PushPiers in Milford, MA

Monday, July 11th, 2011 by Melissa Wilcox

Challenge

A two-story, residence in Milford, MA was built in the 1965. The 24’ x 40’ home was constructed with poured concrete foundation walls and provided 960 square feet of living space. Over the course of 40 years, the home’s foundation settled dramatically resulting in large cracks in the foundation walls, sloping floors throughout the home, and doors that wouldn’t open and close properly. In total, the foundation had settled more than 10" from side to side and over 6" from the front to the back of the home. Over time as the foundation settled, the homeowners made cosmetic repairs and replaced doors and windows within the home in order to live with the problem. However, as the problem continued to worsen, the homeowners began to worry about a complete failure of their foundation walls as well as the fact that they would never be able to sell the home in such poor condition.

Solution

After researching repair options on the internet, the homeowners contacted us to diagnose the problem and offer suggestions for the repair. After completing a thorough investigation of the property, we recommended that PushPiers be installed to permanently stabilize and lift the settled area of the home. The restoration began by positioning L-shaped foundation brackets below and against the foundation’s footings, and hydraulic cylinders were used to lift the foundation back toward a level position. The piers were driven to depths of 40 feet in order to reach load bearing soil and offer ultimate holding capacities of 40,000 pounds. The entire project was completed within one week, and the large cracks in the foundation were completely closed.