Bowing Basement Wall Repair St. Louis IL, Central Missouri, Southern Illinois, Springfield IL

Bowing Basement Wall Repair

When you first notice leaning, bowing, or cracked concrete walls in your basement or crawl space, it can be a frightening experience. This is especially true if you are a new homeowner or don’t know much about foundation waterproofing.

Don’t fret, though. While bowing walls and wall cracks are alarming, they are also a solvable issue. What’s most important is that you act fast by getting in touch with a foundation repair company like Helitech.

What Are Bowing Walls?

As the name suggests, bowing walls are when your walls bow inward in your basement or crawl space because of hydrostatic pressure building up on the outside.

If you’re a responsible homeowner, you probably know that a collapse isn’t great for the long-term health of your house. Bowing walls are a sign that your foundation’s health is facing severe pressure and could get worse over time. Okay, a full-blown collapse is an extreme example, but it isn’t far off. When your basement has bowing walls, you are likely to experience several lesser side-effects first.

At the root, the hydrostatic pressure (or lack of support) often becomes too much for the walls and causes them to bow or lean. Efforts to stabilize or reposition bowing walls should be taken at the first signs of inward movement. When horizontal cracks appear in these walls, the structural integrity is compromised.

Are Bowing Walls Bad?

Of all the wall problems you might experience in your home, bowing foundation walls can be some of the most jarring. That’s because if your wall is bowing inward, your home’s foundation is at risk of collapsing if left ignored.

Bowing basement walls are, at their root, caused by expansive soils or expansive clay on the outside of your home. As inconsistent and spotty pressure builds up on your crawl space or basement walls, they start to bow inward. This causes cracks to form in your concrete.

Left unchecked, these cracks can break open, causing horizontal wall cracks that can let water into your basement. Since bowing walls are so closely related to water coming into your basement, treating them is generally lumped in with waterproofing basement systems.

How To Fix Bowing Walls

Professionals can help you design and execute a foundation wall repair system that fixes damaged walls and provides a permanent solution. However, the exact tactics used to restore your foundation back to good health will vary depending on your unique circumstance.

If you are concerned about bowing walls in your concrete foundation, contact Helitech today for a free quote.

For this particular solution, Helitech installs our Helical Wall Anchor System, straightening a bowed wall that is being pushed inward due to expansive soil. A wall anchor (or earth anchor) consists of large steel screws, otherwise referred to as helicals connected to an i-beam. The wall anchor is horizontally drilled into the soil surrounding your affected wall property.

The screws or large helicals connected to the i-beam are drilled to a depth deep enough to reach soil that does not expand due to weather seasonality. When the beam is attached to your inward pushed wall, the wall anchor draws the wall back to its original position while preventing future wall deterioration.

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The Helibrace™ Wall Brace System, exclusively offered by Helitech, provides immediate superior support for bowing, buckling, tilting, and shifting Foundation Walls. The Helibrace™ is a structural beam support solution for both load-bearing and non-load-bearing basement foundation walls.

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Helitech’s Carbon Fiber Reinforcement System is a patented technology that integrates the advancements made in aerospace to produce solutions for your home. In particular, structural reinforcement of concrete and block basement walls.

A certified technician should determine whether this is truly the best option for leaning walls. You can choose to waterproof the interior of the cracks before the reinforcers are installed.

The installation itself is exceedingly simple. The cracked surface is prepared; adhesive is added, and the carbon fiber is firmly pressed against the wall. Either woven or laminate carbon fiber can be used, and the walls can be cleaned and painted following installation. If done correctly, there will be no visible changes to your home apart from the cessation of the wall bowing.

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Bowing Wall Repair