Crawl Space & Foundation Repair in Cary, NC

Cary Homes and What Is Under Them

Cary grew from a small town into one of the largest in the state over a few decades, and most of its houses were built during that growth, from the 1970s on. A large share of them sit on crawl spaces finished the way builders finished them at the time: foundation vents, a loose plastic vapor barrier over the soil, and fiberglass batts between the joists. Many are brick-veneer homes with an attached garage, which matters for a different reason covered below.

Our busiest Cary ZIP codes, 27511 and 27513, cover the older central and north Cary neighborhoods, where houses are now thirty to fifty years old. That is old enough for a damp, vented crawl space to have done real work on the framing: sill plates and joists that have stayed wet, insulation that has fallen, and floors that have started to move.

Common Problems We See in Cary

• Hardwood floors that cup or crown in summer, a sign of a humid crawl space below — see cupping floor repair
• Rusted steel lintels above brick garage openings, showing as stair-step cracks and a sagging brick course — see garage door lintel repair
• Soft or sagging floor framing over long-damp crawl spaces
• Torn vapor barriers, fallen insulation and summer condensation under the house
• Water collecting under the house after heavy rain

The garage lintel problem is particular to brick homes of this age. The steel angle that carries the brick over a two-car garage door rusts where moisture sits on it, and rust expands as it forms, lifting and cracking the brick above. It is repairable, and it is much simpler to fix before the brick has dropped.