ditch.
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  Speaker 2: If it's done correctly and well, it doesn't look like
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  Speaker 2: a ditch. It just looks like a drainage feature. Sometimes
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  Speaker 2: it requires a French drain, basically a trench with gravel
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  Speaker 2: and pipe in it to collect and divert the water
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  Speaker 2: away from the foundation. So in a situation like this
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  Speaker 2: where we're digging it out, we're going to have a
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  Speaker 2: lot of excess soil. So sometimes we use the spoils
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  Speaker 2: of an excavation to to regrade other areas of the
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: property rather than hauling it off, which helps the property.
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  Speaker 2: It helps the cost of the project be reduced too.
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  Speaker 2: If we can leave it on site in a beneficial way,
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  Speaker 2: it helps to reduce the.
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  Speaker 3: Cost of the project.
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  Speaker 1: All of these are great tips that Brett has given
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  Speaker 1: here this morning and unique situations that he's come across.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that real estate is a major investment
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  Speaker 1: for folks that are out there. And when you run
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  Speaker 1: into any problems that are in a house, of course,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to cause them alarm. But Foundation issues and
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  Speaker 1: things like that, that's one of the top things. You
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  Speaker 1: can't get around it. Generally, you can't finance around it
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  Speaker 1: unless there's major considerations that are put into play for
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  Speaker 1: something along those lines. It's important to get these things fixed.
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  Speaker 1: It's also important, whether you're a buyer or a seller,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: that you protect yourself with these things. You want to
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: make sure that you have them evaluated correctly and then
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: ultimately fixed correctly if you're going to make that investment,
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  Speaker 1: whichever direction you are on that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: In my previous work before I started doing the actual
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  Speaker 2: foundation repair, my income was based on doing inspections, whether
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: it was a home inspection or a large part of
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: that was structural inspections in situations where an appraiser would
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  Speaker 2: go out to place a value on a property and
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  Speaker 2: they might notice a crack. And oftentimes that gets conveyed
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  Speaker 2: to the lender and then that's when I would get
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: involved or another engineer would get involved to evaluate and
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  Speaker 2: provide an opinion as to whether it is a problem
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  Speaker 2: or not. And if so, if it is a problem,
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  Speaker 2: what needed to be done to correct the issue?
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  Speaker 1: I had a last time, this was years ago, but
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  Speaker 1: the last time I financed my house and like we've
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: talked on the show before, I have a little experience
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: in the mortgage side of the industry. And the last
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: time I refinanced my house, an appraiser came out to
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: do an appraisal of my house and everything. And I
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: have a small crack that's ran down my, it's been
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: there for, 20 years it hasn't moved it looks exactly
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  Speaker 1: the same uh we've talked about it before you told
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  Speaker 1: me it probably wasn't that big of a deal um
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  Speaker 1: whether it is or not i don't know i'm not
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: looking to sell now but anyway he was doing it
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: looking around the house and everything and he came across
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  Speaker 1: this uh came across this crack and mentioned it and
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: then he like sort of winked to me and said
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: well i won't tell anybody about this and then kind
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of moved on and i was thinking to myself i
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: was like number one i don't think there's anything to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: tell so i mean you're not doing me any favors
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  Speaker 1: and i don't really appreciate the the uh insinuation that
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: we now have something between us and I owe you
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  Speaker 1: for something. And number two, if you were doing your job,
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  Speaker 1: you would definitely tell somebody, you know, that, that just,
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  Speaker 1: I've been in the industry when it was at its worst.
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  Speaker 1: And that gave me a little bit of a skeeve
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  Speaker 1: to be honest with you, because that shouldn't be the
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  Speaker 1: way that you approach a problem like that.
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  Speaker 3: I agree.
