Major Foundation Issues in Murphy, North Carolina Basement Corrected with Push Piers

Thursday, November 2nd, 2017 by Braden Cook

Challenge

We have been able to see thousands of homes in the past 26 years with foundation problems, some were not that bad, and some were pretty severe. Unfortunately for this homeowner, this was one of the more severe cases of foundation problems that we have seen. Probably not the worst, but it was certainly in a bad way. Fortunately our Systems Design Specialist knew that while this project may take a little extra work, it was certainly something that we could do. The homeowner was extremely excited that their home would finally be complete again.

The main issue with this home was foundation settlement. This mountain home, which was perched near the edge was being affected by the way their (and most others) home was constructed. The fact that they were even closer to a "hill", where erosion can take place just made the problem even worse. This home was having severe foundation settlement, which was leading to several cracks throughout the basement/lower floor of the home. Some of these cracks were small, and a few were large. Most of them were around a quarter to three-quarters of an inch wide, which may not seem that significant, but when looking at the pictures, you can see that these were a pretty significant size.

Solution

The solution to all of the homeowner's foundation issues were push piers. However, the amount of push piers that we used for this single home was certainly above average for projects like this one. Most homes that have foundation issues use anywhere from three to eight. This is usually because the foundation problems are in a more centralized location, which was not the case for this home. This home was having foundation problems all down the back wall of the basement. These cracks just continued to grow, and if they weren't taken care of when they were, they just would have continued to get worse. If the homeowner would have let this issue continue to get worse, the home could have easily been destroyed or could have cost much, much more than our solution.

Again, our solution was to install a total of fourteen push piers. These push piers were installed all around the outside of the basement, spaced pretty equally around the walls of the basement. This helps to spread out the pressure and weight of the home equally to the push piers, which further decreases the possibility of a failure. The success of these push piers can easily be seen in the photos to the right. In some cases, the cracks that were once there are almost invisible, which is what we seek to do in every job. We want the customer to hardly notice that anything happened to their home, although there are usually some small "scars" left on the walls which cannot be avoided.

This entire project took several days to complete, but in the end, the customer was so happy to have their basement walls repaired. It certainly was not an easy job for Francisco and his crew to complete, but they were able to handle this larger than normal task with no problem. Francisco has been extensively trained in foundation problems, and makes sure that every single push pier is installed correctly and in the positions that they can provide the support. Check out the photos to the right of the text to see the before and after pictures of this project.

Project Summary

Installing Contractor: All-Dry of the Carolinas

Systems Design Specialist: Stephen Payne

Project Foreman: Francisco Gamez

Products Installed: Push Piers (14)

Here is a photo that shows just a few of the cracks that had formed in the basement of this home. You can see that while these cracks aren't huge, they definitely have a significant width to them. A later photo will show just how much of a difference the push piers make.

This photo is a close up of one of the cracks that can be seen in the last photo. It is very common for cracks to form from the corners of windows and doors, because the wall is slightly weaker around these areas.

In this photo, the outside column is actually leaning forward, away from the wall. This was another very obvious sign that some serious foundation issues were around. The push piers were able to reconnect the column with the rest of the wall.

Here are just a few of the push piers that were installed at this home. The push piers are a little hard to see, but there is one in each of the holes along the wall. They are attached to the bottom of the foundation so usually they are even further down than these are!

Let's play a game; find the crack! Now, you'll probably be able to pick it out pretty easily, especially since it was in an earlier photo. However, the fact that the crack can hardly be seen is amazing. It really is almost invisible, and there is no doubt that it is much better than it was before.

Here is the column from one of the first few pictures. As you can see, it is much closer than it was in the last picture. We also "re-seal" all of the cracks for two reasons, it gives it slightly more holding power, but more so that it makes the cracks look much better.