Nature Made Man Cave

With the storms of last Friday this homeowner heard the lightning hit a tree outside the home. The next day he goes outside to clear the tree from the driveway and clean up. Then he hears his wife scream from the house. She had opened the door to the finished basement to find a muddy river flowing below them. He goes down to see what is going on and opens the door to one of the rooms to find that the basement wall has completely caved in, the drywall was destroyed the block was busted and the mud that was once soil around the foundation wall was spilling in to the room.

The family called in a panic to have us take a look. It was obvious the foundation was compromised and needed immediate attention. The family had to get a few things and get out of the home. The inspector who took the call along with our company owners put together a quick response team to volunteer some hours over the Labor Day weekend to secure the house until work could be scheduled.

With a run to the local home improvement store for some necessary items and a handful of men working hard in the mud, they were able to hand excavate with shovels and wheel barrow, and then secure the foundation with temp shoring enough to keep the house from further damage.

As the cleanup and tear out was happening we did find a number of other disturbing issues. The supports of the house were running the width of the house not the depth, the same side that caved in.  The finished basement did have a bathroom on that same wall. The ventilation fan that was installed ran into the existing ventilation systems, sending the exhaust from the basement bathroom to the kitchen above. After removing the tub and shower area we could see tree roots that were growing into the wall, also compromising the strength of the structure. The sewer line had been leaking but hard to say how long.

It is difficult to say how long this home will need to be fully restored but crews are hard at work and we look forward to bringing you an update.