In this episode, Adam shares a case study about a house with a serious termite problem and the consequences of not fixing a wall crack.
Narrator: It’s time once again for the “Crack Man Podcast” hosted by A1 Foundation Crack Repair. I’m Darren Kincaid here with the Crack Daddy himself, Adam Tracy. Adam and The Crack Man Rich have over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry. Rich as over two5 years as the president and founder of A1 Foundation Crack Repair. This podcast provides expert basement waterproofing, concrete repair, and preventative maintenance tips for homeowners and businesses. A1 Foundation’s valuable insight will help avert a disastrous flood within the basement, health problems associated with water infiltration, and protect your biggest investment….your home. The topic of today’s podcast: The consequences of not repairing a basement wall crack.
Narrator: So, Adam, you have a recent case study about a house with a serious termite problem. What happened there?
Adam: Yeah. This was a case out of Taunton, Massachusetts, and it was a homeowner who, about five or six years ago, finished up their basement, spent tens of thousands of dollars to turn their basement area into a finished space for their family. And before they buttoned everything up, they knew there's a foundation crack. They were reassured by the contractor doing it. It's never leaked. It's not an issue. Don't worry about it. Don't waste your money on this. And so, they believed them, and they said, okay. Let's button this thing up. Enjoy our nice living space.
Just over the weekend, they had some issues in the walls where they started seeing sort of piles of dust around the perimeter on one of the walls. So, they hired a company to come in and open up the wall to see what was going on there, to see if there were some issues happening behind the walls that they couldn't see. And come to find out the entire foundation on that wall was infested with termites. They went up through the sill plate, destroyed a lot of the sill plate, a lot of the floor joists going up. It's undetermined whether or not they've gone into other areas of the home, but definitely down in the basement.
They had an exterminator come in to see what was going on and why they were coming in. And sure enough, the point of origin was the foundation wall crack. Now this foundation wall crack was probably about an eighth of an inch wide, something that had never leaked through the course of the house. The house was built in 1995. So, it's been thirty-plus years of no leaking and no issues according to the contractor. The homeowners didn't know any better either.
So they come to find out that the termites were coming in through this crack, and they caused about $25,000 worth of carpentry damage both to the main structure of the house, meaning siding, underneath the siding, as well as the sill plate, which is structural loading, as well as the foundation basement that they had recently finished. Something that was going to be a repair of less than a thousand dollars with a warranty caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage.
So, a lot of people ask me, it's not leaking so why should I bother repairing it? And when I talk about, you know, ants and carpenter ants and termites and boring beetles make their way through foundation cracks. I'm usually met with a lot of skepticism that this happens. I've never heard of that. But the reality is it happens. It's not frequent, but when it does happen, it is a disaster for some homeowners. This could have been easily prevented just with a simple repair of the foundation wall by A1 Foundation Crack Repair. It's something that we do all the time, and it could have enjoyed that basement space as it was for many more years, but unfortunately, because they ignored it, it became a huge issue and now they must do a lot of renovation on the recently renovated basement.
Narrator: Well, thanks, Adam, for explaining the consequences of not fixing a basement wall crack.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional, or, if you’d like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call (866) 929-3171. Or you can email info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.