Bowing & Buckling Foundation Walls

Diagram of a repaired foundation wall

Foundation wall anchors can repair many bowing wall problems. Soil anchors are placed in the ground outside.

Steel rods attached to soil anchors extend through the foundation wall and wall plates. Wall plates distribute clamping pressure. Tightening nuts on the threaded ends of the rods stabilizes the wall for a permanent solution.

The Problem:

Your foundation walls are bowing, buckling or are showing signs of inward movement.

Telltale Signs:

  • Horizontal or stair-step cracking along the foundation walls
  • Diagonal cracking at corners of poured concrete foundation walls
  • Inward bowing or bulging along the walls
  • Walls sliding inwards on the bottom
  • Walls leaning in at the top
  • Wet, clay soils around the home coupled with damaged walls

How to Fix It:

We recommend installing Foundation Wall Anchors when your foundation walls are bowing, buckling, or showing signs of inward movement.

Get a FREE Quote!

We can straighten your bowing, buckling foundation walls! Our solutions are warrantied, and most can be done in a day!

Call us for a free foundation wall repair quote today! We serve Oakville, Hamilton, Burlington, and many nearby areas in Ontario.

Signs of bowing foundation walls

Foundation walls move inward primarily due to expansive soils and hydrostatic pressure on the walls from outside. However, foundation walls may also crack due to many other outside causes, including foundation settlement. Our foundation experts will accurately identify the cause of your home's foundation problems.

Below are images of several foundations that are showing damage from hydrostatic pressure and expansive soils outside the structure.

(Click each photo to enlarge.)

A cracked foundation wall near a window in a Paris home Foundation wall separating from the floor in Thorold home A buckling foundation wall in a Tillsonburg home. Rusted, corroded i-beams found with a failing foundation in a Port Colborne home.
A diagonal stair-step crack found along a foundation wall in a Simcoe home A diagonal stair step crack along the foundation wall of a Ancaster home A foundation showing severe inward buckling along the windows in a Dundas home. Severe foundation damage from a long crack in a bucking wall of a Georgetown home.

What Causes Cracked & Bowing Foundation Walls?

wet and dry clay soil samples, with the dry one shrunken and cracked

How Much Does Moisture Affect Clay Soils?

These two clay samples started out exactly the same in size, weight, and composition. The sample on the right was allowed to dry out, while the one on the left we kept moist.

If a small sample of clay can gain this much volume when it gets wet, just imagine how dramatic the changes are in the soil around your home!

The soils around your home can put enormous pressure on foundation walls. The amount of pressure they exert depends on four factors:

  1. The type of soil around the foundation
  2. The amount of moisture in the soil
  3. How far underground the foundation is
  4. The temperature conditions

There's constant pressure on your foundation walls from the outside, but the only thing holding up your foundation wall is the wall itself. Hydrostatic pressure, expansive clay soil, and frost can all exert enough pressure to cause walls to lean or even collapse.

Gutters and downspouts can also contribute significantly to foundation problems.

If roof runoff is not directed away from your foundation, the soil around the foundation will become heavier and more expansive as it's saturated with water.

If you would like a free foundation wall repair quote for your home, call or e-mail us today!

The Reinforcer

When The Reinforcer is applied to foundations, it counteracts further outside pressure on the wall, taking the tension force or tensile load that the concrete or mortar joint cannot.

For every increase in pressure, The Reinforcer supplies an equal and opposite resistant force making the wall stronger, helping to eliminate shifting, expanding, cracking or bowing.

What NOT To Do

A foundation repair is a big job -- something you definitely only want to do once! When you're repairing your foundation, beware of expensive options that will not actually fix your problem -- and watch out for quick solutions that just don't work.

diagram and illustration of a total foundation replacement, showing the jacked up home and the excavated earth.

Wasting time and money with total foundation replacement.

This extreme repair option damages the yard and requires the house to be placed on temporary supports. It's also expensive and time-consuming.

Total Foundation Replacement:

To undertake a job like this, you have to excavate the entire perimeter of your foundation -- including gardens, shrubbery, sidewalks, and other landscaping.

Next, the house is jacked up, and the floor slab and foundation walls are removed. Finally, the foundation is rebuilt, the house is repositioned and the soil is replaced.

This solution is extremely disruptive, expensive, and time consuming. What's worse, it's not really addressing the issue.

Your foundation isn't the problem -- the soil is! When you're done building that brand new foundation, you can count on the soil to cause damage just like it did before.

If you're going to invest money in repairing your foundation, choose the solution that is not disruptive and will be warrantied for 25 years.

Looking For Foundation Wall Repair Experts In Ontario?

At Omni Basement Systems, we're proud to provide warrantied solutions that will permanently solve issues with bowing, buckling foundation walls.

We provide free, no-obligation foundation wall repair estimates to homeowners throughout our Ontario service area. Each estimate is made in person, on site, and is presented in writing.

Our service area includes Burlington, Oakville, Hamilton, and nearby areas such as St Catharines, Kitchener, Cambridge, Guelph, Niagara Falls, Milton, Brantford. Call or e-mail us today!

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