When we hit the “too cold to snow” period of winter, it’s a good time to ensure your Twin Cities home is properly protected from the cold. In particular, your home’s foundation.
Freezing temperatures can negatively impact your foundation, resulting in major risks for your household and home.
Our foundation repair experts at Christian Brothers Construction explain the importance of your foundation, and how cold weather can affect it.
What Is the Foundation?
You might already know the answer to this, but we want to ensure we’re on the same page before we dig into the cold weather threats foundations can experience.
The foundation is the base of your house. It’s essential because it keeps your home stable, level, and safe. If it’s damaged it can lead to leaks, warped flooring, cracked walls and floors, structural problems, and even collapses.
Because this plays such a pivotal role, it’s crucial to protect it from getting damaged during extremely cold temperatures.
How Cold Weather Can Affect Your Home’s Foundation
When we go into a deep freeze in the Twin Cities, this not only means we need to hunker down at home, keep gas in the car, and keep the faucets running to prevent frozen pipes. It also means it’s time to start worrying about our home’s foundations.
Extremely cold temperatures can have the following impacts on foundations:
- Frost Heave: This occurs when the moisture around the house freezes and expands. This can lead to potential cracks in the foundation.
- Ground Shrinkage: The ground can retract during extreme cold conditions. Water can get into these gaps and seep into the soil. This puts your foundation at risk in the spring when the ground will swell back up. This will create pressure around your home’s foundation and cause it to crack.
Another issue you might encounter – especially in winters with little snow, like this year – is if there is not enough moisture in the soil. When this happens, the ground is compacted during the cold temperatures. This can put pressure on your foundation and cause damage.
Ways You Can Protect Your Twin Cities Home From Freezing Temperatures
The bad news is that there is nothing you can do to avoid extremely cold weather in Minnesota. But there is good news – there are steps you can take to protect your home’s foundation.
- Apply Insulation: There are materials experts can apply to your foundation to protect it during the winter months. This is added around the foundation to keep the soil from freezing and ultimately damaging the foundation.
- Improve Drainage: Make sure you have proper drainage around your house that keeps the water flowing away from your foundation, and that your home is properly graded. This will prevent water from accumulating and freezing.
- Schedule Repairs: If there is an issue with your foundation, you should schedule repairs promptly with our team. We can repair your foundation before winter arrives to prevent major damage to your house.
Why You Should Hire Christian Brothers For Your Foundation Services
When you need foundation repairs at your Twin Cities home, trust the work of our contractors at Christian Brothers Construction. Contact us today to get an estimate and schedule services. We specialize in finding and repairing complex foundation problems.
