Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 08/19/2025 Ask the Expert with Foster Foundation Repair

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08/19/2025 Ask the Expert with Foster Foundation Repair · WCHS Network Podcasts

0:00
Speaker 1: Unlock your dream property with Meeks Realty Group, where Rich
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Speaker 1: the realtor makes real estate dreams a reality, whether it's
0:05
Speaker 1: residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to Huntington covered. Your
0:09
Speaker 1: key to exceptional real estate experience is start here Meeks
0:12
Speaker 1: Realty Group. Contact us at Meeks dot us.
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Speaker 2: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
0:18
Speaker 2: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight WCCHS,
0:22
Speaker 2: it's employees or WVRC Media.
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Speaker 3: Twenty two minutes past eight o'clock, Thank you so much
0:37
Speaker 3: for tuning in on this Tuesday morning. My name is
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Speaker 3: Dale Cooper, and this is Ask the Expert on five ADWCHS,
0:44
Speaker 3: the Voice of Charleston. Some dy's morning out there this morning,
0:47
Speaker 3: if you're still heading into work, not too bad at all.
0:50
Speaker 3: There's not much weather, not as cool as hopefully it's
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Speaker 3: going to be a little bit later on, but also
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Speaker 3: not that steaming humidity to start off the day to day.
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Speaker 3: Just a kind of normal August day as you're heading
1:00
Speaker 3: into work or wherever you're going this morning. Thanks for
1:02
Speaker 3: tuning in this morning. We have a great show in
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Speaker 3: line for you until nine o'clock this morning. In studio
1:07
Speaker 3: with us today from Foster Foster Basement Foundation Repair. Let
1:11
Speaker 3: me try to get that right. From Foster Foundation Repair
1:14
Speaker 3: of Brett Hodgon is here. He is the owner and
1:16
Speaker 3: he's with us this morning. Brett, good morning, and welcome
1:17
Speaker 3: back to the studio.
1:18
Speaker 4: Good morning to you as well.
1:19
Speaker 3: Thanks for coming in and I really appreciate the discussion
1:22
Speaker 3: we're going to have this morning because one of the
1:24
Speaker 3: things that we talk about a lot on here, and
1:27
Speaker 3: you're an engineer primarily by trade first originally, but you've
1:31
Speaker 3: gotten into foundation repair, you've taken over Foster Foundation Repair,
1:34
Speaker 3: and you still rely on engineers independently beyond yourself, and
1:39
Speaker 3: we talk about that a lot in here, where you
1:40
Speaker 3: talk about you'll even consult an engineer. What an engineer,
1:43
Speaker 3: an independent engineer might say. So what you did this
1:45
Speaker 3: morning is you brought us an independent engineer. Yes.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's having a third party engineer involved,
1:51
Speaker 4: or generally an engineer to begin with, but having an
1:55
Speaker 4: engineer involved in the project, to me is very important.
1:59
Speaker 4: There's many times problems are misdiagnosed and and ultimately don't
2:06
Speaker 4: the problem doesn't get fixed. But one of the one
2:10
Speaker 4: of the things that that we bring Jared in from
2:13
Speaker 4: time to time. Is that there's a good example of
2:15
Speaker 4: a project that we're in the middle of right now,
2:18
Speaker 4: where we were going to install a very simple, straightforward
2:22
Speaker 4: interior foundation drain, but once we cut the concrete out,
2:27
Speaker 4: things changed quite dramatically. We found out that the the
2:30
Speaker 4: foundation was not built in a typical manner and and
2:35
Speaker 4: essentially the project was going to change dramatically. So I'm
2:39
Speaker 4: trying to explain this to a homeowner and and they're
2:42
Speaker 4: looking at me. I'm not sure if they trust me
2:45
Speaker 4: at this point.
2:46
Speaker 5: Uh.
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Speaker 4: But at that point I suggest we bring in somebody
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Speaker 4: completely independent that doesn't have any skin in the game.
2:52
Speaker 3: Uh.
2:53
Speaker 4: And that's where when when we recommended her to that
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Speaker 4: we brought and we brought Jared Gray in.
2:58
Speaker 3: So that Jared Gray is our our other guest this morning.
3:01
Speaker 3: He is from solid Ground Engineering. More information for for
3:04
Speaker 3: Jared's company, Solid Ground Engineering at solid GROUNDWV dot com.
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Speaker 3: We'll give you all of Foster's information coming out here
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Speaker 3: in just a moment. Jared, good morning, welcome to the radio.
3:11
Speaker 6: Good morning, thanks.
3:12
Speaker 3: For coming on and I really appreciate talking to you
3:14
Speaker 3: for just a moment. Thought I would give you a
3:16
Speaker 3: couple of minutes, if you have anything you'd like to
3:18
Speaker 3: introduce yourself. Are you from the area, from Charleston originally
3:21
Speaker 3: or from West Virginia?
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Speaker 7: Yeah, originally from West Virginia, Summersville area. Grew up in
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Speaker 7: Rails County, lived in Charleston since the early two thousand,
3:27
Speaker 7: so Charleston's.
3:29
Speaker 3: Home twenty five years. That's pretty close. And so you're
3:33
Speaker 3: the owner of Solid Ground Engineering. So that means yet
3:35
Speaker 3: another small business owner that's chosen to stay in the
3:37
Speaker 3: Mountain State. So we appreciate that for sure, because we
3:39
Speaker 3: like to keep our businesses home if we can.
3:41
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
3:42
Speaker 3: So a couple of things I want to talk to
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Speaker 3: you about. Brett talked about just a moment ago, an
3:46
Speaker 3: issue that you had with a drain, brought you in
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Speaker 3: as a consultation on something along these lines. What is
3:51
Speaker 3: the role of a structural engineer when it comes to
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Speaker 3: home repairs, remodeling projects, and things like that. How can
3:56
Speaker 3: you be of assistance? Sure?
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Speaker 7: So, what I deal with very often is I show
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Speaker 7: up to a home and they've had two, three, four
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Speaker 7: different contractors out and they all have a little different
4:06
Speaker 7: same neighborhood, just a little different strategy. So what I
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Speaker 7: like to tell them is I give them the roadmap.
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Speaker 7: We're going to diagnose exactly what they need, give them
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Speaker 7: not too much, not too little, solve their problems and
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Speaker 7: and that way, once I write the report, issue their
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Speaker 7: their standard of repair, all the contractors can then come
4:22
Speaker 7: back and sort of bid apples to apples and they
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Speaker 7: can compare and see what they need.
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Speaker 3: So what you're really doing is arming the homeowner. To
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Speaker 3: some degree, you're giving them and in some cases there
4:30
Speaker 3: might be options, like you like a full repair, you
4:33
Speaker 3: need to do this. What's going to get you, you know,
4:35
Speaker 3: past a certain level or to get the spects or
4:37
Speaker 3: you know, minimum amount you can do whatever it might
4:38
Speaker 3: be to make it safe and that passes that passes mustard.
