When you find a crack in your foundation, you probably have one of two basic reactions. Either you panic that your home is no longer stable, or you shrug it off as routine settling. I’d suggest avoiding these extremes, and aim for the grey area between them; foundation cracks shouldn’t be ignored, but they’re not […]
Originally posted 1/7/21; updated 7/31/23 If you’ve read any of our other blogs about tilting foundation walls, you know that repairing a bowed basement wall does not have to include straightening it. In many cases, stabilizing and securing the wall is all that’s required to restore your foundation’s stability. For many homeowners, the goal of […]
While looking for a new home, you find a place that checks all the boxes: it’s in a good school district, taxes aren’t painful, it has a nice yard, enough bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, a roomy kitchen. Even the basement seems all right; it’s unfinished but clean and dry. And then you see it: a large […]
Some items are easier to buy than others. We know what criteria to use when we buy shoes- fit, comfort, color, etc. Buying food is usually pretty easy, also; you want to check produce for bruises, dairy for expiration dates, seafood that does not smell like dead fish… But what are the rules for buying […]
Concrete is an essential building tool. It’s a man-made concoction that literally paves the way for our society. We use it to create roads, bridges, retaining walls, dams, and even our homes. It’s everywhere and we rely on it heavily in everyday life. Nothing in life is infallible, though. And when you consider the amount […]
Originally posted 9/24/20, updated 12/15/22 Walls in general are not meant to lean or curve. They should be solid, upright, and holding firm at a 90° angle from the floor. So if you have a wall in your home that doesn’t meet these criteria, you most likely have a problem. And if that problem wall […]
Have you noticed water seeping into your basement? Have you been sweeping it into the drain that’s set into the floor? If you’re doing this every time it rains, it’s time to talk to a professional about waterproofing. You may be inclined to shrug off this advice; after all, it’s coming from a company that […]
Originally posted 6/25/20, updated 12/15/22 You’re a good homeowner. You clean your gutters, change the filters in your furnace, check the batteries in the smoke detectors, all the usual smart preventative measures. But then you find water in your basement or crawl space. Now what? If you’re like most of us, you go online and […]
When you’re buying a house, you can feel like a trained animal at the circus. You jump through countless hoops, there’s a lot of show and fuss, and you just want it to be done so you can relax. Acculevel has been helping people repair and preserve their homes since our founding in 1996. We […]
Originally posted 6/4/20, updated 12/15/22 Last summer, a heavy thunderstorm unleashed a large number of pine needles onto my roof. These needles washed off the roof, slid around in the guttering, then lodged themselves into one corner. For the rest of the night, the heavy rain washed along the gutter, hit the pine needle dam, […]
