Foundation Elevation home Inspection from home inspector home inspectors

Foundation Elevation Home Inspection

It seems like no matter how much money we put into our foundations in North Texas there is always some movement, determining how much foundation movement on your new home or older home, at your home inspection process is very important and documenting elevations is one of our Home inspectors goals at R Eyes Home Inspections.

R Eyes Home Inspections is adding foundation elevation measuring for an extra charge with a Ziplevel to bench mark your foundation and to be the best Home Inspectors that we can be for you the home buyer. Ziplevel is a fundamentally new way of measuring your homes foundation elevations that many foundation companies’s and engineers use to measure a homes foundation elevations for failures or offsets (High or low areas). This type of a level works much like an aircraft altimeter yet 1000 times more precise and completely immune from barometric pressure changes and can be used accurately by one person.

Gives you a reference point for the future to determine how much movement.
Helps to determine if there are plumbing issues.
Helps to determine settled areas of the home.
Give you a better idea of the condition of the foundation.
Gives you exact measurements of differences.
Is much better than guessing with the eyes.
Good for new homes if there is ever an issue with the builder.
Will pinpoint grading and drainage issues.
There is an extra charge for this type of inspection.

If your house has no issues this will give you a reference point to have for the future if there is ever an settling issue, you can tell how much your foundation has moved from a given point in time or to tell you if there is an area that has settled that needing to be addressed before you buy your new home. This also will help to determine crowning caused by plumbing leaks as well in your home. Crowning is caused by water under the foundation swelling the dirt and raising the slab up. This equipment will help your home inspector to determine if there are issues that will need to be addressed by a professional engineer or foundation company.

There are some things that need to be remembered when doing this kind of Home Inspection. Concrete foundations are not perfect when installed there are high spots and low spots in the foundation when it is installed and this level will give you exact measurements. I have personally seen foundations that were as much as 1-1/1/2 inch differences the day they were poured.

Without using the Ziplevel on your Home Inspection there is no way your home Inspector can determining if there are settled areas on your foundation and then it is still hard to determine if it was made that way or settled especially when there have been wall repairs done or doors reset or no visible signs of settling. However it is a good tool to determine if there is a bigger issue to be addressed by the seller when you are still in the inspection posses.