Foundation Issues in Clifton, VA: How Hydrostatic Pressure Affects Your Home

Hydrostatic pressure is one of the most common causes of damage and dampness in properties across Charlottesville, VA. This may seem strange, of course, when you consider the fact that hydrostatic pressure is a natural process that impacts every home on a consistent basis. After all, it is simply the weight of the soil and the water that it contains. This lateral pressure can cause a number of issues when it is left to grow unchecked, but the actual causes of increased hydrostatic pressure can vary.

Broadly speaking, there are two main causes: an increase in water or a lack of drainage capabilities. A sudden increase in the water content of the soil can be caused by heavier rainfall that the area usually experiences, localized flooding, storms, and heavy periods of snow thaw that lead to runoff. Inadequate drainage capabilities, however, occur when a property has too few drains, or when blockages and clogs leave it unable to process the same amount of water as usual.

Whichever of these causes is to blame (and it is usually a mix of the two), an excess of hydrostatic pressure is incredibly damaging for any home. As well as causing issues like seepage and increasing humidity, excessively high hydrostatic pressure can cause bowing and buckling walls. In fact, it can even lead to localized collapses in a property, which is both damaging to your home and potentially dangerous to your health and wellbeing.

Hydrostatic pressure is something that every home has to deal with. After all, it is simply the combined weight of the soil and the water that it contains. This is something that every home is designed to cope with to a certain extent. Hydrostatic pressure only really causes problems when it reaches levels that are unbearable for your property. When this happens, the damage can be significant and widespread.

The reason that hydrostatic pressure causes issues like fragmentation, cracking, movement, and bowing in basement walls is because the pressure that it applies is lateral in nature. Concrete, as a material, is incredibly durable and strong. It can hold huge amounts of weight and has incredibly compressive strength. However, its tensile strength is a fraction of this. In short, concrete cannot stretch and lateral pressure forces it to flex in ways it is not made to.

When this happens, it is common for affected concrete structures and surfaces to move, crack, lean, or buckle. Once the structure of your home has been damaged, furthermore, the water in the soil will start to seep through these cracks and into your home. This, in turn, can cause increased humidity, dampness, mold formation, wood rot, and many other moisture-related issues, as well as making your home far more inviting to pests of all kinds.

The weight of water inherently has an impact on your basement. However, it can be difficult to wrap your head around exactly why. After all, you walk around your home all the time, and you probably weigh more than eight pounds.

So how does hydrostatic pressure affect your foundation? These are some of the impacts.

• Bowing Walls

This is potentially the most common impact of hydrostatic pressure in your basement. As the hydrostatic water pressure mounts, it starts to press in on the foundation walls, which bulge inward.

Obviously, the wall isn’t meant to do that. Eventually, it’ll end up with horizontal cracks across the biggest part of the bowing, which will start to let the water in, attempting to relieve the hydrostatic pressure.

This leads to basement leaking. JES can help you restore the walls to their original position by installing additional support structures to pull the walls against the hydrostatic pressure.

• Cracks in the Floor

What about coming up from the floor? There are a few ways you might end up with cracks in the floor through hydrostatic water pressure.

If you have flooding problems, the weight of the water can prey on existing weaknesses and cause cracks in the floor over time. On the other hand, expanding soil underneath your foundation floor can lead to an increase in hydrostatic pressure, cracking the floor from underneath.

Whether it comes from top or bottom, any cracks in your basement can contribute to basement leaking if there’s water on the other side. You need to contact a JES expert to get more information about waterproofing those leaks.

• Ground-Level Windows

Another problem that hydrostatic pressure can prey on is ground-level windows. Some basements have these windows, which allow sunlight into the area and make it easy to leave the basement if necessary.

However, if done improperly, these ground-level windows can be the perfect place for basement leaks. If you just use a typical window instead of a special basement egress window, it’s probably not going to stand up well to rain and snow. That means you’ll start seeing water leaking through it.

There are many ways to waterproof a ground-level window. If you do it right, you won’t have to worry about your basement leaking through your window, which can help alleviate the hydrostatic pressure in your basement.