Cracked Foundation and Home Value
The amount that foundation damage will affect the resale value of your home can vary, depending on the type of damage and how the house foundation repair needed to fix it. It could also be that what is causing the damage to the foundation, such as soil, could affect the sale of the home. Certain issues will make damage down the road more likely. Some foundation issues can also affect as far up as the roof, making them a more expensive and extensive fix. However, once everything is considered, you can expect that a cracked foundation can lower the resale value of your home by 10-15%.
Cost of Repair
House foundation repair isn’t the cheapest of home repair jobs. If there is damage to the foundation, then either yourself or the buyer will have to pay for house foundation repair. All this means is that in the end, you will be paying. Either up front or by knocking that estimated price off the sale price of your home. The average cost of repairing a foundation is might start at $5000 and can get as high as $10,000.
Curb Appeal
One of the biggest factors when it comes to buying a home is how good the home looks when you first view it from the outside. Unfortunately, a cracked foundation can have several impacts on how a home is viewed. For instance, if the damage is bad enough, a buyer will be able to see that the home is either shifted or that it has cracks. It may even simply be a feeling that the home is off but the buyer cannot put their finger on it. Inside the house, they may see things like tilted or sagging floors or find doors and windows that stick. Even knowing that there are foundation problems can make a potential buyer view your home differently.
Tips for Preventing Future Problems
After you’ve had a house foundation repair, you will want to do your best to keep from damaging your foundation again. Getting it repaired does not mean that future problems can’t rear their ugly heads. For instance, make sure to monitor the moisture level around your home. Water is the prime culprit for a cracked foundation. You don’t want water to collect around the base of your home, so make sure that all your gutters are in good repair and that water always flows away from the home during rainfalls. You should also avoid planting trees near your home, as the roots can push up against the foundation and cause it to fail. Because water is so dangerous to your foundation, make sure that the grade of your property slopes away from your home so that water is always moving to the outlying areas of your property.
There is no way to 100% prevent a cracked foundation. Just make sure that you watch for signs of damage and have them repaired as soon as possible before they develop into even larger repair bills and affect the value of your home.
