Foundation Repair Photo Album: Fixing settlement issues in Fonthill, ON

Jeff & Carol has a home in Fonthill, On where one corner of the home has settled. Omni Basement Systems along with a structural engineer assessed the situation and recommended the Push Pier System by Supportworks. The push Pier system consists of attaching large metal brackets to the foundation and drive a series of galvanized tubes down until they hit bedrock or hard supporting strata. Once the piers are in place, they are capped off and the foundation is now supported by the system.

Corner of home has sunk

The settlement has happened here in the corner. This is due to soil conditions. The soil under this home is very sandy and does not support the home properly.

Floor cracks

Although floor floor cracks are not usually evidence of settlement, in this case the floor crack coincide with other issues to support the assessment.

Cracking in brick facade

This is usually a key indication that there is a settlement issue.

Wall cracks

Again like the floor crack, this is not usually a key indicator of settlement but combined with adjoining floor cracks and cracking in the brick façade, all these together makes it easy to see that there is a problem.

Overlooked by previous waterproofer.

This problem was completely overlooked by the customers previous waterproofing contractor. They did not put all the pieces of the puzzle together to make him aware of the more serious problem of settlement.

Pier bracket and drive stand

On the right, you can see the pier bracket attached to the foundation. On the left, the drive stand holds the large hydraulic cylinder that pushes the galvanized tubes known as piers down into the ground far below the house until reaching the bedrock.

Piers lock off

Once the piers have been pushed down and the they are steady in the their pressures, they are locked off by the top cap plate.

Spacing

THese piers are spaced every four feet to properly support the home.

Pier logs

These logs are vitally important to document the depth and pressure obtained by the piers. The Engineer will specify what is the proper pressure that is required to support the home. Factors that are used to come up with pier pressures are items such as Number of floor, type of exterior façade, snow load type of soils

exterior piers

The engineer will specify inter or exterior piers or a combination. In this case, he specified a combination of interior and exterior piers.

Lift cylinders

Once the piers are all installed and locked in place, smaller cylinder are attached and connected to together through hydraulic tubes. This is when the magic happens. These connected cylinders will work together to raise the foundation back into place.