Foundation of Home was Deemed as Structural Failure, Rochester, NH

Wednesday, March 15th, 2023 by Travis Kellogg

Challenge

A homeowner in Rochester, New Hampshire has seen some cracks forming on the inside and outside of the home. They had contacted a structural engineer to look at the foundation of their home. The engineer examined the foundation and the interior of the home. They found cracks in the foundation and on some of the drywall in the home. The engineer found the foundation of the garage didn't have footing and also found pockets of space under the slab in the garage. In addition to the pockets under the slab, the engineer scanned around the foundation and found large organic material in the soil. This is not ideal because that organic material will decompose and leave spaces in the soil where the settlement of the soil can occur. This means the soil will fill that pocket and move soil away from the foundation causing it to settle and potentially crack. After obtaining all of this information the structural engineer was forced to deem the home in structural failure.

After seeing the report that the structural engineer gave them, the homeowners were very proactive in trying to find a company that would repair the foundation of their home. In a matter of days, the homeowners found a company online that repairs foundations in their area. That company was Erickson Foundation Solutions. The homeowners called our office and talked with our Customer Care Representative and got them connected with one of our Design Specialists Victor. They set up a free inspection and Victor made the trip out to their home on the day that worked best for them.

Solution

Victor arrived at the home and greeted the homeowners. He inspected the foundation of the home first then looked a the report from the structural engineer. Victor recommended installing 24 Push Piers around the entire back half of the home and around the garage to lift and stabilize the foundation. The Push Piers will support the foundation even if the soil around the home becomes weaker. Around the garage, Victor recommended installing Frost Mitigation to protect the garage foundation. Victor also recommended demoing and repouring the slab in the garage and also installing a couple of SmartJacks in the garage.

Our production team arrived onsite for the first day of the job and began removing dirt from around the foundation of the home. The team dug down till they reached the footing or where the footing should be. Once exposed, the team began installing our Push Piers brackets on the foundation footing. Once the brackets were attached, the team then set up our hydraulic press to push the piers down below the soil. The team will push down 3' sections of piers until optimal pressure is achieved to support the foundation of the home. The team set a goal of reaching 4000 PSI for each pier. The team installed all 24 Push Piers around the home and double-checked the pressure for each pier before capping them. After the Push Piers were complete the team backfilled all of the dirt and tamped it down so the dirt would wash away. Next, the team moved on to chipping out some of the garage slabs so we could install new supports in the garage and pour a new slab. Our team chipped out the slab using jackhammers and removed all of the debris from the garage and hauled it in our trucks to a waste site. After all the concrete was removed the team leveled all of the soil in the garage before installing a layer of engineered fill to ensure the slab was well supported. After the fill was installed the team installed 4 SmartJacks into the garage to support the main beam in the garage. Once the SmartJacks were secured the team called in a concrete truck to deliver concrete so we could pour a new slab for the garage. Lastly, our team smoothed over the slab and put up caution tape until the concrete was fully cured.

Upon completion of the project, the homeowner was extremely relieved to hear that their foundation was repaired. The homeowners were very impressed with EFS