Has anyone here ever had to repair a slab foundation? If so,

1. How much was the engineer's inspection?

2. How much did the repair cost and how big was the slab?

3. What kind of repair did you have done? Cable? pre-stressed concrete pilings? steel pipe?

4. How long did it take?

5. How disruptive was the repair work?

6. How much (if any) repair work (new cracks, broken windows, cracked door jambs, broken tile) was made necessary by the underpinning?

Thanks.

Since then, I have had a foundation repair company out to look at our foundation. This particular company used drilled piers, supposedly down at least 12 feet or until rock, whichever comes first. Depending on the situation, they will go deeper as he was describing a house that he had done recently where they had gone down 18 feet or more ( that house was on a slope ). The cost per pier is $800. There is some extra tacked on if concrete must be cut (such as a sidewalk or driveway) to gain access to the foundation. There is an extra fee if it is necessary to dig down more than 5 feet to get to the foundation itself.

The company offers a lifetime warranty. I don't know exactly what is covered, but I think that it is mainly for adjustments. The specifically state in the contract that complete closure of cracks is not guaranteed and they do not guarantee that there might be some cracking inside. The guarantee is against future movement of the foundation.

I live in northern Alabama and we have a good deal of expansive soils around here.

For one crack you probably don't need a lot of piers so your total cost would probably be less than our estimate of around $15000 for less than 20 piers. I don't remember the exact number of piers PLUS there was some extra cost for cutting into driveway. Generally, the piers are 8-10 feet apart.

Based on my estimate and the way that it was explained to me, if you have one crack, you can probably get away with 5 or 6 piers or less. However, it really depends on what they find.

Other companies in my area use helical piers and cable (Olshan). I don't know their prices.

Our toughest decision is whether or not to do the work. We actually have some very noticeable cracks that open every summer and close (mostly) in the winter. I feel like I was duped by the previous owner because apparently those cracks had been there forever, but he cosmetically fixed them before putting the house on the market. A year later, after a dry summer, two of them opened back up. My neighbor told me that the cracks had been there forever. Since then, two more cracks have appeared. The house is 30 years old, so I think that this has been going on for a long time, as opposed to some settling of a newly built house.

I think that we probably will do the work at some point, mainly because it can be an eyesore on the outside, as well as on the inside due to cracked drywall, stuck windows, stuck doors, etc. I would feel pretty bad trying to stick it to the next buyer by hiding the damage. I also think that the house would be harder to sell without the repair, if for no other reason, than I would not have bought had I noticed the cracks as the height of "cracking season".

A guy around the block had 25+ piers installed (20,000+). His house is in a rocky area, so the piers did not go down very far before hitting rock. It seemed like it took sort of a long time (6-8 weeks), at least partially because most of the digging had to be done by hand. Ordinarily, then can bring in some machinery to drill the hole.

This company advertises to a certain extent that the repair work is minimally disruptive (any foundation plantings are dug up and replanted when the work is finished. Not sure if there is a guarantee that the planting will live ). Other companies make a big deal about how then can be in and out in a short period of time and they specifically state that the work is not disruptive.

As far as damage due to the underpinning, I don't have much information. My impression is that they try to jack up enough to close up any exterior cracks. The other guy that had it done said it seemed like they did it to a certain extent by feel. He didn't mention anything about having any damage, but I don't think that it was jacked up a lot. The main idea is to stop the movement of the foundation. It seems to me like if a window breaks or a door jamb cracks that something has very unexpectedly gone awry. I would not think that kind of damage would be the norm, although I guess that it could happen.

If/when we have our foundation underpinned, I will probably wait at least two years ( two full crack/uncrack cycles ) before fixing any of our cracked brickwork. I would hate to fix it just to have it crack again. From what I understand, it is possible for the foundation repair company to come back later and do adjustments.

I have read that it is possible to minimize the movement of your foundation, if it is due to expansive soils, by watering around the foundation. Maybe this works, but it seems pretty iffy to me. How much do you water? How often? It probably wouldn't work well for us anyway as the sides of our hose where most of our cracks are located are bound by a concrete driveway.

