Foundation Repair

[woodturner]

I have a basement crack that appears to indicate a broken footer - the corner has dropped. It's looking like piering will be required. Quotes range from $1500 to $35,000 to repair

Has anyone had this kind of work done? I would appreciate any thoughts, comments or ideas. This is the first (and hopefully last) time I've had this kind of problem and work to do.

Thanks.

[chopnhack]

Whats the cause? Is the soil expansive? Drainage/slope issues? Failed sump? Has the crack expanded? Pictures please.

[LCHIEN]

i recently had a $10,000 foundation repair to my home. It's a two story home on concrete slab w/o a basement.

Three of the outside sides had settled maybe an inch or more and we were getting cracks in the sheetrock and moldings along with door frames a bit out of kilter. A couple of cracks in the bricks outside.

I had close to 30 piers installed, they only had to dig under the edge of the foundation; in your case do they have to dig down to get below the basement?
The driveway was on the fourth side of the house so only abut 3 holes had to be knocked thru driveway or patio.

I called two foundation repair companies and also called a structural engineer. They all basically measuerd the droop of the slab using one of those stanley electronic manometers and came up with more or less the same recommendations.

fortunately the droop was all along the outside and not in the center (requireing tunnelling).

The structural engineer said the causes were:17 year old house with 17 year old oak trees nearby (5) - the roots go under the slab and suck out the moisture. Also drainage problems - standing water etc. The trees should be old enough they now go down more instead of out... hopefully.

good luck

[woodturner]

Whats the cause? Is the soil expansive? Drainage/slope issues? Failed sump? Has the crack expanded? Pictures please.

The exact cause is unknown at this point, but it could be a failed drain tile causing soil to erode under the footer or roots from a bush that was in the area and removed.

We do have some clay soil, and the crack is showing some movement seasonally, suggestion soil moisture is part of the issue.

I have attached a couple of picture showing the crack inside and out.

[woodturner]

in your case do they have to dig down to get below the basement?

Yes, they would excavate something in the range of 20' down each side of the corner to the footer, then install the piers and backfill. Depth is in the range of four to six feet to the footer. Most of the contractors are suggesting six piers.

[chopnhack]

Yikes! As you mentioned. the vegetation that was there is a very likely cause of the drain failing. As a future preventative, you may want to remove anything larger than seasonal flowers for a 2' band around your house, obviously replace the drain sock/tube. Will your insurance cover any of the cost to repair? Why are the quotes so different in range?

[woodturner]

Will your insurance cover any of the cost to repair? Why are the quotes so different in range?

No, homeowners insurance does not cover foundation repairs, unless they are caused by a plumbing leak. It used to cover this kind of thing, but around 10 years ago policies changed to exclude foundation repairs for essentially any reason other than water damage caused by interior plumbing.

The quotes are in "tiers":
$1500 to $3000 for mud jacking (inject concrete under the footer to push it back into place and stabilize it. Great option IF the soil is competent - but we don't know whether it is).

$6,000 - $15,000 for piering - different types of piers, including steel "pins", belled steel pins, and concrete filled tubing. Prices different by type of pier, but mostly due to different contractors and different pricing by contractor. Could not find a contractor that does drilled concrete piers - clearly the best and most economical option according to Robert Wade Brown, the engineer who "wrote the book" on foundation repair. Also have not found a contractor that does helical piers, which many P.E.s prefer and is the type used for high tension towers, etc.

$16,000 for interior drains - because that nationally advertising vendor is trying to make high profits (and no, this won't really fix the problem).

$25,000 - $35,000 to rebuild the foundation. Support the house, take the corner down, drill piers under the old footer, fill with concrete, pour a new footer, build a new foundation wall, rebuild the brick wall. This is expensive because it is very labor intensive and much more work - 2 weeks vs a day or two for the other options.

[pelligrini]

Also have not found a contractor that does helical piers, which many P.E.s prefer and is the type used for high tension towers, etc.

Is there a Ram-jack in your area? http://www.ramjack.com/

They've done a couple lunch&learns at our office and I've been impressed with some of the systems they have develpoed for foundations and retaining walls.

[woodturner]

Is there a Ram-jack in your area?

Unfortunately, no - the closest one is 300 miles away.

[chopnhack]

It sounds like you have already covered alot of research, but have you already considered getting your soil tested? A soil test could open the cheapest option for you, especially since the home has been there for 17 years! Or have you had small damage occurring all along?

[woodturner]

It sounds like you have already covered alot of research, but have you already considered getting your soil tested? A soil test could open the cheapest option for you, especially since the home has been there for 17 years! Or have you had small damage occurring all along?

I'm suspicious that this problem started in the 1930's, soon after the house was built, and was just hidden by prior owners.

I have not gotten a soil test, which is rather expensive. I do have a copy of the government soil surveys for this area, which identifies soil type down to a relatively small region. Observation confirms that the soil is the type that survey says it is, and prior excavation work to build the garage confirms that the footer is on undisturbed soil. Thus it did not seem that spending $1500 on a soil survey would provide additional information that would help fix this problem.

[unknown poster]

I had a brick chimney with a similar problem repaired about 10 years ago. I looked at Ram-Jack and a local company that used the AB Chance Helical Pier system. The AB Chance system is similar to Ram-Jack, but galvanized rather than powder coated and the fabrication on the AB Chance parts looked better. At the time I was studying as a weldor so I was pretty critical of the fabrication quality.

I think the piers ran about 1500 each, installed. I needed two piers to hold up the chimney. They only had to dig down about 2 or 3 feet to reach the footers, but they used a backhoe so going a few more feet would not have been a big deal.

They installed the piers and jacked the chimney back into place. After a bit of carpentry to repair the trim it was as good as new. I sold the house about 6 years later and the chimney never moved in that time, but the piers were warranted for much longer.

Good luck with whatever solution you end up using.