Orlando Home Insurance: How to Spot Signs of Foundation Damage
A home’s foundation contributes to the stability and safety of the structure. When damage arises within a property’s foundation, the situation can become costly and complicated rather quickly. Foundation failure causes major structural problems within Orlando homes and when left unattended can worsen over time creating unsafe inhabitances and decreasing property values. As such it is important to be able to identify the signs of foundation trouble and resolve the issues as quickly and efficiently as possible. The sooner you identify potential problems in your Orlando property, the easier and less expensive it will be to fix them.
While some settling and unevenness are to be expected with any aging home, here are a few common warning signs of foundation complications:
- Doors and windows: One of the most easily identifiable indications of foundation problems are doors and windows that are ill-fitting, jamming, and improperly latching. Having trouble keeping doors closed, or the inability to open doors and windows can indicated swelling and shifting in the walls and foundation of the property. While these complications can result from a number of things which as not related to the foundation, when coupled with any other signs of foundation deterioration Orlando homeowners should investigate the foundation as a good practice.
- Walls and ceiling: Cracking walls, ceiling and seams will also reveal foundation complications, including water damage. Cracks begin to surface, between corners, pillars, joints, molding, wall-to-floor joints and other seams of the house is a large indication that foundation has been compromised. These symptoms are often visible through gapping where interior walls are supposed to meet with other walls, flooring and ceilings.
- Flooring: Cracks, bowing, crumbling and sagging floors also indicate foundational damage and potential instability. Gaping and bowing in wood floors as well as crumbling and fissured grout lines, tiles bricks are just a few examples of potentially problematic symptoms of foundation failure.
- Water damage around the interior seams of exterior walls on the ground level is also indicative of foundation problems. Foundation problems in Orlando typically occur when there is too much water present in the soil thus causing the soil to swell. When all of the soil beneath a foundation is not uniformly saturated differential movement can occur between different parts of the soil resulting in foundation cracks and other damage.
When it comes to protecting your property it pays to take the proper precautions, including securing the best home insurance Orlando FL has to offer. At Newman Crane, we help our clients assess and address their risk and loss exposures and offer a complete array of personal insurance solutions to meet their specific needs. Our Orlando Home Insurance specialists will sit down with you to discuss your needs and tailor a plan specifically for you. TO learn more about our Orlando Home Insurance or any of our policies, give us a call today at (407) 859-3691.