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Speaker 3: You're arming that homeowner with with I know that this
4:45
Speaker 3: needs to be done. So if somebody comes in to
4:47
Speaker 3: make a bed on a project or something like that,
4:48
Speaker 3: they know they're at least getting their minimum amount of
4:51
Speaker 3: work taken care of.
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Speaker 7: Sure A it's a big education process. This is what's
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Speaker 7: going on. These are sort of bare minimum things that
4:57
Speaker 7: you need. You know, ideally you may do these things
4:59
Speaker 7: as well, but never going to hold a gun to
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Speaker 7: them and say no, you have to do this, you know,
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Speaker 7: either way.
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Speaker 3: And and for our region. I talked to Brett about
5:06
Speaker 3: this all the time when he comes on the program.
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Speaker 3: And when you said that you give folks that contact
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Speaker 3: you a roadmap, and our region, because of our our terrain,
5:15
Speaker 3: the weather we get and things like that, the roadmap
5:17
Speaker 3: really could be you could have a couple of different
5:18
Speaker 3: directions to get to the same place.
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Speaker 7: Absolutely, yeah, more than one white to skin a cat.
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Speaker 7: You know, there's there's high level, medium level, lower level,
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Speaker 7: you know, items that are maybe some work a little
5:27
Speaker 7: better than others, but all can can sort of get
5:29
Speaker 7: us at the end of the road to the same point.
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Speaker 3: And uh, and Brett, maybe you have something to say
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Speaker 3: about this as well. But when it comes to a
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Speaker 3: homeowner that's trying to make the you know, a homewner
5:37
Speaker 3: might say, well, I already have a contractor. A contractor
5:40
Speaker 3: knows how to do all these things, so why would
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Speaker 3: I need an additional level of expertise on top of this.
5:44
Speaker 3: I've already contracted a contractor. But really we're talking about
5:48
Speaker 3: two different things. A contractor may not knows how to
5:50
Speaker 3: do the construction work, but there's a lot of things
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Speaker 3: that goes into engineering that a general contractor may not
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Speaker 3: or may need a consultation for.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's very true. One of the to me, one
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Speaker 4: of the biggest benefits of having an engineer, especially a
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Speaker 4: third party engineer involved, is is they're going to have
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Speaker 4: that documentation. They're going to have a report that's generated
6:10
Speaker 4: before the work begins. As the project goes along, the
6:15
Speaker 4: contractors doing the work, they can come in and document
6:17
Speaker 4: the work. And then at the end of it they
6:19
Speaker 4: can they can provide documentation. This is all critical information,
6:23
Speaker 4: especially in the event you're putting the house on the
6:25
Speaker 4: market to sell. These these documents can be used as
6:29
Speaker 4: a disclosure of what what what happened. And I've seen
6:34
Speaker 4: oftentimes that it's used as a selling feature where people
6:37
Speaker 4: actually place these documents out on the on the counter
6:39
Speaker 4: and and and and it helps them actually sell the
6:43
Speaker 4: house because you know, home buyer goes through a lot
6:45
Speaker 4: of houses before they select one, and oftentimes they've been
6:49
Speaker 4: in houses that need repairs or have been repaired already,
6:53
Speaker 4: so they're kind of getting exposure to this. So that's
6:56
Speaker 4: you know, knowing that it's been done, it's been done correctly,
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Speaker 4: with some oversight to me is a critical thing.
7:03
Speaker 3: That's Brett Haston, owner of Foster Foundation Repair online Foster
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Speaker 3: Foundation Repair dot Com. That's Foster Is that right, Foster
7:09
Speaker 3: Foundation Repair dot I thought, yeah, you don't have a
7:11
Speaker 3: WV in. Here's okay, Foster Foundation Repair dot Com. They're
7:14
Speaker 3: on a what a we're laying here in Charleston. I'll
7:17
Speaker 3: give you the phone number and stuff as we go along.
7:18
Speaker 3: I don't want to give you too much information at
7:20
Speaker 3: one time because it's impossible for you to write it down,
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Speaker 3: so I'll let you know when I want to get
7:22
Speaker 3: that information out to you. And Jared from Jared Gray
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Speaker 3: from Solid Ground Engineering. When somebody is doing you know,
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Speaker 3: whether they're remodel or they're getting some repairs done to
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Speaker 3: sell something, or they're just getting some repairs done at
7:35
Speaker 3: their home, you know they've noticed some offso lessons that
7:37
Speaker 3: they need to get repaired, or they're looking to make
7:39
Speaker 3: an addition refinance and maybe you know they're trying to
7:42
Speaker 3: sprew some things up or something like that. But you
7:44
Speaker 3: notice an issue in your basement, you know, you're cleaning up,
7:46
Speaker 3: you're doing whatever it might be, and there's you notice
7:48
Speaker 3: a crack or a little moisture something along those lines,
7:50
Speaker 3: when is it time that you need to maybe take
7:54
Speaker 3: a pause on calling the contractor for the work, and
7:56
Speaker 3: maybe we need to get an engineer in here to
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Speaker 3: look at this sure.
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Speaker 7: So one of the taglines I use a lot is
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Speaker 7: Saggi floor is binding doors, cracks in your foundation wall,
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Speaker 7: West Virginia. This area, our soils are expansive, They're always
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Speaker 7: shifting and moving depending on season, moisture content. So there's
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Speaker 7: probably not a house out there that doesn't have some condition,
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Speaker 7: a little sag, a little crack somewhere, But definitely at
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Speaker 7: when it raises to that level that you really should
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Speaker 7: consult someone is if you've maybe patched cracks or patched
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Speaker 7: areas and they continue to reopen, or you have doors
8:25
Speaker 7: that maybe don't want to close right or windows that
8:27
Speaker 7: don't want to close right either certain seasons or at
8:29
Speaker 7: certain times, probably.
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Speaker 6: Time to take a closer look.
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Speaker 7: Let's dig a little deeper, see what's going on, and
8:35
Speaker 7: at least maybe start strategizing for what you need to do.
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Speaker 3: As far as some of the common things that you
8:39
Speaker 3: see in this area of folks that homeowners should just
8:42
Speaker 3: kind of have a baseline be aware of it. If
8:44
Speaker 3: you're a homeowner in our region. Here's some things that
8:46
Speaker 3: you really just want to look look into over the
8:49
Speaker 3: course of home ownership, ten, twenty fifteen years, whatever it
8:51
Speaker 3: might be. What are some of the more common problems.
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Speaker 7: So key for everything is water, you know, whether it's
8:56
Speaker 7: a roof leak, a wall leak, a foundation leak. Water
8:58
Speaker 7: is the big deteriorating element. So I mean, if we
9:00
Speaker 7: keep a house dry, it would pretty much last forever.
9:03
Speaker 7: So with that, keeping gutters clean, you know, keeping tree
9:07
Speaker 7: limbs trimmed back to keep your gutters clean, down spouts,
9:10
Speaker 7: making sure that they're flowing freely and directing that water
9:12
Speaker 7: away from the house, and then your yard areas. Whenever
9:14
Speaker 7: they build a house, the soils around the house are
9:17
Speaker 7: soft and they tend to settle back and reverse that
9:19
Speaker 7: slope and that grade back towards the foundation of the home.
