Basement, Foundation, and Crawl Space Repair Services in Oak Lawn, Illinois
If you’ve noticed your basement floods when there are extended rains or as the snow melts in the spring time or you’ve got large cracks in your foundation, you know this is a serious issue. Our team is here to help when you have any kind of crawl space flooding, sinking foundation, or bowed foundation wall problem. We use products that we’ve tested and methods that we’ve perfected over the years that our team stands behind. We have a team of professionals in the Oak Lawn area that are trained to properly investigate your home and evaluate your problem and design a unique solution for your problem that will keep your home properly protected. When our team installs a waterproofing system or a repair solution, it is strengthened by years of industry experience and trusted products.
It is crucial that once you see an issue with your craw space, basement, or foundation that you get in touch with a trusted repair company. We say this because there are quite a few additional problems that can accompany these issues including mildew, weakened structure, and even catastrophic foundation damage. If you’re needing our basement waterproofing products to control water entering your home, foundation repair services to stabilize your foundation, or crawl space services to control water in the crawl space, our professionals are here to help you.
Basement Waterproofing
The basement is a very important area of your home regardless of if you’re using it for storage or if you have a finished space down there. Due to this, it is necessary that the area is free of standing water and protected from flooding and excess humidity. Due to the fact that water can get into the basement through a variety of different places, there needs to be a variety of repair possibilities that we can use to keep the area safe. The primary places that water leaks in is at cracks in the basement walls, which are usually in concrete or at mortar joints between blocks, at the cove joint, where the basement walls and floor connect, and at the windows that may be at or even below the soil.
Regardless of where the problem lies there are solutions that are designed to collect, divert, and remove water from your basement. If there are leaky wall cracks, the first thing to do is implementing a wall crack repair method to stop the crack from leaking and growing. If water is coming in at the cove joint or even at basement windows, installing a custom drainage system can remove the water from your basement. In some problematic instances, usually with old homes that have stone, block, or brick foundations, we can recommend installing one of our entire wall solution that is made up of a floor to ceiling heavy duty liner to collect and divert water. Occasionally there is already a waterproofing system installed but it cannot keep up with flooding water, we can replace it with a new, more powerful sump pump to make the system as good as new. On top of installing systems, we can also improve the drainage in your yard to help prevent water from sitting at the foundation and seeping in.
Structural Foundation Repair
Your homes foundation is quite possibly one of the most important areas of the home. It not only holds the building itself but it also is the basement walls. If you’ve got foundation problems, normally they will show themselves in the form of stair stepping cracks in your outside brickwork, cracks that run the length of the foundation or across basement walls. Sometimes, you will see that your doors or windows will not open or close easily or even cracks at the corners of them. You may also have an issue where your basement walls are bowing into the basement. While these issues may not seem critical when you notice them, each of them are indicators of a sinking or settling foundation and they should be evaluated by an expert for particular problems and determine what type of a repair needs to be installed.
Thankfully, the most common foundation problems are caused by similar things and our experts are very good at noticing these problems. We can implement a repair product designed for your particular issue to permanently repair and stabilize the foundation or walls. If you’ve got a settling foundation, we can implement a system of foundation piers to stabilize the foundation. Depending on how bad it is and where it is, we will use either helical piers or push piers. Both are very strong and are able to stabilize your foundation. If your basement walls are bowing, depending on how the severity of the bowing wall, it can be solved with some potential options. Our team can install a series of wall anchors, these are 2 large plates that are connected by a long, steel rod, or tall braces that are installed vertically against the problem area to push them back in line and control further bowing, or carbon fiber straps to strengthen weak spots and prevent the wall from bowing. If they are correctly installed, these products can correct the bowed wall and prevent it from coming out of alignment again.
Crawl Space Solutions
In Oak Lawn, many of the homes were built with crawl space areas in addition to basements. For many years, they were created with open vents to the outside where were intended to help fresh air flow through the area and keep it dry. Unfortunately, the opposite is usually what happens. Having open vents allows water to enter the space when it rains or snows and the vents prevent proper evaporation which causes the humidity levels to stay high which can foster the growth of mildew. Up to 50% of the air in your home has come up through the crawl space so ensuring the crawl space is closed off from the elements and controlling excess humidity can improve the overall air quality in your home.
Our team has been dealing with crawl spaces since we opened our doors and we know the proper way to seal them off and control high humidity. This is done using a process called encapsulation which is the installation of a series of vapor barriers, occasionally installed with insulation products, which are strong plastic and vinyl sheets as well as vent covers and a sturdy door that can seal the area completely and prevent any excess moisture from entering. Encapsulation will also prevent critters and animals from getting in your crawl space which will keep any appliances there safe and allow you to use it for storage. Once your crawl space is closed off, we can install an air filter and dehumidifier to improve the indoor air quality. It will reduce the excess humidity to a proper level as well as remove pollutants from the air.
Additional Services
We also provide a variety of services to upgrade your basement. We can upgrade your basement windows to improve the air flow or increase the amount of light in the area. After we install a waterproofing system, we can install our wall system as part of a pre-finishing service that is waterproof and resistant to the growth of mildew. When you are building a new home, we can install a system of new construction waterproofing systems to stop any water from entering the home before it can become a problem. Even if you’ve already got a waterproofing system in place, we can perform our preventive maintenance testing so you know it will continue to work at peak efficiency.
Contact Us
If you are interested in any of the services above, feel free to fill out the form on our contact us page, visit our FAQ page or call us directly at 630-206-1177 and organize a meeting with one of our experts.