Will Insurance Cover Foundation Repair?

Will Insurance Cover Foundation Repair?

When foundation problems arise, we know how challenging it can be to navigate through the next steps of ensuring that your home receives the proper solution at a price you can afford. Trying to figure out if your insurance covers your foundation repair can be tricky. But fortunately, there are some situations where your insurance policy might pick up the tab. What are those situations? Continue reading to learn more.

What Does Homeowners Insurance Normally Cover?

This is a common question we tend to see in the foundation repair industry. Not all foundation repairs are covered by insurance policies, but some are. Coverage varies, so it is always a good idea to read your policy to determine what is included. Here are some instances where your policy might cover foundation repair:

• Water Damage
• Natural Disaster

Water seeping into your home’s foundation is never good; it can cause your home’s support system to deteriorate. A pipe bursting is considered water damage that most homeowner policies cover. A good rule of thumb is that if the damage was sudden instead of happening over time, it is most likely covered. A natural disaster is another example where your policy will most likely pick up the bill. Some examples include a fire or an explosion.

What Wouldn’t Be Included in A Policy?

There are foundation damage issues that your policy probably does not cover. Some examples of those include:

• Poor Construction
• Settling Foundation
• Normal Wear & Tear

For the most part, if the situation can be fixed with regular maintenance or is due to poor construction, then it isn’t covered by your insurance. That’s why it’s important to bring in a foundation repair expert to determine the problem before the repairs get more costly down the road.

What To Do If You Have Foundation Damage

When you suspect foundation damage in your home, it’s important to get an expert’s opinion as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more costly and detrimental the damage could become. Here are some foundation damage indicators:

• Drywall Cracks
• Sticking Doors & Windows
• Flooded Basement
• Uneven Floors

Available Foundation Repair Solutions

Your house may have been built well, but when you notice cracked walls, bulging floors, or doors and windows that won’t fit properly anymore, you might be experiencing foundation distress. Foundation distress mostly happens with expansive soils that force your foundation to move about, heave and settle unequally. Over time, this will cause cracks and other forms of damage to your foundation. This, alongside other issues like poor drainage, extreme seasonal changes, plumbing leaks, tree root growth, and natural disasters, i.e., earthquakes, floods, or drought, can compromise the structure of your home.

The effects of a cracked foundation are a no-brainer, but we will mention them nonetheless. Chief among them is the damage to the structure, which will result in a loss of property or real estate value depending on the severity of the damage. It also presents tripping hazards on top of being just plain unsightly. If you have equipment or drainage mounted to the floor, you can also expect them to malfunction over time.

All is not lost on your structure if you notice foundation problems. As building technology improves, it is becoming more feasible to repair some cracks that would have led to demolition in the past. Slab jacking is a popular method that involves pumping grout from underneath the floor to provide a lifting force that will restore the foundation to its position and bind it on the cracks. It essentially returns the foundation to the original elevation.

Piering or hydraulic jacking involves the use of steel posts driven through the unstable ground before hydraulic jacks are used to lift and stabilize the affected concrete slabs. They can be affected by contracting, expanding, or waterlogged soil. Basement Masters Waterproofing will first assess the condition before recommending the appropriate foundation repair approach. But first, they have to determine the cause of the distress. Generally, slab jacking is preferred to repairing cracks on smaller slabs and hydraulic jacking for larger issues with the house and commercial building foundations. 

If you have noticed cracks on your floor, or when any of the common indicators of foundation problems sound familiar, contact the professionals at Basement Masters Waterproofing. We can help you determine the cause of the damage and get your home secure and safe again. Request a Free Estimate today at (571) 350-8292 to get started.