9:22
Speaker 7: So it's maintaining your landscaping, your bedding so that everything's
9:25
Speaker 7: the house is sort of a high point and everything's
9:27
Speaker 7: directed and running away from that.
9:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Just things you
9:31
Speaker 3: need to make sure that you're taking care of and Rrett.
9:33
Speaker 3: When you're doing working a home, somebody contracts you and
9:37
Speaker 3: if it's a foundation or a basement issue, something along
9:39
Speaker 3: those lines. Again, you have a you have a level
9:42
Speaker 3: of knowledge already from having an engineering degree where you
9:46
Speaker 3: can take a look at these things, and sometimes you
9:47
Speaker 3: do need an independent eye. What types of problems you
9:50
Speaker 3: run into that you find that it's common that you
9:52
Speaker 3: need to maybe call in an independent helpful. Is it
9:55
Speaker 3: primarily just to alleviate a client's concern that that to
9:59
Speaker 3: make to get another opinion, or are there really some
10:02
Speaker 3: issues that you know, I need some help on this,
10:03
Speaker 3: I need another set of eyes.
10:05
Speaker 4: So probably the most common time I'm going to really
10:08
Speaker 4: push for for Jared to come in or another engineer
10:10
Speaker 4: to come in, uh, is when when the client's telling
10:13
Speaker 4: me they've had multiple estimates and and Jared brought this
10:17
Speaker 4: up earlier about multiple a client who has had multiple
10:20
Speaker 4: contractors with different plans. That was also one of my
10:24
Speaker 4: most common calls to be brought in before I bought Foster.
10:30
Speaker 4: So when when I start hearing that they've had a
10:31
Speaker 4: lot of different estimates, generally I'm going to start talking
10:36
Speaker 4: that you might want to get an independent individual because
10:39
Speaker 4: typically one one one estimate might be fixed in the
10:43
Speaker 4: back of the house. Well, it might be fixed in
10:45
Speaker 4: the front of the house, and and normally there's some
10:49
Speaker 4: It's like Jared said, it's a roadmap. It's a single direction,
10:53
Speaker 4: uh for for the project to go. And so that's
10:56
Speaker 4: that's what I one of the main reasons I would
10:58
Speaker 4: bring him in.
11:00
Speaker 3: Welcome to set us questions this morning. If you have
11:01
Speaker 3: questions for either Jared or for Break, you can give
11:04
Speaker 3: us a call three rough four three four five fifty
11:06
Speaker 3: eight fifty eight and also text over questions to three
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Speaker 3: zero four nine three five five zeros er eight three
11:10
Speaker 3: zero four nine three five five zero zero eighth And Jared,
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Speaker 3: when you're when you are calling into a home and
11:15
Speaker 3: you're assessing some problems and since some breats here, we'll
11:18
Speaker 3: talk about foundations and basements and things along those lines.
11:20
Speaker 3: How do how do you assess the severity of that?
11:23
Speaker 3: We've talked on this program before about you know, kind
11:25
Speaker 3: of tracking cracks and you know if they continue to
11:29
Speaker 3: expand in different problems along those lines. But what are
11:31
Speaker 3: you looking for when you're looking at a house and
11:33
Speaker 3: where are you advising of the homeowners?
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Speaker 7: Yeah, so I do a pretty detailed assessment, not just
11:38
Speaker 7: I like to look at your crack, like to see
11:40
Speaker 7: your cracks, but I'm also going to measure those. I
11:42
Speaker 7: do a diagnostic fairly simple movement diagram. I sketch out
11:46
Speaker 7: the house, take elevations, take profiles, so we can sort
11:49
Speaker 7: of see what are those cracks telling us. You know,
11:51
Speaker 7: there's codes on how to build houses, how they should
11:54
Speaker 7: be whenever they construct them. Once a house is existing,
11:57
Speaker 7: once it starts shifting and moving, there's really no code.
11:59
Speaker 7: There's no guideline, there's no baseline that says when do
12:01
Speaker 7: we fix it? So we look at the environment, We
12:04
Speaker 7: look at how much shifting there is, reoccurring movement, cracks
12:07
Speaker 7: that have been passionate reopened. But at that I take
12:10
Speaker 7: a lot of measurements, a lot of to diagnose the
12:12
Speaker 7: cracks and see what's moving.
12:14
Speaker 3: Ye, that makes a lot of sense. And right touched
12:16
Speaker 3: on this a little bit earlier, but generally speaking, engineering
12:19
Speaker 3: reports are used sometimes now as as a bolster for selling.
12:22
Speaker 3: You know, you can get a report and show that
12:24
Speaker 3: either something has been evaluated and not a problem, or
12:27
Speaker 3: if it was a repair dning you had an engineered
12:30
Speaker 3: that was consulting on that, you can provide that so
12:32
Speaker 3: that is something for somebody that's looking to sell their
12:34
Speaker 3: home that is a benefit that can help in the market,
12:37
Speaker 3: especially in this competitive marketplace that we have now.
12:40
Speaker 7: Sure, it's definitely a tool well a lot of times,
12:42
Speaker 7: either you know, at the listing phase or once they
12:44
Speaker 7: get in the transaction and the praiser comes out and
12:46
Speaker 7: sees a crack, it can be a really valuable tool
12:49
Speaker 7: to help help grease the wheels and have that transaction proceed.
12:52
Speaker 3: Let me flip that question just a little bit. If
12:55
Speaker 3: and this is maybe something you would be called one
12:57
Speaker 3: if somebody was trying to make their decision. But a
12:59
Speaker 3: home owner that out there looking to make a purchase
13:01
Speaker 3: right now, is there any like quick red flags that
13:05
Speaker 3: you could give them when they're taking a look at
13:07
Speaker 3: it around the house. You know, they're looking at the basement, foundation,
13:09
Speaker 3: anything along those lines, even the homes are doorframes of
13:11
Speaker 3: the house. Is there any red flags that they should
13:13
Speaker 3: be aware of that maybe we should have somebody look
13:16
Speaker 3: at this before we make an offer.
13:18
Speaker 6: Sure, rob, I mean the obvious ones.
13:19
Speaker 7: If they walk in and it's like a funhouse, if
13:21
Speaker 7: you can feel elevation changes as you're walking through the home. Again,
13:25
Speaker 7: the cracks along doorways, window openings, moisture stains, moisture, water damage,
13:31
Speaker 7: materials in the basement or the lowest levels. Those are all,
13:34
Speaker 7: you know, pretty obvious things that they would.
13:36
Speaker 3: Key you on. And that's from somebody perspectively purchasing the home. Bret.
13:40
Speaker 3: From your standpoint, if someone's looking to sell, or they're
13:43
Speaker 3: looking at these problems, or they've just ran into these
13:44
Speaker 3: problems in their family home over the course of time,
13:46
Speaker 3: this is exactly the type of thing that you can
13:47
Speaker 3: come in and assist with.