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  Speaker 2: Especially if it is, if it turns out to be
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: a problem, let's address it sooner rather than later, because
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: if it's, if it is a problem, oftentimes we can
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: do something much less aggressive early on than, than if
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: we wait a lot longer. And another thing is not
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  Speaker 2: all cracks are the end of the world. I mean
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  Speaker 2: a crack is developed because there is some form of
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: stress and that is evidence of a dissipation of that stress.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Sometimes there's a house– another one from yesterday was– it
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: was just the lintel, which is a steel– essentially a
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: steel beam that spans across a door or some sort
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: of opening. This happened to be a garage door, and
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  Speaker 2: the lintel was undersized and it sagged and it allowed
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  Speaker 2: the brick to crack. And that will probably never move again.
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  Speaker 2: And– that's not the end of the world. Another common
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  Speaker 2: crack that develops is around a window from those same
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: lintels rusting. So not all cracks are, quote, structural. Sometimes
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: they need to be addressed. Some of them need to
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: be addressed so they don't continue. But not all cracks
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: are settlement cracks.
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  Speaker 3: That need to be fixed.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: And that's something that if you have me out, we're
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: going to have that conversation if it is not an
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: issue that needs to be addressed. And that's one of
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: my Other properties I want to discuss here eventually is
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: when repairs aren't needed because sometimes they're not.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite things that we talk about
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: on this show primarily because so often in any environment
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: where you're contracting a service, if somebody comes out to
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: your house, they're going to find something that they need
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: to do. It's like even if there's not anything they
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: necessarily need to do, they're going to find something to
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: charge you for. I mean it might be something that ultimately, yeah, sure,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: this might be something great to do. and it's going
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: to help 30 years down the road or whatever it
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: might be. But sometimes there's not something– it's propositioned in
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: such a way where the homeowner might feel like they
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: have to do it or it's something that's immediate. And
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: that's one of the things I like about what you
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: do is that you're up front with all of the
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: options that you give folks, including when nothing's needed at all.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: That's actually a good place to leave off at. Why
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: don't we talk about that when we come back? Let's
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: take our break. We'll come back and we'll talk a
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: little bit about that. What if nothing is needed? You
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: might be in a situation where you need some help,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: but you want to make sure if you are concerned
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: about your property and doing all the right things– And
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: when you have somebody come out that they're giving you
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: an honest assessment of what's going on, we're going to
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: talk about that a little bit when we come back.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: You're welcome to give us a phone call and participate
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: in the conversation. Our number this morning is 304-345-5858. You
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: can also text 304-935-5008. You're listening to... As the expert
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Brett Hodgson is here, he is the owner of Foster
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Foundation Repair. I'm Dale Cooper. This is 580 WCHS, the
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: voice of Charleston.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: I'm John Morgan of Morgan & Morgan. Today our roads
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: are littered with killing machines. I'm talking about semi-trucks. They
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: can easily kill, even at low speeds. Overworked truck drivers
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  Speaker 4: are driving all day and all night. Injured in a
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: trucking accident? We became the largest injury law firm in
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: the world for a reason.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: There's only one Morgan & Morgan. Office 222 Capitol Street, Charleston.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Cases will be handled by West Virginia licensed attorneys. The
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: attorney in this ad is not licensed in West Virginia.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Morgan & Morgan, ForThePeople.com.
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: Hey, this is Bobbi Spraw, and last year we purchased
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: a new HVAC system from Best Virginia Heating and Cooling.
