Grand Forks Metro Area

Helical piers are steel rods with helix blades welded to the bottom of the shaft. They are designed to provide proper support for a settling foundation. Settling occurs when soil erodes due to shrinking and expanding and the home can no longer rely on the unstable soil layer. The upper layers of the soil are soft and easily displaced, while the bottom layers are dense and unaffected by typical erosive elements like water, wind, runoff, and ice. This soil layer is the best for supporting a home, and it’s the helical piers’ job to make sure the home gets that reliable support.

Helical piers are driven deep into the ground, past the soft soil layers, until reaching the load-bearing soil layers. Once the helical piers have reached the desired depth, foundation brackets are attached to the helical piers, and the weight of the home can be transferred to the lower soil layers. Helical piers are a permanent solution to an age-old problem that seemingly had no real fix. Traditionally, concrete piers were used to support the settling foundation, but concrete piers cannot reach the soil depths that helical piers can. When attempting to go lower, concrete piers would crumble when met with skin friction.

Helical piers are slim, so they avoid dealing with skin friction no matter how far down they go. The bigger the structure, the more likely skin friction will develop, but helical piers avoid this completely by design. They provide the foundation with a more reliable support than concrete piers and are not susceptible to freeze-thaw damage. Helical piers can even potentially lift your Grand Forks home, so it can be even once more, which is something that cannot happen with concrete piers. If you want a long-term solution to foundation settling, then the only option is to go with helical piers.

The Miami black clay loam is spread all throughout Grand Forks, ND. Clay soils are characterized by their ability to retain water. Homes in Grand Forks often have problems with basement wall bowing because of hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure is when so much groundwater has accumulated next to the basement wall, the weight causes the wall to bow inwards. If the soil of the region has better drainage capabilities, then bowing walls wouldn’t be so common.

Bowing walls are not a small thing to overlook. The walls of your basement help support your home, so when one of them has a problem, the rest of the house will begin to deteriorate. Besides bowing walls, hydrostatic pressure can be identified through basement flooding. As the wall bows, it detaches itself from the floor. The groundwater pushing the wall now has a place to seep in from, which is why wall-floor joint flooding is common in those situations.

Wall bowing also creates cracks along the wall and breaks it apart. The groundwater also seeps through these cracks and raises the overall humidity levels of the space. After significant bowing, your floor might be affected by becoming uneven. To stop wall bowing, you can stabilize it with wall anchors or wall braces like SettleStop IntelliBrace™.

Hydrostatic pressure causes wall bowing, but not many Grand Forks homeowners notice until the wall is bowing significantly and water is leaking between the wall and floor joint. By then, the walls can only be stabilized and straightened using either wall anchors or wall braces. In the instances in which homeowners do detect wall bowing early, the wall is not bent enough to warrant wall anchors or wall braces. Still, it wouldn’t be right to simply ignore the bowing and allow the problem to get worse. Too much bowing will lead to damage to the upstairs portion of your home as well.

So, to stabilize basement walls that are bowing less than two inches forward, Innovative Basement Authority uses carbon fiber straps. Carbon fiber may look like a feeble sheet of cloth, but it’s one of the strongest materials in the world—even stronger than steel! It’s made of carbon atoms and has the highest compression strength of all the composites. Contractors first apply high-strength epoxy resin to the strap and to the wall where the strap will be placed on. Once the strap has been applied to the wall, another coat of epoxy resin is applied over the strap.

Carbon fiber straps are one of the most convenient methods of permanent wall repair. No excavation is required and the strap can be applied in mere minutes. It does not rust or peel off, nor is it capable of harboring mold. Unlike the I-beams used for wall bracing, carbon fiber straps are non-intrusive and don’t take up any space. Once the straps have been applied, you can paint over them or cover them with drywall.

Sump pumps are an important part of any foundation’s waterproofing measures. They collect the water that floods a basement and pump it out. They eliminate the need to clear out a flooded basement yourself. If you have a wet, humid basement and you’re interested in getting a sump pump, then know that it can’t be the only thing that you get to waterproof the space. A sump pump isn’t able to eliminate moisture in the air, so you will need something else.

A sump pump’s purpose is to drain water, not water vapor. With a sump pump, leaks and flooding will get taken care of, but the humidity will still persist. To get rid of basement humidity, you need a dehumidifier. Basement dehumidifiers are different from the small ones used inside homes. These are bigger, more powerful, and are capable of taking in more water.

Our Innovative Basement Authority dehumidifier cycles 90% less than standard dehumidifiers. Don’t worry about emptying out the container; our dehumidifier can connect to the sump pump so the water gets sent there. Now, if you really want to crack down on the humidity in your Grand Forks basement, you can get a vapor barrier so moisture can’t even get in. Water vapor from the surrounding groundwater seeps through the concrete walls and increases the dampness of your basement. A sump pump will not be able to stop it, but other waterproofing tools will.

Winters in Grand Forks, ND, are long and incredibly cold. When winter is piercing through the city outside and all you want to do is keep warm inside, having cold floors can put a damper on your mood. A cold floor is directly correlated to the insulation of the basement or crawl space below. Without proper insulation, the crawl space or basement will be a gateway for the cold air outside to reach your home and cool things down, including your floor. Taking control of the air flow in your basement or crawl space also will improve the energy consumption of your home.

Cold air is denser than hot air, so when the air from outside enters your uninsulated basement or crawl space, it pushes up the warm air. The colder crawl space air stays below ground while the hot air escapes, so there’s nothing warming your floor. You can test to see if your basement or crawl space is causing this problem by going to the second story of your home. If you notice that the second story is warmer than the first floor, then know that it’s because that’s where all the air has escaped to.

Because cold air is constantly flowing into the house, your HVAC system will have a harder time keeping things warm. It runs for longer periods of time and needs to be set to maximum settings so you don’t get chilly. This obviously will cause problems with the energy consumption around your home. To make sure that there’s enough warm air to heat up your floor, you need to insulate your basement or crawl space. Insulation traps the air inside the basement or crawl space so that cold air doesn’t touch the underside of your floorboards.

AquaStop BasementGutter™ is an interior drainage system that is installed within the perimeter of your basement. Typically, drains are installed on the outer perimeter of a foundation, but this type of outdoor drainage system poses a few problems. First, it is extremely expensive to have drains installed outdoors because it requires heavy excavation. Outdoor drainage systems require a lot more maintenance because they are more likely to get clogged up by mud, leaves, and other debris. Winter can be especially bad for drains because of frozen pipes.

AquaStop BasementGutter™ eliminates all these problems by being installed inside. No intrusive excavation work is done for installation, which makes the process easier and inexpensive. AquaStop BasementGutter™ is designed to not get clogged. This is possible due to its location; because it’s above ground and placed on top of gravel, it doesn’t come in contact with debris. AquaStop BasementGutter™ is placed right along the wall and floor joint of the basement, and, once it’s in place, the contractors cover up the trench made for the pipe, so it’s completely covered.

Because of its unique design, AquaStop BasementGutter™ is able to collect groundwater causing hydrostatic pressure. It also collects water that runs down the wall, which is useful if you have a leaky window. Since it’s indoors, you won’t have to worry about freezing pipes, meaning that it’s a drainage system that works year-round. This drainage system is connected to a sump pump so that the water it collects gets drained out. It’s a great drainage system for homes in Grand Forks, ND, largely due to its ability to drain moisture from clay soils.