Raised Foundation Structural Problems

Monday, May 8th, 2017 by Niles Erickson

Challenge

This home in Watertown, MA was on a lot on top of a hill, it's backyard having a steep decline. While the foundation was completely concealed in the front by soil, in the rear of the home it was a raised, exposed foundation wall. The main part of the home was not showing any structural issues, however behind the garage portion of the foundation there were large cracks and some bowing actions in the concrete wall. This section was facing both a settling issue and leaning wall issue. The soil underneath the garage slab was putting pressure on the raised foundation wall in the rear, and was also susceptible to settling. The homeowner new the cracking, leaning wall could potentially get worse, and so decided to take action and permanently stabilize the wall.

Solution

Erickson Foundation Supportworks presented Push Piers as a solution for stabilizing the settlement issue, and GeoLock Anchors for stabilizing the cracked and bowing wall. Four Push Piers were installed across the 12' section of the back wall. The footing of this raised foundation wall was only a couple feet down, and so not much excavation was required in order to install the brackets for the piers. The four piers were hydraulically pushed down to depths ranging from 17' to 23'. With the settling action now completely stabilized, three GeoLock Anchors were then installed 3' apart from each other across the length of the 12' wall. The steel rods extended 17' into the soils under the garage slab, and a trench was excavated down into the soil in order to secure the rods to the anchors in the trench. The trench was then backfilled, and new concrete was poured in the garage to resurface the floor and cover the trench. With the settling, bowing wall now stabilized on two sides, the home is no longer at risk of foundation failure.