13:49
Speaker 6: Yes, yeah, this is.
13:50
Speaker 4: You know, we'll take either we'll do our own assessment
13:53
Speaker 4: or take an assessment of somebody like Jared for another engineer,
13:56
Speaker 4: and provide an estimate and go through there and fix
14:00
Speaker 4: as it needs to be done.
14:02
Speaker 3: How do you determine the best solution when you run
14:04
Speaker 3: into a problem, like if it's peers or waterproofing reinforcements
14:07
Speaker 3: for a failing foundation, whatever it might be, how do
14:10
Speaker 3: you kind of come to that assessment. I mean, there's
14:13
Speaker 3: a lot of.
14:13
Speaker 4: Factors to consider that. Our goal is to provide the cheapest,
14:18
Speaker 4: the least expensive option that will resolve the issue permanently
14:22
Speaker 4: or meet whatever the owner's expectations. Are Sometimes sometimes the
14:28
Speaker 4: goal is not to make it perfectly correct, or it's
14:32
Speaker 4: it's more or less to extend it a certain amount
14:35
Speaker 4: of time. So essentially our goal is to fix it
14:39
Speaker 4: as with the least cost involved and also meet the
14:43
Speaker 4: owner's expectations. But you know, factors on the property such
14:47
Speaker 4: as retaining walls and access, there's those All those things
14:51
Speaker 4: are significant, significantly impact what what direction we would we
14:55
Speaker 4: would select to go with the project, and I think
14:58
Speaker 4: Jared would also has to take that into consideration.
15:01
Speaker 2: I know he does.
15:02
Speaker 4: If we can't get an excavator out behind a house
15:05
Speaker 4: where you know, that's going to limit our options and
15:08
Speaker 4: would limit his recommendations to what we would do.
15:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. If you have
15:13
Speaker 3: a text that came in from the three rough four
15:15
Speaker 3: nine nine three, this is basically what we just talked about.
15:17
Speaker 3: But see if either of you have anything more to
15:18
Speaker 3: say about this. I'm looking to sell my home in
15:20
Speaker 3: the next year. Should I go ahead and get a
15:22
Speaker 3: structural inspection before listing? I'll go ahead and let you
15:26
Speaker 3: tackle that.
15:27
Speaker 7: Yes, definitely talk to a realtor in that situation. It's
15:30
Speaker 7: sort of I'm always going to say yes if you've
15:32
Speaker 7: got cracks and you've got concerns. I'd love to come
15:34
Speaker 7: out and take a look at it again. It can
15:36
Speaker 7: be very beneficial to know where you're standing. Are you
15:39
Speaker 7: looking at a major problem? Are you looking at something
15:41
Speaker 7: that just needs patched up and throw or for sale
15:44
Speaker 7: sign in the yard.
15:45
Speaker 4: I mean, I think as a person that used to
15:49
Speaker 4: do be in that line of work, it no longer
15:51
Speaker 4: is I think it is proveent. I mean, I think
15:53
Speaker 4: it would be wise. It again goes back to the
15:56
Speaker 4: selling feature. Even if there is no problem, it's going
15:58
Speaker 4: to set the house a part. If there is no issues,
16:02
Speaker 4: it's going to give a buyer much more confidence to
16:05
Speaker 4: even make that initial offer on the property.
16:08
Speaker 3: Have you seen and this is bouncing around just a
16:10
Speaker 3: little bit, but I was looking at environmental trends in
16:14
Speaker 3: West Virginia, weather data, things along those lines. There's no
16:16
Speaker 3: question that our seasons have changed, just in a relatively
16:19
Speaker 3: short amount of time, last decade, fifteen years, something like that.
16:22
Speaker 3: The length of our seasons have changed, the moisture content
16:24
Speaker 3: of our seasons have changed. I mean, it's fairly obvious
16:27
Speaker 3: when you look at the data. For whatever reason, it's
16:29
Speaker 3: definitely getting different. Is that creating a different set of problems,
16:34
Speaker 3: say now and in the next ten years, as opposed
16:37
Speaker 3: to what we had seen up until maybe ten years
16:39
Speaker 3: ago in the past.
16:42
Speaker 6: So historically I would say no.
16:45
Speaker 7: But those trends, like the season that we're in right now,
16:48
Speaker 7: sort of dog days of summer rain sort of stops.
16:51
Speaker 7: You've walking around your yard, you're seeing cracks in the
16:53
Speaker 7: soil again. Our soils where they're expansive and they're sort
16:56
Speaker 7: of influenced by moisture, they're going to start shrinking. So
16:59
Speaker 7: it's this area from sort of now it' till November.
17:03
Speaker 7: Foundation Settlement's really common. You know, even houses that have
17:06
Speaker 7: not moved before a corner drops or a chimney starts
17:08
Speaker 7: to rotate away because those soils under the house are
17:11
Speaker 7: sort of shrinking and drawing up.
17:14
Speaker 6: At this point, you.
17:15
Speaker 3: Bring up a good point here, and as Brendosa, oftentimes
17:18
Speaker 3: we talk about things that makes me have to talk
17:19
Speaker 3: about something that's going on in my house, and this
17:22
Speaker 3: is one of those situations. I have such terrible soil erosion.
17:26
Speaker 3: I have soil erosion. I have three giant trees in
17:29
Speaker 3: my yard between the front and the back that they
17:32
Speaker 3: need to go it's an ongoing thing between me and
17:33
Speaker 3: my wife. Let's get rid of the trees. No, the
17:35
Speaker 3: squirrels won't have anywhere to live anyway. But what I'm seeing,
17:40
Speaker 3: I have roots that penetrate up from my ground. They're
17:43
Speaker 3: encroaching towards the house, you know, because they're spreading out.
17:46
Speaker 3: All of these things can play into some problems with
17:49
Speaker 3: like how you retain moisture, where the moisture is, how
17:52
Speaker 3: your foundation reacts to those things. I mean that those
17:55
Speaker 3: create their own like sort of environment, right having so
17:57
Speaker 3: many trees in your area.
17:58
Speaker 7: Oh, absolutely, absolutely, vegetation has a lot to do with
18:02
Speaker 7: that's a lot of those tree roots. I'm no arborist,
18:05
Speaker 7: but they're invasive. They're going to search out and find moisture.
18:08
Speaker 7: So whenever we do foundation repairs and we dig up drains,
18:11
Speaker 7: a lot of times those existing drains, it'll almost look
18:14
Speaker 7: like a filter membrane or a just the root structure
18:17
Speaker 7: that's through those those drain pipes. It looks like a
18:20
Speaker 7: sponge where they've just gone in there and they're sucking
18:22
Speaker 7: that moisture, which is a good thing. They're pulling moisture away,
18:26
Speaker 7: but they're also clogging the drains and they're no longer
18:28
Speaker 7: functioning properly.
18:29
Speaker 3: The may but there may be situations where somebody to
18:31
Speaker 3: really treat their property correctly, they might have to get
18:34
Speaker 3: rid of those trees or triming bike or something like
18:36
Speaker 3: that that has to happen, I would assume.
