| Updated: 8/17/2012 5:38 pm |
Published: 8/17/2012 3:35 pm
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The extreme drought is wreaking havoc on home foundations around Green Country.
Not only can it be dangerous, but fixing your foundation can be costly.
"Once the weather started getting hotter and we started having more consecutive days of 100 degree weather, of course phone calls starting pouring in because of people having issues with their foundations,” says Perma Built supervisor, Jason Neafus.
Neafus and his crew have their hands full with a home in Owasso.
"The garage wall is kind of rolled out a little bit and settled, and it's kind of fallen away from the trim,” says Neafus.
Two houses down live the Patterson family. Last year, the couple noticed something wasn’t right with their home either.
"The walls in the bedroom started cracking in the corners, and then around the ceiling and then the windows started in and then the doors,” says Jill Patterson.
She loves to garden and spends at least three hours a day tending to her plants and flowers. And much like a garden, too much water or in this case, too much heat and drought can wreck your foundation causing cracks and separation.
There are a few things experts recommend you do to try and avoid a home facelift.
"You can try watering. I would say soaker hoses would be better than a water hose,” says Neafus.
"Sometimes re-directing your gutters to put it towards your house instead of away from your house can help,” he says.
It can be extremely costly to fix your foundation. You can expect to spend around $500 per pier on average. Rock homes are more susceptible to damage because they are not a flat surface and they’re heavier and bigger than brick homes typically.
Oklahoma has a lot of clay soil and when it gets dry, it can crumble causing homes to settle.
