Good news about
Foundation Repair.

■ Insulate your walls and attic. In most homes you do not have a way to add insulation to the walls however you can add insulation to the attic. It is recommended that the attic have around 15 inches of insulation. I also recommend the Energy Q Radiant Barrier lay on top of your insulation as a blanket to keep the heat in your home.
■ Caulk and weather-strip all doors and windows to reduce any wind drafts.
■ Install vinyl replacement windows or cover windows with plastic film from the inside during freezing weather.
■ Detach all garden hoses from the hose bibs and shut-off water supply to outside faucets if you can.
■ Keep the heat on in the house, even if you're leaving the house for an extended period of time.
■ Open cabinet doors on outside walls below sinks to allow heat from the home to circulate.
■ Install faucet covers on all external faucets, if you do not have regular covers use a towel and wrap around the faucet to protect it.
■ Know where your main water valve is and make sure you can easily turn it on and off in case it becomes necessary.
■ Wrap pipes near exterior walls and in crawl spaces with pipe insulation or with heating tape.
■ Keep garage doors closed to help eliminate drafts in the attached house.
■ Should your power go out disconnect your electrical appliances to avoid damage from power surges, which can occur once the power is restored.
■ If you are going to be away from home for an extended period of time, shut the water off to the home.

Monitor Freezing Pipe Conditions

■ The first sign of freezing is reduced water flow from a faucet.
■ Check your faucets for water flow and pressure before you go to sleep and again when you wake up.
■ Check pipes around your water meter, in unheated areas, near exterior walls and in crawl spaces.
■ These tend to be vulnerable to freezing conditions.
■ Identify cold air drafts coming in from a flue or chimney chase and caulk gaps that are near pipes.

If a Pipe Freezes

■ If a faucet or pipe inside your house freezes, you can thaw it using a good hair dryer. (For safety purposes, avoid operating a hair dryer around standing water.)
■ To thaw a frozen pipe, heat water on the stove, soak towels in the hot water and wrap them around cold sections of the pipes.
■ When thawing a pipe, start thawing it nearest to the faucet. Make sure the faucet is turned on so that melted water can drip out.

If a Pipe Bursts

■ Shut off water at the main valve.
■ If the break is in a hot water pipe, the valve on top of the water heater should be closed.
■ Call a plumber. Keep an emergency number nearby for quick access.

Labels: cold weather, freeze, pipes

Being in the foundation industry for quite some time, I’ve come across many ways that you can fix a foundation problem. There are minor cases where people try to fix it themselves which we don’t recommend due to safety hazards, and in the case that the job was done wrong, the repair to reverse it is very expensive. Then there are the major cases where the homes have to be lifted from the ground by using jacks. The Du-West processes range from the patented Ultra-Pile system to the system of jacks in which we lift the home completely off the ground. Most foundation companies do not know how to raise a home in the air to get it out of flood waters. Moreover, Du-West was the first to specialize in lifting a home, and even now, there are few companies that can do this. We do what ever it takes to get it done the right way.

Reasons why a homeowner would need to be raised are to keep it from flooding. If your flood damage is more than 50 percent of the value of your home, you must raise it to the current elevation standards in order to get permits to rebuild. Another factor to keep in mind is that your flood insurance may no longer pay for flood damages time after time. After a couple of floods, your insurance company may drop you or help you pay for the raising.




Above is a house that Du-West fixed 20 years ago. This home would flood at the sight of gray skies. In the severe cases, water would reach over the counter tops. At the time, the value of the home was approximately $85,000 due to the constant flooding in the home. Once the home was raised, the value increased to $300,000. In many cases, the value of the home will raise to what its actual value is and not the lower flood value.Du-West physically raised this home 9 feet off the ground and has since then helped many homeowners facing flood problems.







Watch our mini-video to learn more on how Du-West can raise your home!

Labels: flooding foundation, flooding home, flooding house, foundation problem, lift a home, raise a home

Du-West would like to welcome you to our world of cracked walls, sticking doors and bulging floors. Your home speaks a language that we at Du-West understand. Our family-owned company has been servicing Houston for home repairs since 1978. From plumbing to foundation repair, we are not only dedicated to repairing your home but we strive to educate our customers. Most foundation companies will try to do needless work on your foundation that can cause problems down the road, but instead, we’re able to help repair your foundation and offer maintenance solutions. That is why we created a series of mini-videos for our customers and a forum for your questions and concerns. These videos should give you a better background to our process of foundation repair and tips for maintenance.

We also believe at Du-West that no question is a dumb question, feel free to leave us a message or call our office at 1-800-457-2966.