18:39
Speaker 7: So huge generality, which is really dangerous, I would discuss.
18:42
Speaker 7: But if you look at a tree branch bloom, you know,
18:45
Speaker 7: the bloom of your branches is pretty close to your
18:48
Speaker 7: root bloom. So if you've got tree branches that are
18:50
Speaker 7: overhanging your roof, you probably have roots from that same
18:53
Speaker 7: tree that are against your foundation and possibly in your
18:56
Speaker 7: foundation drains, your sewer drains, or any any subsurface piping.
19:00
Speaker 3: So that's a great point and stuff something that people
19:03
Speaker 3: need to be aware of.
19:04
Speaker 4: Sure, so I tend I don't have any firm data
19:07
Speaker 4: on this, but it seems like when I see when
19:10
Speaker 4: I go out to a property and I'm in evaluating
19:12
Speaker 4: and essentially I'm I'm observing drought related settlement, it always
19:16
Speaker 4: seems like there's a large oak tree within ten to
19:18
Speaker 4: fifteen feet of the house chair. Do you do you
19:20
Speaker 4: have any do you see that as well?
19:23
Speaker 7: Absolutely? And so again huge generality. But what I tell
19:26
Speaker 7: most folks, if the tree is bigger than your forearm,
19:29
Speaker 7: you probably want that thing fifteen to twenty feet away from
19:32
Speaker 7: your foundation wall.
19:32
Speaker 6: Get it out.
19:33
Speaker 7: If it's closer than that, unfortunately, you probably gott to
19:36
Speaker 7: terminate that squirrell's residency.
19:39
Speaker 3: I need to record. Luckily we're on podcasts. If you
19:42
Speaker 3: see it's just Network dot Com slash podcast. You can
19:44
Speaker 3: find it on here. I need to play this back
19:45
Speaker 3: for my wife when we get home tonight. Honey. It's
19:47
Speaker 3: not my fault, the experts say it. I get rid
19:49
Speaker 3: of the trees, man, because it's really bad. I mean,
19:53
Speaker 3: the the amount of penetration we're getting from the roots
19:57
Speaker 3: is pretty bad. And notinly that man, but I mean,
20:00
Speaker 3: no matter how much we have them cut back, it
20:02
Speaker 3: seems like they're growing back in no time to go
20:04
Speaker 3: over a roof, and it's just too much trouble man.
20:06
Speaker 3: The squirrels need to find another place.
20:08
Speaker 7: And so the shade from that creates moss on your shingles.
20:11
Speaker 7: It creates shade around the home. All wood destroying insects, carpenterts, terminites,
20:16
Speaker 7: they like damp, moist areas. So yeah, the trees close
20:20
Speaker 7: to the house. Other than there's a little bit of
20:22
Speaker 7: beneficial to you know, conditioning heat and cooling you.
20:24
Speaker 6: You've probably get a little shade.
20:26
Speaker 3: You believe me. One side of my yard is completely moss.
20:28
Speaker 3: So yeah, we're getting real issues with moisture and with
20:31
Speaker 3: not enough sunlight over there that I keep them pointing
20:33
Speaker 3: these things out. It's like, honey, this is not healthy.
20:35
Speaker 3: It's great I don't have to mow it, but that
20:37
Speaker 3: doesn't mean that it's any good for us, you know
20:39
Speaker 3: what I mean. Let's do this. Let's go ahead and
20:41
Speaker 3: take a break. We still have plenty of things that
20:42
Speaker 3: we're going to talk about. Plus I think I got
20:43
Speaker 3: a couple more text questions in here. We're having a
20:45
Speaker 3: great conversation this morning. If you have any questions at
20:48
Speaker 3: all about your about your foundation repair, or about anything
20:54
Speaker 3: like that when it comes to your home, you could
20:56
Speaker 3: give us a call this morning and we can help
20:58
Speaker 3: you out with that. We're gonna ahead and take a
20:59
Speaker 3: break and we'll be back right after this. You're listening
21:01
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22:15
Speaker 3: Sixteen minutes until the top of the hour you're listening
22:18
Speaker 3: to not five eighty live. I did that last week,
22:21
Speaker 3: and that's coming up next with Dave Allen. He's back
22:23
Speaker 3: this week, as you probably know because you listened yesterday.
22:25
Speaker 3: But I'm Del Cooper. You're listening to ask the Expert.
22:27
Speaker 3: Having a great discussion this morning. I've been looking forward
22:29
Speaker 3: to this since I knew we're going to have it.
22:31
Speaker 3: Brett Hodgen is here for his regular Tuesday show and
22:34
Speaker 3: he's from Foster Foundation Repair. You can find out more
22:36
Speaker 3: information online. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot com. Their phone
22:39
Speaker 3: number three zer a four seven seven six sixty two
22:41
Speaker 3: sixty three. That's three zero four seven seven six sixty
22:44
Speaker 3: two sixty three. Have a special guest this morning. The
22:46
Speaker 3: owner of Solid Ground Engineering, Jared Gray, is with us
22:49
Speaker 3: as well. You can find more information out about Solid
22:51
Speaker 3: Ground Engineering online. That's solid GROUNDWV dot com, solid Ground
22:55
Speaker 3: WV dot com and their phone number three zer a
22:56
Speaker 3: four none four one three non none eight threes zero
22:59
Speaker 3: four nine four one three nine eight. Taking your phone
23:02
Speaker 3: calls at three zero four three four five fifty eight
23:03
Speaker 3: fifty eight. He can send over text questions to three
23:06
Speaker 3: zero four nine three five five zero zero eight from
23:08
Speaker 3: the six eight one two zero seven. What are the
23:11
Speaker 3: signs my cross space needs encapsulation and is it worth
23:15
Speaker 3: the investment. Well, Brett, we've always heard you talk about
23:18
Speaker 3: it encapsulation before. That's something that Foster does.
23:20
Speaker 4: Yes, I'd love to hear Jared's opinions on this, because
23:24
Speaker 4: I know he recommends it from time to time and
23:27
Speaker 4: I've never picked his brain as to why. Yeah, let's see,
23:31
Speaker 4: there's certainly a great product.
23:34
Speaker 3: What do you think about it, Jared?
23:35
Speaker 7: Yeah, so I am a big fan of crawl space encapsulation.
23:38
Speaker 7: Building codes require crawl spaces the area under your house
23:42
Speaker 7: subgrade to be ventilated, and so really most of the
23:45
Speaker 7: time what that's doing is letting hot, humid air come
23:47
Speaker 7: into that cool crawl space, almost like a cave atmosphere.
23:50
Speaker 7: So it's really common to have condensation, moisture, mildew, fungus
23:54
Speaker 7: in those areas. So what necessitates that is if you
23:59
Speaker 7: are seeing moisture stains, if you're seeing looks like a
24:02
Speaker 7: biology lab little green, little black, little fuzzy stuff up
24:05
Speaker 7: when you're wood framing, then that's definitely key up or
24:09
Speaker 7: evidence of poor ventilation excess moisture in those areas.
24:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's something that you are curious about. That
24:15
Speaker 3: something used to certainly follow up one. I wish that
24:18
Speaker 3: I had a more accessible cross space because this is
24:20
Speaker 3: I'd have to tear up my floor. As I thought
24:21
Speaker 3: to Brett about this before, I don't think it's a
24:23
Speaker 3: real accessible thing for me, but I know it would
24:25
Speaker 3: help my house because I have those moisture issues. I
24:28
Speaker 3: know that would help quite a bit.
24:29
Speaker 7: Yeah, that they help with bugs and critters, creepy crawleys
24:31
Speaker 7: and then definitely those moisture odors, that sort of thing.
24:34
Speaker 3: Boy, now this is something. Now I could get my
24:36
Speaker 3: wife on this. I could get her on board of this.
24:38
Speaker 3: She wasn't cut down the trees, but she would probably
24:40
Speaker 3: do this. She's like, what less bugs? That would be
24:42
Speaker 3: great her and my kid both. I'm like the designated
24:45
Speaker 3: you know, bug squisher or whatever you know, and my
24:47
Speaker 3: nights are busy these days. There's a whole lot of
24:50
Speaker 3: creepy crawleys around.
24:51
Speaker 4: Jared, would you mind giving it like a brief description
24:54
Speaker 4: of what a cross space encapsulation system is?
24:58
Speaker 6: Sure?
24:58
Speaker 3: Sure?
24:59
Speaker 7: So with space encapsulation, what the goal there is is
25:03
Speaker 7: to air seal. We want to keep any exterior sources
25:07
Speaker 7: of moisture and air out of that cross spaced area.
25:09
Speaker 7: So they're going to go through and have a barrier,
25:12
Speaker 7: silicone foam, spray foam seilant any little cracks openings down
25:17
Speaker 7: the side walls. They're going to use a thick liner
25:21
Speaker 7: similar to what you might think of like a pool liner,
25:23
Speaker 7: and they're going to coat the walls and all the
25:25
Speaker 7: floors and any foundation piers in that area. And then
25:28
Speaker 7: once it's sealed up, they're going to use either air
25:31
Speaker 7: movers or a demdification system to help that area have
25:35
Speaker 7: some some airflow.
25:36
Speaker 3: It sounds nice, I mean, honestly, it sounds pretty good.
25:40
Speaker 3: And Brett, like we said, I don't want to leave
25:41
Speaker 3: this of this is something that someone is interested in
25:43
Speaker 3: that something Foster Foundation Repair can definitely help with.
25:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, feel free to reach out to our office number
25:48
Speaker 4: and we can. We can come out and take a
25:50
Speaker 4: look at it and tell you what it would take
25:52
Speaker 4: to do on and you can reach us at three
25:54
Speaker 4: or four seven, seven, six, six two sixty three.
25:58
Speaker 3: When when you see stand water when your property, is
26:02
Speaker 3: it always a problem or when is it a problem?
26:06
Speaker 3: We'll let Jered take that one.
26:07
Speaker 7: Well, if there's fishing out of this lot of problem, yeah,
26:09
Speaker 7: good point, just bate up. Yeah, So again the big
26:13
Speaker 7: thing is the proximity to your residence. Generalities again are dangerous,
26:17
Speaker 7: but by and large, moisture is going to perk through
26:20
Speaker 7: those soils. That's sort of a one to one ratio.
26:23
Speaker 6: So if your.
26:24
Speaker 7: Basement's eight ten feet deep, we want any big drainage areas,
26:27
Speaker 7: any moisture areas ten fifteen feet away from the house,
26:30
Speaker 7: so that moisture doesn't want to perk back to your
26:32
Speaker 7: under house, basement or cross based areas.
26:34
Speaker 3: Now, that makes a lot of sense. You mentioned earlier
26:37
Speaker 3: about that you have a method of tracking separation cracks
26:42
Speaker 3: and different things along those lines. What progression are you
26:44
Speaker 3: looking for it for it to be a problem, and
26:45
Speaker 3: when does that become a problem when there is a
26:47
Speaker 3: crack that is expanding to some degree.
26:49
Speaker 7: Sure, so it's very unique and there's not a case
26:51
Speaker 7: by case answer. Some homes, I'll go and take elevations.
26:55
Speaker 7: I use a self leveling laser level, so I don't
26:59
Speaker 7: do surveying like off GPS coordinates to figure out your
27:01
Speaker 7: elevation on sea level. I do a local elevation change.
27:05
Speaker 7: Some houses there'll be two three four inches diagonally across
27:09
Speaker 7: the house.
27:10
Speaker 6: No crack.
27:10
Speaker 7: Maybe it was built that way. Maybe it's always been
27:12
Speaker 7: that way, maybe it's settled a little. But if it's
27:14
Speaker 7: not affecting your service ability, your occupancy, then it's sort.
27:17
Speaker 6: Of not a problem.
27:18
Speaker 7: When it becomes an issue is when it is affecting serviceability.
27:22
Speaker 7: Doors aren't opening, windows aren't opening. It can even affect
27:25
Speaker 7: your drain slopes, your your sewage drains may not want
27:28
Speaker 7: to flow properly. That's when we start, you know, looking
27:33
Speaker 7: at red repair methods.
27:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, that also makes a lot of sense because you
27:37
Speaker 3: have to you have to be aware of, cognisant of
27:39
Speaker 3: all those things as you're going along. There's no doubt
27:41
Speaker 3: having a great conversation this morning. If you want to
27:44
Speaker 3: get in on it, you're more than welcome to. We
27:45
Speaker 3: have a few minutes left in the program, about ten
27:47
Speaker 3: minutes or so. You can give us a call three
27:48
Speaker 3: zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. You
27:49
Speaker 3: can text three zero four nine three five five Zeroser eighth.
27:52
Speaker 3: The owner of Foster Foundation affair of freet Hodgson is here.
27:55
Speaker 3: You can find out more information online. It's Foster Foundation
27:57
Speaker 3: Repair dot com. And we have a special guest this morning.
27:59
Speaker 3: The owner of Solid Ground Engineering, Jared Gray, is with
28:02
Speaker 3: us as well solid GROUNDWV dot com. Solid GROUNDWV dot com.
28:05
Speaker 3: You're welcome to get ahold of us on the text
28:07
Speaker 3: line the last few minutes that we have three zero
28:08
Speaker 3: four nine three five five zero resure eight, or you
28:11
Speaker 3: can give us a call three zer a four three
28:12
Speaker 3: four five fifty eight fifty eight. Threes are a four
28:15
Speaker 3: three four five fifty eight fifty eight when you're have
28:19
Speaker 3: you found a two part question? Do you find, generally speaking,
28:22
Speaker 3: that people are surprised at the I guess condition of
28:28
Speaker 3: their house and foundation after an assessment? Is there usually
28:32
Speaker 3: surprises I guess involved?
28:34
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, I would say half the time.
28:38
Speaker 6: Most of the time.