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: During the inspection of our old unit, their technician discovered
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: a crack in the heat exchanger that was slowly leaking
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: carbon monoxide into our home. From that moment on, we
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: knew we chose the best. The best technicians and the
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: best service. Every technician is drug tested and background checked,
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: giving our family peace of mind. When it comes to
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: protecting your home and family, trust the best. Best Virginia
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: heating and cooling.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: It is 19 minutes now until the top of the hour.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the voice of Charleston 580 WCHS. I'm
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Dale Cooper. Thanks for tuning in. One of this beautiful
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Wednesday morning so far. Brett Hoschen is with me this morning.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: He's the owner for Foster Foundation Repair. You're welcome to
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: give us a call this morning if you have any
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: questions about issues around your home, whether it do with
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: your basement, foundation, water treatment. We don't want to necessarily
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: call it prevention because we know that there's not necessarily
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: anything as far as completely getting rid of your water.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: But you can give us a call this morning if
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: you have any questions about work you need done around
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: your property, some questions you might have, anything that Brett
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: talks about this morning that triggers a question. Give us
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: a call, 304-345-5858. Three, Before the break, we teased a
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: little bit. You have concerns about your home. You want
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to do your due diligence and do the right things.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Make sure that– not only that the property is good
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: for you, but if you're going to sell it in
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the future, whatever it might be that everything's taken care of.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: So you contact professionals to come out, to take a
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: look at what you think might be a little bit
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: of a problem. And that's where things might be different
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: depending on who you contract, because sometimes legitimately there's not
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: anything that you have to recommend or not, not a
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: major project that you have to recommend. Yes.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: I have two examples of that. I'll start with the, uh, the,
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: the quick and dirty one, the short one, um, house
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: over on noise Avenue in Kanawha city. Um, Young lady,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: first time home buyer, doesn't have much experience with houses.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: She's already was telling me the story. She's already had issues,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: whether HVAC or water heater. She's had multiple issues already.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: But recently she's had a little bit of water come
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: in in her basement. It's a unique house. I've got
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: experience in this area. My actual my wife lived across
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: the street, two houses down. And I feel like this
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: is I didn't go through the whole house, but based
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: on the basement, it appears to be a sister house
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: to the house my wife. when she was my girlfriend
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: when when we first met that that she lived in
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: so interesting weird but anyways a little bit of water
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: seeps in into the basement above a basement window so
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: over your head kind of location where water's coming in
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: uh two basement windows uh the house has half of
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: a half of the house is a basement half the
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: house is a crawl space and um My understanding, I
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: was the second contractor that was out. The original contractor
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: came up with some large scope of work that included
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: installing an interior foundation drain in the basement, encapsulating the
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: crawl space. I think she said it came out to
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: around $ 30, 000 in total. Well, an interior basement drain, the
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: intent of that system is to manage, to collect and
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: manage and remove groundwater that seeps into a basement mount.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: This is a basement and the water was coming in
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: over my head. So I'm not focused on groundwater at
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: this point in time. So after she shows me all
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: the things that she has to show me, I walk
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: outside to try to identify where this water might be
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: coming in. Now, this is a typical Kanawha City house.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: It's a multi-width brick building. So it's essentially it's a
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: masonry building all the way from the foundation up to
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: the roof. And at some point in time, somebody had
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: some windows replaced. And in the way these windows were replaced,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: it relies on caulk, which is common in an older home.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: It relies on caulk to prevent water infiltration. And there
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: were some gaps around both windows, main floor windows, which
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: were directly stacked above the basement windows. So my recommendation
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: to her was to caulk her windows. And that's outside of,
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, certainly we can operate a caulk gun, but
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: that's not what You weren't in the business doing that.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: That's more appropriate for like a handyman service, a neighbor.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean watch a YouTube video in that case.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: I mean you could probably figure it out.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and actually for a first-time homebuyer, that's probably a
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: great opportunity to teach yourself something.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is true.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: But anyways, this was a situation where she had a
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: contractor come out and propose some massive repair, intrusive repair
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: that requires– contractors coming up and down her basement stairs,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: through her kitchen. It's a huge intrusive repair. Sometimes it's warranted.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong. And we do it when it's warranted.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: But it's just a situation where the repairs they were
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: proposing to her weren't even addressing the problem she was having.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: And hopefully one day she follows up with me and
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: tells me she cocked her window and she's never had
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: a leak again. But I feel pretty strongly that's all
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: it's going to take.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I just really have a... And regardless of what your
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: professional service is, it's something else. And you hear about
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: this quite a bit. I mean, we talked a little
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: bit off air about the types of services that was
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: being recommended to her. And some of this stuff has
