Before You Improve Your Home, Repair It

Like most of us, you're probably spending way more time at home than you did before. That means, even if you haven't been given a mile-long \"honey-do\" list, you're probably still noticing things that could be improved. And, now that we're all enjoying an extended stay-cation, now seems like the perfect time to tackle those projects-and, it is.

But before you start spending time and effort and, most importantly, money redoing the kitchen or adding a bathroom or even just painting the bedroom a different color, there's one question you must ask.

Is My Home Ready to Be Improved?

Before your home was built, the developer likely leveled the site, removing soil from high points and moving it to low points in the landscape. After all, it doesn't make sense to build a house on uneven ground. If you did, the result would likely be an out-of-plumb, jumbled mess.

The thing is, this soil that was moved, which is typically called fill soil, often settles over time, causing a home's foundation to sink with it. Other situations, such as excess moisture from heavy rains or a lack of moisture from drought, can also cause soils to compress, wash out or shrink. When this happens, your home's foundation sinks with the settling soil, causing problems throughout the structure that can make home-improvement projects a nightmare.

For instance, let's say you're hanging drywall to finish a basement and turn it into a home theater. If your foundation isn't stable, that beautiful, smooth drywall can crack and gap over time as your home continues to settle turning your beautiful man-cave into, well, just a cave.

What About Other Projects?

But it's not just basements you have to worry about. Foundation settlement can cause issues throughout the home, as the entire house, regardless of how many floors it has, sits on this unstable foundation. So, if you're adding a washroom on the third floor, for instance, it makes sense to stabilize your foundation first, or you risk similarly serious problems down the road.

Even the aforementioned painting project will likely only be a temporary success if you're covering walls that will crack in the future. And, of course, if you're painting to cover cracks that are already there... well, you just know they'll reappear soon if you don't address the reason they cracked in the first place.

So, What's the Answer?

Before you engage on any home improvement project, you should have your property inspected by a foundation-repair expert. These inspections are almost always free and carry no obligation, so there's zero downside to having one done. Plus, they can be conducted entirely without direct contact.

If he or she is truly experienced, the inspector will take up to several hours to complete the assessment of your home and will present you with the findings in a straightforward, easy-to-understand manner-including solutions to fix any issues permanently. This presentation can even be done remotely via Zoom or another video-conferencing platform.

Only then can you have the confidence that your home-improvement project-and any others you undertake in the future-will be a success.