28:39
Speaker 7: Most most folks realize that, and they know that it's
28:41
Speaker 7: sort of they're avoiding it. You know, it's the dark,
28:43
Speaker 7: creepy corner. We don't want to go there, We don't
28:45
Speaker 7: want to look at it. Husbands especially, I'm guilty. So
28:49
Speaker 7: a lot of the clients are the wives that are
28:51
Speaker 7: concerned about, you know, things that keep reoccurring or keep changing.
28:54
Speaker 3: Man, that makes a lot of sense, hits me right
28:58
Speaker 3: in the soft spot. I have to admit. My follow
29:00
Speaker 3: up to that then would also be that that I
29:04
Speaker 3: kind of equate this with preventative maintenance or preventative healthcare,
29:08
Speaker 3: like going to a doctor and seeing and getting your
29:11
Speaker 3: yearly check up and things and what's wrong. It wouldn't
29:14
Speaker 3: be a bad idea for a homeowner. I don't think
29:17
Speaker 3: to get a relatively regular inspection as far as from
29:21
Speaker 3: an engineer goes. If you're really wanting to keep your
29:24
Speaker 3: home and tiptop shape, keep track of any problems that
29:27
Speaker 3: might be happening. It seems like to me that that
29:30
Speaker 3: would be a good investment.
29:31
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it would be a perfect honeydoo list.
29:34
Speaker 6: You know, these are the things to be aware of
29:36
Speaker 6: to watch for.
29:37
Speaker 7: You can make these minor improvements and the definitely try
29:39
Speaker 7: to avoid costly repairs down the road.
29:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like if you can avoid the foundation
29:44
Speaker 3: issues or avoid the water penetration or even delay. I mean,
29:48
Speaker 3: you know, if you do something in your home that's
29:49
Speaker 3: going to help, anything like that's going to help, and
29:52
Speaker 3: home repairs can get expensive and and they're always inconvenient,
29:55
Speaker 3: So I mean anything that we could do to prevent
29:57
Speaker 3: some of those things is probably a good thing. However,
29:59
Speaker 3: you know, when prevention doesn't work or if you need help,
30:02
Speaker 3: you know a lot of times it's it's both things,
30:04
Speaker 3: right Brett, where you have to address the problem that
30:07
Speaker 3: has already been created, but also prevent the problem from
30:10
Speaker 3: happening more in the future. Yeah.
30:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, most of our repairs involve addressing not only the
30:14
Speaker 4: symptoms but the source. So fixing down spout drains or
30:18
Speaker 4: whatever the drainage issues out front. We don't get into
30:22
Speaker 4: the gutters and the down spouts once they're above ground.
30:25
Speaker 4: That's that's that would be a different contractor.
30:27
Speaker 3: But yeah, we're.
30:29
Speaker 4: Definitely gonna hit both both the source and the problem.
30:33
Speaker 3: And so if somebody were interested in getting for example,
30:38
Speaker 3: they know that they have issues, and they don't know
30:40
Speaker 3: if they if they necessarily need an engineer to look
30:41
Speaker 3: at it. They just know that they have an issue
30:44
Speaker 3: with their basement, they have some sort of leakach or
30:45
Speaker 3: something like that. That's just as easy as a phone
30:47
Speaker 3: call then, right that you come out to take a
30:48
Speaker 3: look see what's going on.
30:49
Speaker 4: Yes, so we'll come out. We can do a free estimate.
30:51
Speaker 4: If it's you know, a fairly straightforward problem, well we'll
30:55
Speaker 4: provide the estimate. If it requires a three hour inspection,
30:59
Speaker 4: then that's something we would refer to someone like Jared
31:03
Speaker 4: because we're doing free estimates. So it's you know, there
31:06
Speaker 4: are time limitations. I have other things that but I
31:10
Speaker 4: just don't have time to do those detailed inspections like
31:12
Speaker 4: that anymore.
31:13
Speaker 3: So, yeah, they can call us.
31:14
Speaker 4: They could certainly call an engineer, a third party engineer
31:17
Speaker 4: to set up an inspection and get a plan of
31:21
Speaker 4: action on paper that we would then just provide the
31:24
Speaker 4: estimate for.
31:25
Speaker 3: And then again specifically about yourself. The layer of a
31:30
Speaker 3: service that you specifically can provide is the fact that
31:34
Speaker 3: you having that background in engineering. Of someone like Jared
31:36
Speaker 3: does issue or report, you're able to talk to them
31:38
Speaker 3: on sort of a cohort basis that you understand the language,
31:41
Speaker 3: you understand what's being asked for, and you could almost
31:44
Speaker 3: on behalf of the home owner in some cases, Hey,
31:46
Speaker 3: this is what we're trying to do, and translate that
31:48
Speaker 3: as well as possible.
31:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can certainly interpret what the goals are of
31:54
Speaker 4: the repair, help people understand that. I mean, obviously Jared's
31:58
Speaker 4: still there to consult with for them the owner. But yeah,
32:02
Speaker 4: a good example, I'm going to a house later that
32:05
Speaker 4: that I went out to initially, and this is another
32:09
Speaker 4: situation where where I would defer or bring in recommend
32:12
Speaker 4: to the owner that Jared or another engineer be involved.
32:15
Speaker 4: But I want to I went out to a house.
32:18
Speaker 4: Uh it had already been repaired and been repaired recently.
32:21
Speaker 4: Uh and and and the repair was failing. Uh So
32:24
Speaker 4: at that point, uh, it's best as if an independent engineer,
32:29
Speaker 4: I'm a contractor, I stand to make money or profit
32:31
Speaker 4: off of off of the project. So that's another situation
32:34
Speaker 4: where bringing in a third party engineers is prudent who
32:38
Speaker 4: doesn't have any skin in the game like I would
32:40
Speaker 4: if I were to do the project. So uh And
32:42
Speaker 4: of course it you know, whoever did the work, would
32:45
Speaker 4: I guess quote unquote be my competition. Uh So there
32:48
Speaker 4: would be an appearance of impropriety there that I was
32:52
Speaker 4: going after my competition. So that that's another good example
32:55
Speaker 4: of of why Jared would be is a valuable member.
32:59
Speaker 3: Of the community. Jared, let me ask you this. We're
33:02
Speaker 3: wrapping up the program here, just a couple of minutes left.
33:04
Speaker 3: But I thought that if you had this one crazy trick,
33:08
Speaker 3: if you had if you had to tell people the
33:10
Speaker 3: one thing or maybe a couple of things, that that
33:14
Speaker 3: this is as a home owner, these are the things
33:15
Speaker 3: that you should do that has the greatest impact with
33:17
Speaker 3: the least amount of you know, investment, Like just a
33:20
Speaker 3: simple thing that everybody should do to keep their their
33:22
Speaker 3: house in best shape. Do you have any anything that
33:24
Speaker 3: you would recommend.
33:25
Speaker 7: Yes, So we sort of touched one of the really
33:27
Speaker 7: high value, easiest concept than something most homeowners can do
33:31
Speaker 7: is gutters and down spouts. If you walk around your
33:34
Speaker 7: house and your down spouts discharging right beside your foundation,
33:38
Speaker 7: that's a problem that's going to find its way back
33:40
Speaker 7: underneath of your home at some point. So putting an extension.
