By Miguel Llanos, NBC News<\/p>\n
As if shriveled crops, dead fish, water rationing and brown lawns aren\u2019t bad enough, some residents across the Midwest and South are seeing the drought in their own homes as foundations shift in dried-up soil.<\/p>\n
Sometimes they\u2019ll even hear the shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will get calls where homeowners hear a loud pop,\u201d John Clark, general manager at Indiana Foundation Service, told NBC News. \u201cThey\u2019ll explain that they\u2019ve heard the house move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding insult to injury, insurers typically consider such damage an \u201cact of God\u201d and thus homeowners are on the hook for funding repairs.<\/p>\n
Clark said drought-repair business in and around Indianapolis is booming, with calls almost doubling in the last month and his crews doing about 10 home repairs a week.<\/p>\n
Competitors are just as busy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen it to this magnitude, this early in the season\u201d said Tim Combs, vice president at Helitech, a foundation and waterproofing specialist based in St. Louis, Mo. \u201cI\u2019ve been at Helitech for 19 years, and this is the driest ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between 60 and 70 percent of Helitech\u2019s customer calls involve foundation repairs, Combs told NBC News, when typically it\u2019s half foundations and half waterproofing this time of year.<\/p>\n
The problem is everywhere Helitech operates \u2014 Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. \u201cThe drought is so widespread that it\u2019s really balanced\u201d as far as repair work, he said.<\/p>\n
Some homeowners report new cracks, Combs said, while others say small cracks have gotten worse with the dry spell.<\/p>\n
The foundation damage is on top of drought problems that include lost corn and soy crops, fish killed by low oxygen levels in lakes and rivers, and water rationing in some cities.<\/p>\n
In Illinois, NBC affiliate WEEK-TV reported Wednesday that the drought is causing home damage in the Peoria area.<\/p>\n
Similar foundation issues exist in Little Rock, Ark, NBC affiliate KARK-TV reported Monday.<\/p>\n
Clark earlier told NBC affiliate WTHR-TV that foundation repairs tied to dry soil can cost anywhere from $1,000 up to $40,000.<\/p>\n
Homeowners should look for \u201cdoors that are sticking, windows that stick and drywall cracks,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
As for prevention, WTHR noted that some experts suggest a sprinkler around a home\u2019s foundation \u2014 as long as no cracks currently exist.<\/p>\n
Another approach is to water under an exposed slab area to beef up the soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn shallow footings, crawl spaces, footings that might be under a slab of some sort you can actually water with a water hose and it can help that expansive soil swell and preserve that footing from settling,\u201d Jeff Tharp, a specialist at Helitech, told WEEK.<\/p>\n
In Indianapolis, however, that\u2019s not on option: the drought has led to a ban on watering lawns this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Miguel Llanos, NBC News As if shriveled crops, dead fish, water rationing and brown lawns aren\u2019t bad enough, some residents across the Midwest and South are seeing the drought in their own homes as foundations shift in dried-up soil. Sometimes they\u2019ll even hear the shift. \u201cWe will get calls where homeowners hear a loud pop,\u201d John Clark, general manager at Indiana Foundation Service, told NBC News. \u201cThey\u2019ll explain that they\u2019ve heard the house move.\u201d Adding insult to injury, insurers typically consider such damage an \u201cact of God\u201d and thus homeowners are on the hook for funding repairs. Clark said drought-repair business in and around Indianapolis is booming, with calls almost doubling in the last month and his crews doing about 10 home repairs a…<\/p>\n