Oklahoma Rain Helping Fix Some Cracked Foundations

This year's rainy weather has put many homeowners on shifting ground.

The drought we had for several years caused foundations to crack and settle, but now the saturated soil is having the opposite effect and is actually lifting some homes back to their proper place.

In fact, some homes have been lifted as much as a half an inch in just four weeks, meaning some of the cracks are getting smaller.

Just a little more than halfway through the year and Oklahoma has already surpassed the amount of rain that fell in all of last year; and all of that saturation is moving the soil and your home, according to Eden’s Structural Solutions supervisor, David Crow.

"We know when it starts raining the cracks will start closing up, we were in such a drought for so many years, it was really bad," he said.

The drought caused many foundations like Stephen Campbell’s, to settle, which cracked homes or made existing cracks even bigger.

"We started to see the cracks grow to the point where you could stick your finger in some of them and said ‘Oh we need to do something about this,’" Campbell said.

Campbell is getting the damage on his home fixed by having his house lifted, which will close the scar.

"We’ve been looking at that crack for a long time and I'm ready to see it go," he said.

Crow said, “We can lift the house up and transfer the load onto the pier, and when we lock it in place the foundation will be supported by the pier."

While Eden's is repairing Campbell's damage from the drought, other homes are healing themselves with help from the rain.

Knox Inspections Owner, John Knox said, "That has caused everything to return to normal and then start to move upwards or heave in the foundations."

When it heaves, it means your foundation is lifted too much, which can also crack your house. And as more rain falls on already saturated ground, people may see damage outside their homes.

"People will begin to notice more. They don't go out and study their homes very often, they usually see it and it's a surprise," Knox said.'

Experts say the spots that show cracks first are near windows and doorways.

There are a number of things you can do to keep your home from shifting so much, whether the ground is wet or dry, but they all require professional help.