Your Foundation and the Effects of Snowfall

How Snow Puts Your Foundation at Risk

In the midst of winter’s cold weather, the chances of snowfall are more likely to happen. Unfortunately, the beautiful white blankets of snow can be harmful to your home’s foundation.

Summertime weather causes soil to dry out, crack, and cause settlement problems for your home. As the weather changes into the winter season, your soil is still in danger of drying out. Due to the colder air in the wintertime, the moisture in your soil begins to disappear causing it to dry and crack.

Melted snow, ice, and frost will enter the cracks surrounding your foundation, applying pressure against your home, and cause foundation settlement problems.

When these cracks exist, and snow, frost, or ice begin to melt, they will seep into those cracks heading towards your foundation. This water will create pressure against the foundation causing settlement problems. Signs of settlement will be visible in your home. Doors and windows may be sticking or hard to open, your floors will sink, and there will be cracks in your outdoor and indoor walls.

Another problem that can occur is the melted snow refreezing in the cracks caused by the dry soil. If this happens, the frozen water will cause the cracks to grow and create worse settlement problems.

The melted snow, frost, and ice are also likely to cause water damage to your home’s crawl space or basement once they seep into those cracks. Water damage to crawl spaces and basements can cause major damage to your home, which can be expensive to fix.