Bowing & Buckling Foundation Wall Repair Near Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Edmond
Identifying & repairing issues related to foundation wall failure
If your foundation walls are bowing, buckling, or are showing signs of inward movement, repair work is a necessity. These symptoms are a sign of weakening walls and potentially serious damage.
If you've noticed these problems in your home, Vesta Foundation Solutions can provide you with a permanent solution. We handle all types of foundation repair problems in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Edmond, and the nearby areas, and we can solve your problem. Call us today to get a free inspection!
Signs of bowing foundation walls
Foundation walls move inward primarily due to expansive soils and hydrostatic pressure on the walls from outside. However, foundation walls may also crack due to many other outside causes, including foundation settlement. Our foundation experts will accurately identify the cause of your home's foundation problems. Some common symptoms of settling foundations include:
- Horizontal or stair-step cracking along the foundation walls.
- Diagonal cracking at corners of poured concrete foundation walls.
- Inward bowing or bulging along the walls.
- Walls sliding inwards on the bottom.
- Walls leaning in at the top.
- Wet clay soils around the home coupled with damaged walls.
- Expansive clay soils present around the structure.
How we can fix it:
Install Vesta Foundation Solutions' Geo-Lock™ Wall Anchors along the bowing walls, and use the system's clamping pressure to stabilize and restore the wall. When space issues prohibit wall anchor installation, we recommend installing the PowerBrace™ Wall System or CarbonArmor® Wall Reinforcing System.
Soil anchors are placed in the ground outside the home. Steel rods attached to soil anchors extend through the foundation wall and wall plates. Wall plates distribute clamping pressure. Tightening nuts on the threaded ends of the rods stabilizes the wall for a permanent solution.
Installing foundation wall anchors
At Vesta Foundation Solutions, we recommend the Geo-Lock™ Wall Anchor System to stabilize failing foundation walls. Our contractors follow these six steps when installing our warrantied wall anchor system:
Before the installation, earth anchor locations will be determined to maximize system effectiveness. When the foundation contractors arrive, their proposal will show the location of each earth anchor in the yard outside your house.
At the beginning of each earth anchor installation, sod is carefully removed from your lawn and placed aside for later. A sheet is laid down to help protect your lawn and landscaping, and an earth anchor hole is made using a power auger.
Once the hole has been excavated, we will drill a small hole through your basement wall. Then, a steel anchor rod will be driven through the wall and soil, extending through a hole in the center of the earth anchor.
One way our wall anchor system is superior to other methods is that the hole created in the foundation wall is very small ?— 1" in diameter. Other methods may require a large hole or section of concrete block to be removed during installation.
After securing the end of each anchor rod to its earth anchor, these assemblies are buried in the ground using soil removed earlier. To resist corrosion damage, each of our earth anchor systems is designed with galvanized steel.
Each of the Geo-Lock™ Earth Anchors we install includes a 25-year warranty against manufacturing defects, as well as our own in-house quality and performance warranty.
Once the earth anchors have been installed, our foundation repair experts will mount a wall plate over each anchor rod end that protrudes from the basement wall. Screwing a large nut to the threaded end of the anchor rod secures each wall plate and stabilizes the wall as the nut is tightened.
If your wall anchors are being installed in a finished basement, be sure to ask us about our Hide-A-Way® Wall Anchor Covers, which will help you conveniently conceal your wall anchor access points.
At Vesta Foundation Solutions, we take pride in leaving each job clean, neat, and free of damage to existing landscaping. As part of our cleanup process, we fill holes completely with dirt saved earlier and tamp filled areas to ensure that depressed areas will not appear as the soils settle over time.
We will also replace all sod, carefully grooming it with a rake to help it to blend in with surrounding grass for seamless landscaping restoration.
Geo-Lock™ Wall Anchors do more than just stop the inward movement of your foundation walls — they also provide the opportunity to straighten your walls over time.
Eventually, your walls can be significantly repaired, or even returned completely to their original position. This is a powerful way to restore value to your home and make it solid, stable, and attractive — both for you and for prospective home buyers.
When foundation wall anchors won't work
In some cases, a wall anchor system can't be used to repair a bowing wall because the yard outside the house isn't accessible. When we at Vesta Foundation Solutions encounter this kind of problem, we suggest that you install our PowerBrace™ Foundation Wall System or CarbonArmor® Wall Reinforcing System.
The PowerBrace™ System
The PowerBrace™ is a patented foundation wall repair system designed to stabilize failing basement walls and also allow for potential straightening over time. This product is a great option when access to the yard outside of the home is not possible and bowing, buckling wall problems need to be solved.
The PowerBrace™ is an I-beam system that has several advantages over traditional "old school" systems. This includes its rust-resistant zinc coating and a design that makes it possible not only to stabilize bowing walls, but also to straighten these walls over a period of time. Installation of a PowerBrace™ system can be conducted quickly in your home, with no disruption to your lawn, gardens, foliage, or other landscaping.
CarbonArmor® stabilizes cracked & bowing foundation walls with high-tech carbon fiber
When soil pressure causes a foundation wall to bow inward and crack, one solution is to stabilize and strengthen the wall using CarbonArmor® bracing technology. The CarbonArmor® Wall Reinforcing System relies on the exceptional strength of carbon fiber fabric — 10 times stronger than steel.
Concrete is strong in compression, enabling a foundation wall to withstand extreme downward pressure. But concrete is weak in tension. A foundation wall can't stretch or bend in response to sideways soil pressure, so cracking and bowing problems sometimes develop.
When installed against a foundation wall with special structural epoxy, CarbonArmor® fabric is exceptionally strong in tension. This reinforcement enables a cracked or bowed foundation to withstand soil pressure without sustaining further damage. CarbonArmor® repairs can be made quickly and affordably, and this low-profile repair is easily hidden with a coat of paint.
Looking for foundation wall repair experts in Oklahoma City?
At Vesta Foundation Solutions, we're proud to provide warrantied solutions that will permanently solve issues with bowing, buckling foundation walls. We provide free, no-obligation foundation wall repair inspections to homeowners throughout our Oklahoma service area. Each inspection is made in person, on site, and is presented in writing.
Our service area includes Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Edmond, and throughout the surrounding areas. Call or e-mail us today!