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: nothing at all to do with what her initial problem was. Like,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: it's one thing if you go in and say, here's
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the problem. By the way, here's some things that I
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: recommend for you that could help you in the long run.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Completely optional. However, here's the benefits for you. So then
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: you can make a sales pitch. And there's nothing wrong
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: with a sales pitch. Tell people the benefit of If
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: it's something they'll benefit from, they can make a decision.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: If it's something on the optional level, if they want
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: to upgrade to or not. But trying to like insinuate
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: that upgrade is needed for the relatively simple repair, man,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: there's an ethical boundary there sometimes.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: And one thing people have to understand in this industry
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: is the individuals coming out, most of the individuals coming
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: out are working on a heavy commission-based income strategy. So
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: it is in their best interest to sell you something.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: And yes, I am technically in that position too. But
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: the more jobs we do, the more income I would have.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: But that's not my goal. I mean it is– everybody's
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: goal is to make income obviously. But that's not my
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: primary goal. My primary goal is to do the fix
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: that is the most appropriate or whatever fits the budget
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: that gets– meets the goals of the individual we're working with.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it's well said, and it's the way
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: that we like to address it here on the program.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: So if you have any questions along those lines, once again,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: if you have something that you'd like to have addressed
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: or get just a neutral opinion, you're welcome to give
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: us a call. Or, of course, you can give Brett
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: a call afterwards. I know a lot of times folks,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: even when it comes to do with real estate or
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: something along those lines, they don't love necessarily talking on
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the air. So we'll make sure you have the number
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: for Foster Foundation Repair here in just a moment. But
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: I think you said you had three properties you wanted
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: to talk about. We had one more that we wanted
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to touch on, right?
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: So there's, there's one more.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Um, this is a property in nitro that, that we've
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: been involved with for, for various years. Um, we've done
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: very little, uh, really very little work there. I think
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: the only project we've ever done there was they, they
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: were having a little bit of leakage through a vertical
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: crack and we went in and did an epoxy seal
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: on that crack. I think it was like $ 1, 100 repair. And,
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: but I've been out there probably four or five times. Um,
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: But ultimately what we've done, this house has a very
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: large foundation. And when I say large, I mean tall,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: much taller than most houses, which makes it much heavier
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: than your average foundation. And there's evidence of settlement around
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: the perimeter of the building, not so much in the
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: middle where the house is lighter, but where the tall,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: heavy foundation is located. So the basement floor kind of
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: has there's a slope from the foundation to where a
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: crack is developed around the perimeter of the basement. And
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: that's a result of the perimeter wall settling, the interior
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: basement floor slab not settling where there's lighter loads. So
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: there's clearly been settlement. And settlement is something that occurs
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: in pretty much all buildings. It's something that is designed
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: for by engineers on all buildings, whether it's a high-rise
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: building or a bridge. They're trying to limit how much
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: something will settle. So anyways, this house is settled.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: That's not unusual.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: So The owner was concerned, rightfully so, that there was
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: an issue. So what I discussed with him is essentially
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: we either do nothing or we underpin the entire house,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: which is just an unreasonable amount of money. So he
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: went with the reasonable approach, and we've been monitoring this.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: So roughly, I think it was about two years ago,
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: we established benchmarks on this foundation. Actually, I did this,
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: but What I did is I went out and with
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: a laser level, set up a laser level all around
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: the exterior perimeter walls and established marks on the foundation
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: that– or on the brick veneer that I can go
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: back and reference at a later date. I also did
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: this on the inside. On the inside, it was an
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: unfinished portion of the basement where I just took a
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: Sharpie and made a little mark on the foundation or
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: a support column or whatever it might have been. So
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: essentially day one, I've set arbitrary marks on the foundation
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: that don't really have a whole lot of meaning. But
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: what I've been able to do is go back over
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: time with my laser level, set up my laser level
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: exactly on one of those marks and compare the difference
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: in elevation of all the marks that I've established. And
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: in this case, I think there's somewhere between 50 and
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: 75 benchmarks on this house that I have set. There's
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: only one that is off from when I originally set it.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: And I would suspect that was more of an error
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: in me setting it than movement because you don't get
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: one that moves and the rest stays put. So this
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: is a situation where the house settled probably very early
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: on after construction. It's not a very old home. I'm
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: guessing it's around 10, give or take two years. So
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: it probably settled very shortly after the house was built.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: And which is common, and the first two to four
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: years is when you're going to get your primary consolidation
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: of your soil that supports the foundation. And then it
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: seems to have generally stabilized. There's one area where we
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: may end up having to underpin it. There's been some
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: additional separation of a crack, very minor, that occurred since
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: we put these benchmarks in. or actually it occurred before, right?
