Protect Your Property: Stabilize The Soil Around Your Home

26 February 2020
 Categories: Home & Garden, Blog


Many elements must come together to create a stable and secure home. Most of these elements are taken care of during the construction phase. If you live in an older home, your residence was likely constructed before modern safety measures were in place. This means that the soil on which your home is built could pose a threat to the stability of the structure over time.

It is possible to stabilize the soil beneath an existing home to improve the stability and structural integrity of your home. Read on for more information about the use of soil stabilizers.

Soil Permeability

Moisture is one of the most dangerous elements that your home can come into contact with throughout the years. Some soils are more permeable than others, allowing moisture to build up within the soil profile over time.

Temperature fluctuations cause this moisture to contract and expand, which leads to a phenomenon known as soil swell. The primary purpose of soil stabilization is to reduce soil permeability on a long-term basis.

Dangers of Soil Swell

It might not seem like permeable soil would pose such a serious problem, but your home could be in danger if it was built on permeable soil.

Soil swell creates changes in the amount of pressure being placed on both internal and external walls in your home's basement or foundation. Should the soil become too dry after it has swelled as a result of too much moisture, pockets of soil within the soil profile could collapse. This will lead to cracking, shifting, and crumbling of your home's foundation.

Eliminating soil swell through soil stabilization is the only way to protect the integrity of your home's foundation.

Soil Stabilization Methods

Soil stabilization can occur without the need to damage any part of your existing home. A hydraulic jetting method can be used to inject a special soil-stabilizing mixture into the soil surrounding your home's foundation.

The stabilizing mixture binds with soil particles to eliminate any vacant areas where moisture might accumulate. You will notice that the soil around your home is much firmer and more compact after stabilization takes place.

Using soil stabilization to change the physical profile of the soil surrounding your existing home is a great way to protect your home's foundation against potential cracking or shifting in the future. The stabilization process reduces soil permeability, eliminating the threat of soil swell and protecting your home from increased or reduced pressures against foundation or basement walls.


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