Three Dangers of a Sinking Garage
We often talk about the dangers of a sinking foundation in your home - how to spot them, the specifics of stabilization, etc - but we rarely talk about your garage. But we’ve been getting more and more calls lately about garages that are sinking and wreaking havoc on homes and lives. Here are three dangers of ignoring your sinking garage - and what to do about it.
1) It’s inconvenient
Little things that you brush off as inconvenient can take their toll in more ways than one. First, you constantly trip over the little ledge created by a sinking slab. Then you notice that you have to get over that same ledge when you pull your car into the garage. Maybe when you walk out of the side door you have to really slam it to make it close. And the automatic door will eventually start struggling when it goes up and down, making terrible noises as the gears work against the off-kilter frame. None of these are a crisis, but put them together and coming home will seem like a chore.
2) It will cost you
You may be hesitant to spend money repairing your garage because, after all, it’s just a garage. But you’ll spend money not repairing it, too. Your car tires could wear faster from the stress, and those garage doors mentioned above? They aren’t meant to last forever when their frames are out of alignment. Whether you’re paying to stabilize your garage or repair all of the things broken by the sinking, you will be spending money - the difference is if you’ll have to keep spending it as new things break.
3) It could spread to your home
If you have an attached garage, the problem is even worse. As the garage slab sinks, it puts pressure on the walls, and gravity takes control. We get a lot of calls that involve the garage starting to pull the shared wall of the house with it as it sinks; last year we repaired a home where a sinking garage had started a chain reaction that brought the house, porch, and retaining wall into the mix. Stabilizing the garage before it can affect more structures is vital and saves you time and money.
Depending on which part of the garage slab is sinking, PolyLevel or piering (or a combination of the two) can be used to stabilize it and hopefully even raise the slab back to level. Most importantly, stabilizing your garage will stop the potential chain reaction that can occur as gravity works against it - and your home.
Every home - and garage - is different, so the first step is taking care of the problem is calling us to set up your free inspection and estimate.
