Foundation Support Project in Readville, MA

Monday, March 12th, 2012 by Melissa Wilcox

Challenge

A single story residence in Readville, MA, was built in 1942. The 868 square foot home was constructed with concrete foundation walls and a spread footing. Over the years, the homeowners began to notice cracks in the foundation walls, cracks throughout the drywall, and inoperable windows on the main floor. Over time, the cracks in the concrete walls grew to be as much as 6" wide as the foundation settled drastically. Along with the settlement, the foundation wall had rotated outward over 7" and was no longer attached to the frame of the house. The homeowners were concerned that the deteriorating condition of the foundation would make the home unsafe for their family to continue living in. They were also worried about losing all of the equity they had in their home due to the poor condition of the foundation.

Solution

After talking with their insurance company and researching the options they had to repair their foundation, the homeowners contacted us to inspect the property and offer suggestions to correct the problem. After spending time with the homeowners to understand their goals for the project, 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 settled area of the home was stabilized and lifted 5 inches back toward its original elevation. During the lifting operation, temporary jacks were used to rotate the wall back underneath the frame of the house. After the foundation wall was lifted and rotated back, we installed SmartJacks to stabilize the existing beams in the basement that had settled along with the foundation wall. The entire project was completed within five days, and the homeowners were extremely pleased with the results as well as the efficiency and cleanliness of the crew.