Foundation Repair Before & After Photos

Foundation repair is an extremely common problem that we get called out for. However, this homeowner had a crack in their basement wall that was one of the bigger ones that we had seen in awhile. It was impressive that the crack in the wall was able to get as big as this before the homeowner gave us a call to come out and look at their basement. This crack was easily 1-2 inches wide, if not more.

The "before" photo shows what the crack in the wall looked like before any work was done on the basement. As you can see, this crack is very wide, much wider than the rest of the cracks in this basement, and many other homes that we have installed push piers on. Again, the fact the homeowner allowed the crack to get this large is incredible. However, the more impressive thing was how well the push piers brought the crack back together.

The "after" photo is almost unbelievable compared to the before. The push piers did an incredible job on bringing the wall back together. They were able to take a crack with at least a one-to-two inch gap all the way up and reduce the gap to almost nothing. After the two sides of this rift were pushed close to each other, our crew went back and resealed the crack, which will look almost just like the wall when it dries out.

Foundation issues can be some of the scariest issues that we see and deal with here at All-Dry of the Carolinas. This home definitely did not have as bad bowing walls as many of the other homes that we see here, because the homeowner was proactive about the issues with their home. However, these small cracks will continue to grow if not watched and taken care of quickly.

One of the biggest causes of bowing walls is the pressure that is created on the outside of the home by the earth, as was the case with this particular house. The type of cracking that can be seen in these pictures is a "stair-step" crack, which is one of the more common types of cracking. One of the things that a lot of people wonder about is the duct tape that the crew puts over the cracks. As you can see between the two photos, the duct tape shows how much the wall has moved and came together.

Wall anchors are able to really make a difference in basement walls, especially because they can be progressively tightened. This means that after they are installed, just months later they can be tightened to provide even more support and bring the wall closer to its original position. It can sometimes be difficult to notice how much the wall anchors really do, but the duct tape certainly makes it much more obvious how much the cracks were closed.

The All-Dry of the Carolinas team are the masters when it comes to lifting up your home, mentally and physically. Whenever you feel like your floors won’t hold you don’t worry, we will be there for you. In this case in Inman, SC the homeowners were having issues in their house in relation to their foundation. The windows would rattle and the hardwood floors were starting to split. In the before picture you can see that the floor joist is being held up by bricks and cinderblocks. This type of solution doesn’t work well with a home since the bricks can sink into the ground leaving the floor with its original problem.

               In the after pictures you can see that a SmartJack has been added to replace the use of the bricks and cinder blocks. This SmartJack crawl space stabilizer is different from the homemade version that was already under the house. SmartJacks are placed on a precast concrete pad that prevents the jack from sinking, hence giving the issue a permeant solution.

The SmartJacks were placed under the floor joist of the home and then used to push the floors back into place. To install it, we excavate a two-foot cube at each SmartJack location. The hole is then filled with concrete or engineered to create a stable, loadbearing footing. The SmartJack sits on top of it with a custom-engineered base to prevent the support system from sinking when the moister starts to affect the soil. SmartJacks are then adjusted to the perfect position to support the floor joist of the home. This SmartJack technology, is made of steel which will not rust when exposed to moister and it can also hold over 60,000 pounds! This product was able to save this homes sagging floor problem.

Foundation settlement is one of the most common causes of foundation problems that we see. The settlement is caused by the soil under and around the home shifting, because it is not packed down nearly as much as the undisturbed ground around it. The severity of settlement really depends on a couple of factors; one being, how tightly packed the soil was after the foundation of the home was built, and how long the homeowner has gone without addressing the problem.

Unfortunately, this homeowner had been living with this problem for awhile without getting it taken care of. As you can see from the before photo, the crack in this chimney is not just a small crack, but rather a huge gap. This is very dangerous, because you never know when something could happen and the entire chimney could come down. This is definitely something that you do not want to wait on, but rather get taken care of sooner, rather than later.

While the after photo is not the completely finished product, it does show the difference between the chimney before the push piers were installed and afterwards. As you can see, the gap has been almost completely closed through the raising of the piers. You can also see the difference that the piers made in the duct tape on the chimney, especially the piece on the right.