Settling Garage Addition, Topsfield, MA

Thursday, February 20th, 2020 by Niles Erickson

Challenge

This homeowner in Topsfield, MA inherited a property, and was immediately faced with a major concern. The home lied on top of a hill, which declined steeply down into a swampy area behind the house. Over the years, the hill was eroding, and as the soils washed down the hill, the foundation holding up a section of the home did as well. The backside of the home that lied at the lowest point, had a garage addition with a sunroom space above. This garage addition was roughly 12' wide x 21' long. The foundation of this added garage had settled up to 5 inches on one side. It was visibly pulling away from the main home, both within the garage space, as well as in the sunroom above. The sunroom space had severe sloping floors, and the entire addition was very unstable.

The homeowner desperately needed a permanent fix, and feared the settling addition would completely separate from the home and collapse entirely. If nothing was done to stabilize this foundation, the homeowner would have lost the entire addition space, and then would have had to pay for demolition and repair costs.

Solution

Erickson Foundation Supportworks proposed stabilizing and lifting the addition using the Push Pier system. 7 Push Piers were installed appropriately spaced out along the outside 21' section of the foundation wall, while 2 more were installed at the corners where the addition met the main house. Each pier was installed at an average depth of 14', where they hit bedrock within the hill.

Additionally, 5 GeoLocks were needed to assist with stabilizing the same 21' section of the foundation wall, preventing it from pushing outward while the Push Piers lifted the structure.

The well designed and expertly installed system worked perfectly, and the foundation was successfully raised about 5 inches along the wall of piers. The sunroom space above, which had severe sloping floors prior to the lift, now has only a 1/4 inch difference across the 12' distance off the house, an improvement of more than 4 inches.

Lastly, a small deck at the back of the house was supported by failing concrete piers. These were replaced with more stable EZ Post helical piers.

To complete the project, the excavated areas were backfilled and compacted. New concrete was then poured to piece the garage floor sections back together.