I hope that some of that helped.

Doing any kind of piering,wall anchoring,beams etc and NOT excavating the basement wall(s), Not waterproofing it and Not backfilling it with all gravel is/will be a big mistake for many homeowners.

read --Basement Walls, most successful REPAIR Mehtod, see what they tell you

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/publications/marineclay.htm#2

read --DIAGNOSING The PROBLEM

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/publications/marineclay.htm#4

read 6th Paragraph here....
http://www.yodergroup.com/concrete.asp

here`s some more.... what Many INSIDE water-diverting companies don`t know or want YOU to know, talking about those who Only-Rather do Inside perimeter drain tile & Baseboard systems...Watch out!!!

Nobody on this planet can stop/relieve/lessen Outside-soil-pressure with any inside system, you have to go Outside and get rid of the.. CAUSE(s)!!! Carbon straps,beams,piering,anchoring etc....while a couple of these 'may' help hold a PART of wall in-place (or support from underneath) they do NOT relieve expanding and contracting Soil pressure or roots! Exterior is BEST choice for MOST!

http://www.askthebuilder.com/015_Exterior_Foundation_Wall_Waterproofin g.shtml

http://www.askthebuilder.com/NH058_-_Waterproofing_Foundations.shtml

--WET Basements, Q 1 and 5 esp... what do THEY tell you about what is PREFERRED Method for dealing with damp-leaky basements? Yeaah, its NOT from the Inside

http://www.shakeronline.com/dept/building/FAQ.asp

read this article, see what SOILS are Best, see COMPACTION, and check out..Careful on the construction Site

http://www.bobvila.com/HowTo_Library/Why_Foundations_Fail-Foundation-A 2095.html

http://www.ottawastructural.com/treesfoundations.htm

I would bite the bullet and hire a good "structural engineer" to find out if it is really a foundation problem or it is shifting clay soil that would only require watering to correct.

We had this problem with an older home, it is the shifting clay soil causing the problem and not the foundation. The drought this past summer did not help. It was well worth the $300 for a 1560 sq. ft. brick home on concrete foundation.

A structural engineer will not be biased like a leveling company would be anticipating a job whether it is needed or not. Something to think about.

First, holes (boxes) dug down to footings.�
Next, piers drilled. Due to wet conditions (and not wanting to destroy yard) some piers drilled with bobcat where it could stay on hard surface. Other piers drilled with a portable device.�
Next, cement placed in each hole, along with rebar. This was left for weekend.�
Next, jacking. Jacking was done using simple bottle jacks. �Measured using a transit and 4' level (on floor inside).�
Next, pipe inserted between pier and footing to temporarily support house while jacks removed.�
Next, cement placed to connect top of pier and footing.�

Finally, holes filled back in. French drains repaired. Foundation plantings put back. (Some lived, some didn't).�

All in all, I was surprised it wasn't more disruptive. I was also surprised how relatively low tech it was. Lots of manual labor.�

After a year, I think I am satisfied with how it turned out. Main crack did not reopen over the summer.�

Would I recommend it? �If you can afford it, yes. The way I looked at, I felt that we were duped at the purchase (our home inspector probably should have found the issue) by the intentional camouflage of damage by prior owner. I felt that our choices, when we eventually sell, would be:

1. Sell as is, with cracks apparent and possibly take a hit on price.�
2. Cover up again and stick it to the next guy.�
3. Fix now and maybe/maybe not get that money back when we sell. I don't have any illusion that our $20,000+ will come back to us. I do think the piers should be a selling point.�

If there are any more questions regarding our job, post them here and I will try to answer.�

jaygold53:
Interior damage - Probably some cracks. Floor in bathroom directly over "pivot point" for the side with the most movement has some disruption in the tile floor where it meets the baseboard (as if the wall came up 1/4" or so more than the floor). We plan to redo this bathroom anyway, so it doesn't really bother us.
Plumbing leaks - none that I know of.
Doors/Windows - Some windows would barely operate before the foundation work, now they operate smoothly.