33:43
Speaker 7: You can go to Low's or a big box store,
33:44
Speaker 7: home depot wherever you choose, buy an extension and extend
33:47
Speaker 7: that further away. Yeah, you may have to move it
33:49
Speaker 7: when you're mowing the grass, but you want to get
33:51
Speaker 7: that water diverted away from the home.
33:54
Speaker 3: And so literally you don't have to I mean, you
33:57
Speaker 3: probably don't want to go uphill because it might come
33:59
Speaker 3: back down. But other than just it's like common sense
34:00
Speaker 3: stuff like that. Just you want to get it ten
34:03
Speaker 3: feet away from the foundation.
34:04
Speaker 7: Yeah, and they don't even have to be buried ideally
34:06
Speaker 7: they would aesthetically you might want that buried, but but
34:09
Speaker 7: out to tell folks all the time, if it's cold
34:11
Speaker 7: outside and it's going to freeze in your gutters, it's
34:13
Speaker 7: going to freeze in the yard drain, so water is
34:15
Speaker 7: going to run through that pass out and run away
34:17
Speaker 7: from the home. So yeah, it's just just sort of
34:19
Speaker 7: again the key element keeping your your home is as
34:22
Speaker 7: dry and the soils around your house as dry as
34:25
Speaker 7: stable as possible.
34:26
Speaker 3: So when you talk about burying it, that's nothing more
34:29
Speaker 3: than just digging a trench and burying it, right. I
34:30
Speaker 3: mean generally you don't need any special equipment or anything
34:32
Speaker 3: to do that, right.
34:33
Speaker 6: Just to call them miss utilities and make sure you're
34:34
Speaker 6: not going to dig.
34:35
Speaker 3: In an area I guess that sure's.
34:36
Speaker 6: Some complication there, but no otherwise.
34:39
Speaker 7: It can be just below the surface you have six
34:40
Speaker 7: eight ten inches deep and slope it away from the house.
34:43
Speaker 3: That kind of reminded me. I'm glad I saw this
34:45
Speaker 3: from the threes or of four six eight one. Do
34:47
Speaker 3: you need a permit or engineering plan or structural for
34:51
Speaker 3: structure repairs on a home or an addition?
34:54
Speaker 4: So for a permit, it depends on where the house
34:57
Speaker 4: is located. If it's if it's within a minnicipa that
35:00
Speaker 4: has permit requirements, then yes, you have to pull permit.
35:04
Speaker 4: And that means Charleston, South Charleston, Dunbar, Winfield, all the
35:08
Speaker 4: little towns, all the towns in the area for the
35:12
Speaker 4: most part, do require permit be pulled. There's not a
35:19
Speaker 4: requirement to my knowledge that that requires an engineering report
35:23
Speaker 4: for a foundation repair. I think there should be, because
35:25
Speaker 4: we're talking twenties thirties, you know, big expensive projects that
35:30
Speaker 4: sometimes have to get done twice if they're not done
35:33
Speaker 4: right the first time. So South Charleston's pretty good. They're
35:37
Speaker 4: they're probably the most strict about engineerings being involved. I
35:41
Speaker 4: don't know if your what your experience is with that,
35:43
Speaker 4: but generally when we're working in South Charleston, they're they're
35:47
Speaker 4: wanting a report or a document, a drawing for me
35:52
Speaker 4: with my engineering seal on it to say this is
35:54
Speaker 4: what we're going to do.
35:55
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Do you have anything to
35:57
Speaker 3: add to that character is that?
35:59
Speaker 2: No?
35:59
Speaker 6: I'm never involved that aspect.
36:00
Speaker 7: So I have worked in unis about in Charleston and
36:03
Speaker 7: Nitro South Charleston that have required that, But I think
36:05
Speaker 7: a lot of It depends on how the permit's pulled
36:08
Speaker 7: and the language that's used, and and what you know,
36:10
Speaker 7: the scope of the repair in general.
36:12
Speaker 3: That's good stuff. Let me get our contact information out
36:14
Speaker 3: to you one more time. We o it, I got
36:15
Speaker 3: a better a benut left in the program. So we want
36:17
Speaker 3: to make sure that you have all the contact information.
36:18
Speaker 3: Anything in here that kind of kind of rang your
36:20
Speaker 3: conscience this morning, and you need to make a phone call.
36:22
Speaker 3: First of all, Foster Foundation Repair Brett Haston was here
36:25
Speaker 3: with us this morning. Their phone numbers three zero four
36:26
Speaker 3: seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Three zero four,
36:29
Speaker 3: seven seven six sixty two sixty three is where you
36:32
Speaker 3: can find Foster Foundation Repair online. It's Foster Foundation Repair
36:35
Speaker 3: dot com. Foster Foundation Repair dot com located at forty
36:38
Speaker 3: two twenty six Woodrom Lane here in Charleston. And then
36:41
Speaker 3: our special guest this morning was the owner of Solid
36:44
Speaker 3: Ground Engineering and his name is Jared Gray. You can
36:48
Speaker 3: find out more information online. It's solid Ground WV dot com.
36:52
Speaker 3: Solid Ground WV dot com. His phone number three zero
36:55
Speaker 3: four none four one three nine nine eight. Is that right, Jared?
36:57
Speaker 3: I didn't check that with you. Is that correct? Okay? Good. OK.
37:00
Speaker 3: These are a four nine four one three non non
37:02
Speaker 3: eight for Solid Ground Engineering. Had a great discussion today
37:05
Speaker 3: talking about all the different aspects from both the Foster
37:08
Speaker 3: Foundation repair perspective and from the engineer Jared Grade from
37:10
Speaker 3: Solid Ground Engineering on various home repairs things you should
37:13
Speaker 3: be aware of, and hopefully a massively educational program for
37:17
Speaker 3: you if you missed any portion of it. If you
37:18
Speaker 3: want to go back and listen to at WCHS network
37:20
Speaker 3: dot com slash podcasts, all of our shows get archived there.
37:25
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for coming in today, Brett. Thank
37:26
Speaker 3: you for coming in as always, appreciate your time.
37:28
Speaker 4: YEP, thank you, Jared, Thank you for giving us a
37:30
Speaker 4: different perspective than.
37:31
Speaker 3: Money and Jared, it was a nice to meet you.
37:33
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for coming.
37:34
Speaker 6: In as a wonderful Appreciate the in by Brett.
37:35
Speaker 3: Coming up next to five eighty Live with Dave Allen.
37:37
Speaker 3: I'll be back this afternoon at three or six with
37:39
Speaker 3: Dave weekly on hotline. Have a great day everyone on
37:41
Speaker 3: five ADWHS.
37:43
Speaker 9: Finding Ewchsam ninety six point five's Charles one oh four.
37:47
Speaker 2: Point five Cross Lanes, WVRC Media Station.
37:51
Speaker 3: We're proud to live here too