Check your Home's Foundation for Cracks

Series Summary

Winters can be hard on your house and can cause damage if your house is not adequately prepared for the cold, rain and or snow. Additionally, if your home is not prepared for the weather it may not be able to protect you from the cold of winter and winter storms. Winterizing you house is easier than you think and is an important part of preparing for winter. If you would like to learn how to winterize your home, you can learn from one of our experts, for free.

In this free how to video series, learn how to winterize your home from construction expert Jon Olson. Jon will show you important home winterizing techniques such as how to check your foundation for cracks, how to check the chimney for damage, how to check the grade around your house foundation, how to check the wood on your home for damage, how to clean your roof gutters, how to check and reseal roof flashing, how to check caulking around doors and windows, how to paint around windows and doors, how to check the weather stripping, how to prepare exterior faucets for winter, how to change a furnace filter, and how to seal cracks in the concrete.

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is Jon on behalf of Expert Village. In this video clip, we will be checking for cracks around the foundation. When winterizing my house, the first thing I like to do is take a look around the foundation and see if any cracks have formed. Now typically there will be some real small cracks and these are pretty common on houses. What you want to look for is larger cracks or if there is shifting of the blocks. You really just want to work your way all around the foundation, taking a look just to see if there is any cracks that might need to be repaired. Basically what you are looking for is areas where snow could potentially build up against the house and once it starts to melt, it could ooze its way into the house causing damage. You also want to follow these same procedures in checking any of the brick along your house as well as where the brick meets the concrete. Right here we have a gap forming along the bottom and we will probably want to come in here and fill that just so no moisture seeps its way into the house. And lastly, you want to check the concrete floors to make sure there are no large cracks. You will see some small cracks here and there and that is all right as long as they are not too big. "