How Animals Can Damage Your Foundation

Are you looking for ways to protect your property’s foundation? Knowing how to spot signs of damage caused by animals can help! Texas is the home to many critters that are considered cute and harmless from afar but can cause major damage to your home’s foundation. While you may not have anything against squirrels, prairie dogs, and raccoons, it’s best to do what you can to keep them away from your foundation.

To avoid the discovery that an animal has damaged your foundation, we’ve made a list of ways an animal could damage your foundation and solutions to these problems so that you won’t have to deal with such a headache in the future. 

Potential Risks and Solutions for Animal Damage

If you’re unfortunately dealing with a foundation that has been damaged by an animal, There are also ways your foundation can be repaired. Here are the reasons an animal can damage your foundation and tips to prevent damage:

Keep Garbage Far from the Foundation

Discarded food is enticing and attractive to wild animals, and they will often rummage through garbage cans to find something to eat. They have a keen sense of smell and even if you keep lids on your garbage cans, critters can sniff out anything you’ve thrown out. They may not mean to cause harm, but animals will often make their home as close as possible to their main food source. That’s why you shouldn’t keep garbage cans close to your house. Store your cans as far as possible from your foundation. 

You should keep garbage cans away from any structures, including garages. Should consider keeping your garbage cans out in the yard, alley, or near your driveway. What’s more, make sure your garbage’s lids are securely attached.

You also shouldn’t store garbage for too long. It’s wise to dispose of any garbage before the food starts to rot and smell as this will attract critters even more. For that reason, make sure you don’t miss garbage pick-ups. 

Lastly, to help prevent damage to your foundation caused by animals, buy garbage cans that are animal-proof. For example, animals can chew through plastic garbage lids to get at the garbage inside, but metal cans can’t be chewed through so easily. Doing these things will go a long way in keeping animals from damaging your foundation.

Place Gardens Away from the House

There’s nothing like enjoying a tomato or cucumber that you’ve grown yourself. Keeping a garden can be a nice hobby. It’s satisfying to watch seeds that you planted grow into something you can eat. But just like you want to enjoy your homegrown veggies, so do the animals that live nearby. You don’t want your garden to lead to animals damaging your foundation.

To avoid this, don’t keep your garden too close to your house. That’s because animals can dig up the ground around your foundation. If you want to enjoy your garden and keep your peace of mind, plant a garden away from your foundation. You can also keep a fence around your garden or use specific animal-proof netting over your plants. You may also try fertilizers that contain blood meal because blood meal is an animal deterrent. 

Secure Your Pet’s Food

Your beloved canine pal may bark at the squirrels in the trees keeping them away from the house, but did you know that their food can still attract them into your yard?

Wild animals love to eat dog and cat food. Raccoons, armadillos, and prairie dogs will also do just about anything to feast on your pet’s kibble because pet food is high in calories and smells delicious to them. If you store your pet’s food in a plastic bin outside you want to look for containers that are harder to get into and place them out of reach of critters. If you keep their food dishes in the yard, keep them away from the foundation of your home. 

Block Off Your Decks Crawl Space

It’s great to be able to enjoy the view of your yard from your deck, but make sure that your deck is enclosed so that animals can’t access the space underneath. You want to do this because the space under a deck can be an appealing place for an animal to make a nest. 

It’s shaded and provides protection from the elements. What’s more, if you host parties and eat outside, there could also be easier access to discarded food. Therefore, always ensure that the deck’s crawl space is closed off to animals.

What to Do if an Animal has Damaged Your Foundation?

In the event that an animal has damaged the foundation of your home, worry not, your foundation can be repaired. Here are two of the most common ways this can be done:  

• Home Raising: Supports are installed around your home so that they can be raised to fix the sunken portions of your foundation. When a foundation is raised, we can return the foundation to its original place. 
• Stabilization: A home isn’t always raised to repair the foundation. Sometimes the foundation is stabilized with supports. This won’t return the foundation to its original place the way Home Raising will, but it will prevent further damage and sinking.

Bottom Line on How Animals Damage Your Foundation

You don’t want animals to dig or nest around your foundation. Keeping garbage, gardens, and pet food away from your home’s foundation will help to keep the critters away. Also, make sure that the space around your deck is enclosed. Because animals can damage your foundation it’s important that you follow the steps listed above to avoid serious damage from happening.

If you would like to help maintain your property’s foundation, consider working with foundation repair specialists. Reach out to experts at Granite Foundation Repair today, our team is happy to help ensure that your home’s foundation is in great condition!