Hillside Homes…Are You On Solid Ground?
In SoCal, home buyers will pay top dollar for a property that captures the picturesque beauty all around us! Whether it is cliffside, hillside, or mountainside…a home with a view is extremely desirable.
California is no stranger to hillside issues from rain! Earlier this year, here in our own backyard in Lake Elsinore, CA, part of a home and wall collapsed into a creek after heavy rain. It left many other homes in the neighborhood at risk as well. We were flooded with phone calls from concerned homeowners!
Just this last Friday, KGTV news in San Diego reported that all trains from Downtown San Diego to Oceanside would be cancelled because the cliffside that the train tracks are located on, in Del Mar, CA, collapsed due to heavy rains.
Southern California is notorious for having expansive clay soils. The ever-changing wet and dry cycles, lead to heaving and shrinking of soil. These soil conditions just don’t affect train tracks–it affects anything built on the soil!
Is My Hillside Home Stable?
We find homes built before the 70’s weren’t built to stricter codes we have today. With that being said, we typically find that older homes are especially prone to issues. But older homes aren’t the only ones that can be affected. Here are a few signs that you should have your hillside home might be having settlement issues.
- Cracks In Walls: It may be your drywall, your stucco, or your retaining wall. Eroding soil can leave your foundation unstable, and can cause cracks to appear. These cracks may change with changing weather conditions.
- Bouncing or Uneven Floors: Do you feel a change in slope of your floors? Do your floors feel like a trampoline? You may have broken or shifted wood posts in your crawlspace.
- Issues Operating Doors In The Home: Do you have a door in the home that sticks from time to time? Perhaps that questionable door that decides to work/not work when the weather changes (cold, hot, wet, dry…)
- Separating Walls: This is when it literally looks like your home is coming apart at the seams.
Southern California’s Premier Foundation Repair Specialists- At Your Service!
Luckily, foundations are kinda our thing. And…we offer FREE inspections for homeowners! If you have any concerns about your hillside homes, you can easily book with us online, or give us a call today!