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: That's why we put the benchmarks in this, because of
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: this additional separation. So at some point, we may end
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: up doing some work, but the good news is we're
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: going to be able to very accurately pinpoint where the
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: work needs to be done and do no more, no
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: less than needs to be done in this situation. And
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: the monitoring I do charge for that. It's not a
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: very expensive process. The most expensive part is the initial
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: setup where I'm actually having to set the marks on
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: the foundation. I think I was at the property for,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: my total time investment was around two hours on this
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: last visit. By the time I drove there's did all
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: my measurements, had the discussion with the client and then
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: got back to the shop. So it was about a
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: two hour total time investment for the client. So it's
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: not very expensive and it's a very accurate way to
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: monitor a foundation in the event there's a crack and
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: you're looking to sell a house in five years, maybe
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: we can establish that it's not moving and it allows
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: you to transfer the property without having to do any
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: repairs with some confidence, with me having some confidence that
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: I'm not passing the buck down the road to the
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: next poor soul.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: What a fantastic peace of mind, though, if you have
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: the foresight to do something like that or to contact
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: somebody that has that recommendation to be able to have
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: that level of exact tracking. I mean, that's not sort
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: of the Rorschach test that sometimes it can be when
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: it comes to looking at stuff like that. Has it moved?
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Is it moving any? Does it seem different from what
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: it was last time, whatever it might be? You're talking
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: about exact measurements that can really alleviate a home seller
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: or home buyers or just a homeowner or whatever it
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: might be alleviate some of their concerns or confirm a
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: problem I mean which could also happen but either way
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: that's an exact way to do that and you're not
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: really throwing darts at a.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Dartboard yeah and in this case all of my measurements
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: with the exception of the one were zero movement that
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: I'd say that's pretty rare normally normally we're going to
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: see some seasonal variation some up and down there's a
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: house in St. Albans I remember would go up and
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: down an inch every year and it We eventually fixed it.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: We established it was going to continue moving. The owner
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: wanted to fix it and be done with it. But yeah,
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: I mean typically you're going to– so sometimes people will
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: install crack monitors and they get concerned when the crack
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: monitor shows there's been movement. And my recommendation is let's
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: wait until the next season and see if it closes
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: or if it progresses. If it continues moving in that
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: same direction, then we probably ought to consider doing something
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: to stabilize it.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I had a text message from the 304393 that I've
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: been trying to kind of condense here a little bit
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: because it's a long story. And I think they were
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: really just looking for a comment more than anything else.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: It looks like that some time ago they were having
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: some problems with their basement, had it evaluated, and their
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: family was also having some what they thought were allergy
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: problems at the time. And I guess ultimately through all
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: of this, they discovered there was a significant mold and
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: mildew in their basement. And this is I guess this
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: is they just wanted a PSA reminder that that The
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: air that's in your crawl space and in your basement
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: is oftentimes the air that you're breathing within your house.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: And if that has remained untreated and if you have
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: problems there, it could cause problems for your family.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: That is very true.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: The people that know who write books and things of
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: that nature claim that 40 percent of the air you
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: breathe in your home comes from your crawl.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: Space if you have a crawl space.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: So, yes, very much so through stack effect, which is
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: the fact that hot air rises as air rises up
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: to your ceiling, eventually it's going to somehow find a
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: way into your attic. It has to make up air,
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: and typically that comes from your crawl space. Oftentimes also
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: you have your HVAC system is in either your basement
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: or your crawl space, which includes a return vent system,
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: which is under negative pressure. And the likelihood that that's
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: 100% sealed or the system is 100% balanced is very unlikely.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: So oftentimes that's going to create negative pressure pulling air
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: from either the crawl space or the basement or an
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: undesirable location into the house and into your indoor air environment.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: And there's only so much filters can do at that
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: point if you're getting overrun with that type of thing.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: So again, that's something that if you're having problems, and frankly,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: that's something that I've talked about so much around my
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: house with moisture and stuff, but that's one of the
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: things I know that I probably need to get addressed
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: and evaluated. I've been kind of hesitant to do a
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: mold test, to be honest with you, because I'm kind
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: of worried about what I'll find.
