As you consider foundation repair for your home in, San Antonio, TX, you should also think about whether you should update your home with house bolting (also known as seismic retrofitting). If your home was built prior to 1979, there is a significant possibility that the entire building is only sitting on the foundation. There is nothing whatsoever holding the building to the foundation beneath. If an earthquake were to shake your geographical area, your home could slide right off into your driveway, yard, or neighbor’s house!
Foundation bolting means strengthening the connections between the foundation and the wood frame in your home with bolts. Foundation Repair San Antonio gets your home up to date with a variety of bolting materials. Regardless of the age of your home, retrofitting your home for potential seismic activity allows you peace of mind.
Experts at San Antonio Foundation Repair will fit your home using the proper bolts based on the current condition of your home. The typical anchor bolt used in most homes with quality foundational concrete in good repair is the expansion foundation bolt. This anchor bolt, fitted with a galvanized plate washer, anchors the mudsill blocking to the concrete foundation. In older homes that potentially have weaker concrete for their foundation, foundation repairmen use epoxy-set foundation bolts. The epoxy-set foundation bolt works better than the mechanical anchor bolts, especially when you expect possible uplift on the home during seismic activity. They are longer and can go much deeper into the concrete. Bolts that go deeper into the concrete are especially important if your home structure includes cripple wall bracing.
A cripple wall is a wall that is less than a full story in height, and you usually find it between the first floor and the foundation. Seismic forces in a building accumulate all the way to the ground, which means that cripple walls are subject to the highest impact. Since cripple walls are typically the weakest part of a home, anchor bolts add strength to this layer of the home.
Cripple walls can also be stiffened and braced along all sides of a cripple wall with plywood placed lengthwise. These are called shear walls. It is important to brace every wall of a cripple wall and not just a small portion of it. The plywood along the sides and the plywood along the front and back of the shear walls work together to keep your home stiff and secure should your home shift in seismic activity.
The cripple wall is the outer layer of the crawl space beneath your home. Occasionally there isn’t enough vertical space for repairmen to enter and attach anchor bolts. In these cases, foundation bolting plates connect to the home along the seam of the mudsill and foundation. Your foundation repair specialist applies these plates to the home in similar intervals as the anchor bolts. Holdown brackets (right angle brackets) can also be used along the sides of a cripple wall to secure the mudsill to the foundation. Holdown brackets are placed at the ends of shear walls to resist uplift and rolling effects due to seismic activity.
Are you looking for foundation repair San Antonio? San Antonio Foundation Repair is right for you!