Foundation Problem-Help

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Bigbobdallas

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First let me make this short. I am a retired Carpenter and have been doing remodeling for over 30 yrs. The home I bought 5 years ago had the slab repaired about two years before i bought it but they went broke before they could come back and do some more on it. It is 3" low on the west side which is the side that gets most sun. The east side is down 7" front is not bad full sun all day. The area that I am starting to work in now is the worse side so I am going to start repairing the foundation. They used piers I was going to dig up around the piers and maybe just add to the ones that are there already or would you put new ones back under. I am planning on doing it myself. I was watering with soaker hoses around house during summer but stop because of water rationing. It seemed to help a little, anyhow what would be the best way to get this up to par. Also in the one room we are redoing on the east end I think also it might need to cut out concrete in the bedroom that is going to run the full length of house if that would help also. I am taking out two closets and making one large narrow bedroom and of course this is the worse side of the house.
 
Hey Big Bob:
I'm having a little trouble picturing your situation. Are we talking slab-on-grade? What are the piers made of? It sounds like a painful undertaking to raise a slab, is that common in your area? I am a retired Plumber/Remodler and would like to help.
Glenn
 
Yes in the Dallas Ft Worth Texas we have a lot of clay soil and the houses shift. It is the biggest thing around here to have a houses that has to be leveled again. And yes it is slab on grade. The company here use a couple of ways they stack concrete piers on top of each other till it stops and they raise slab up. And some of the smaller company's just put down a 4" by 24" x 24" and the figure how high they raised it to get it all level and have 8" concrete piers put at that height. Then they even use small pieces of flat steel to get it exact. They usually charge about 6 to 8 thousand for this to be done. Mostly labor and their are other company's that use different ways
 
I have raised a coulple of wood houses here and leveled a few. Wood is much lighter than concrete and there was a crawl space to begin with. Looking back, I wonder how we kept from getting someone killed even at that.
Your concrete weighs 2 or 3 times as much and no crawl space from which to access it. You will need several 25 to 50 ton jacks and I wold want a steel beam to lift with, but then, there is the danger of the slab breaking when it is raised. Yes, you could add to the piers as needed; just be sure they are resting on "hardpan" undisturbed earth. That scares the bjeepers out of me, though. I vote to leave this one to the guys who are already equipped for it and have estensive experience at it.
Glenn
 
There is a way to pump concrete under there under pressure.
It lifts the slab and supports itself.
I can't remember what it's even called :)
But the concrete is pumped in and the hydraulic pressure does the lifting.
Surely someone here knows more about it than I do!
It may not even be an option for you.
It would require extremely strong forms to contain the concrete.
 
It's called Mud Jacking Square Eye.

They drill holes through the slab, then pump in a slurry of sand/concrete to fill in any voids and lift the places that have settled. The slurry will spread out to fill in any gaps opened up as the slab is lifted. They also pump the stuff in every few feet to be sure.

I'm considering this option for my garage floor that has settled and cracked. It's supposed to be cinsiderably cheaper than redoing the slab.
 
They fix our sidewalks up here in frozen land using this technique. You walk along the sidewalks and they all have 4 holes in the corners, this is where they are injected.

This may well work for his issue...however if he has a grade beam made out of concrete which is under the slab it will not work.The material will just flow out around the beams and not lift them up..all it does is blow out the sides.Like when we have a form that does not stay put.
Try to get someone out there to tell you what your situation is and any solutions to the problem...then be your own GC.:)
 
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