Frost heave around Bend
the ground crosses freezing and back on about 114 days a year.
the ground crosses freezing and back on about 114 days a year
Bend records about 114 days a year where the temperature crosses freezing between night and day, and each of those cycles works existing cracks a little wider.
Why this matters for a footing
A footing is designed for a soil that stays roughly the same size. When the ground beneath one part of the house changes volume and the ground beneath another part does not, the house is asked to bridge the difference, and concrete is not good at that.
The median home in Bend was built in 2001, which sets what the footing is likely to be and how deep it sits.
What you can do without spending much
- Get roof water away from the wall - extensions on downspouts are the cheapest intervention there is
- Keep the soil moisture around the perimeter even rather than swinging wet to bone dry
- Watch tree roots close to the footing, which draw moisture out of one side only
- Mark and date crack ends, then photograph them each season
Bend averages 623 mm of rain a year, and it is the swing between the wet and dry parts of that total, not the total itself, that moves a footing.