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: So mold tests are interesting. I used to do them.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I couldn't figure them out, but, uh, there are companies, uh,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: Pinnacle's one that does mold testing. There's some home inspectors
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: that do it. I'd probably lean towards more, more a
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: mold mitigation contractor that's got licensed individuals through national industry
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: stuff then. But, um, But yeah, I mean, there's definitely
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: ways to test it in air samples and physical samples.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Just got another text over. This is from the same person,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: but it's actually a good follow-up question. Can you discuss
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: at-home mold testing and waterproofing options? And we've talked about waterproofing,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I know, a little bit before on home options. You
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: can go to the hardware store and get all kinds
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: of stuff that claims to help waterproof your basement.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so at-home mold testing, I've seen these Petri dish-looking
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: things that you set out. I think they're designed to
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: breed mold more than anything. I don't know of any
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: great at-home mold sampling. When I used to do it,
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: I had an air pump that would pull air through
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: a cylinder, and then I'd send that off to a lab,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: and they would evaluate it. Mold testing is not that expensive.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: There's people locally that do that. So I would certainly
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: suggest that's probably your best approach is somebody like that,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: an environmental company, a water– mitigation contractor like Firewater, one
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: of those that come in after a fire damage or
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: something like that.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Like after you have those types of things like flooding
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: or fire damage, the people that come in.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: A lot of those people have that capability or contacts.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: I think ASTAR and Aztec, both of them I believe
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: do mold testing.
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: Don't quote me on that one.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: But those are companies that if you reach out to me,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: I can pass their contact on that we use professionally
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: Those two companies.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: What was the other? It was the waterproofing from the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: hardware store.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean basically the best you're going to do
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: is typically like it kills a coating on the inside
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: face of the wall, and that's more or less going
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: to slow the penetration down for a period of time.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: To waterproof the foundation, it needs to be done from
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: the exterior. You have to prevent the water from penetrating
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: the wall, and that can only be done from the outside.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: From the inside, you can do water management systems, which
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: will collect and convey water to a drain system that
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: is either discharging outside via gravity or into a sump
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: basin where it's pumped back out. So, I mean, interior
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: drains is a very labor intensive process. Exterior waterproofing is
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: extremely labor intensive. So, I mean, that certainly can be
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: done by a homeowner, but it is going to take
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: some time.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: And the bottom line is this is something when you're
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: talking about the foundation of your home and water, which
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: is the great enemy to your home for the most part,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: you want to make sure you have it done right.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: I mean that's the main thing for that.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: And the one risk– there's one little risk with interior
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: drains that have to be done. You have to have
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: somebody that knows what they're looking at to make sure
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: they're not– it's a monolithic foundation.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: That's one thing we have to look at to make
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: sure it's not an issue with.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: That's great information, as always, with Brett Hoschen. What a
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: great educational show, as it always is, with Brett when
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: it comes in from Foster Foundation Repair. Phone number is
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: 304-776-6263 for Foster Foundation Repair, 304-776-6263. Also online, it's fosterfoundationrepair.com, fosterfoundationrepair.com.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: You can find the information online. Brett's back here once
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: a month on 580-WCHS on Ask the Expert. Once again,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: you can get a hold of Foster Foundation Repair, 304-776-6263.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening in today on 580 WCHS.