Addition on Home is Settling, Billerica, MA

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 by Travis Kellogg

Challenge

This homeowner in Billerica, Massachusetts was experiencing cracks above door frames and windows. The homeowners also noted that the floors felt like they were sagging. The house is a ranch-style home that has an addition off the back of the home. Attached to the addition is a wrap-around deck. The home was built in 1968 and the addition was built onto the house in the early 90s. Last year the cracks had gotten longer and caused more concern for the homeowners.

The homeowners first called an architect to see if they could diagnose what was happening. The architect suggested shimming. The homeowners then decided to call EFS for our opinion on what is happening with their home.

The homeowners would like to have this fixed before it can start affecting the main part of the house.

Solution

Design Specialist Justin Wenners inspected the interior and exterior of the home. Justin first assessed the inside of the home. The homeowners showed him where the cracks around the doorframes and windows were. Justin mentioned to the homeowners that this is one of the signs of foundation settlement. Justin then addressed the floors to see where they are sagging. Justin had a laser level that he used to figure out where the low point on the floor is. Justin found that the floors aren't sagging but in fact, they are slopping to the back right of the home.

Justin continued his inspection into the crawlspace underneath the addition. Again, Justin brought his laser level and set it up in the crawlspace to find out if everything was level. He went around the interior of the foundation with a tape measure and measured from the top of the foundation wall to see if there is any settlement.

He would get his measurement from where the laser level is on the wall to see if it is consistent on all sides of the foundation.

Using this method, Justin found that one corner of the addition is sinking. 3/4 of the way around the foundation Justin had a consistent reading around 13" from the top of the foundation wall to the laser. But when he measured near this corner of the addition the tape measure was reading 14-15". This means that there is a settlement in the corner of the addition. Justin thought that the addition had settled around 2-3".

Justin concluded his inspection and recommended a solution. The solution was to install 8 Push Piers in the back corner of the addition. Justin showed a quick video of how Push Piers work and the homeowners were impressed by the installation and decided they would like to have Push Piers installed on their foundation.

The homeowners decided to go forward with the project to make sure this problem doesn't start affecting the main part of the home. Before the job could begin, the homeowners had to remove the deck from the back of the home to give the crew access to the foundation.

Crew Lead Chris Tremblay and his team were selected for this job for their expertise in Push Piers. Chris and his team first mapped out where each of the Push Piers will go. 4 Push Piers will go on the left side of the corner, and the other 4 will go on the right side of the corner. Once each of the Push Piers locations is marked, the team starts to dig down to expose the footing of the foundation. When the team exposes the footing they fit a bracket that will hold the Push Pier sleeve. After all the brackets are secured to the foundation, the team is prepared to start pushing the Push Piers. Using a hydraulic press the team pushes 3' sections of interlocking steel down into the ground until enough pressure is achieved. For this project, the pressure that the team aimed for is around 4000 PSI. The crew uses a Push Pier Log to track how many extensions they used to reach the desired PSI. Most of the 8 Push Piers only needed 1 or 2 extensions to reach 4000 PSI, but the 6th pier push needed 9 extensions. That 6th pier needed to go down into the ground about 31' to reach 4000 PSI; whereas most of the other piers only needed around 10'or less.

The result of the project couldn't have gone any smoother. Chris and his team installed all 8 of the Push Pier within the 4 days they were given. They left the job site better than they found it.