foundation posts skewing...please adivse

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chrome2014

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Hi All,

Just a bit about the house, built in 1980 partial slab and posts/piers foundation. Only the living room and kitchen are on posts with crawl space. Bought the house about 4 yrs ago don't remember seeing an inspection report, anyway, my front door sticked last year got a new door now it is sticking again. And the tile floor in the living well cracking. Got a handyman to fix the door yesterday but he said he wanted to see the foundation. Attached are pictures, lets say it was a shock. I'm in california so soil movement is normal I guess, but I need your expert opinion here. I have the foundation folks stopping by in a couple of weeks, I need advice before these guys take me to the bank. Any help at all is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

P.s. The handyman said he can put new 4x6 and cement blocks for support that would fix the problem.

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Is that concrete block on a footing? you can dig down a little to find out. it might just be sitting on the ground, in which case you can understand how it moved. I would also want to know which pieces are still plumb and level, i can't tell from the pix. Is your post square to the beam? How far off is the block? In other words, what moved first?
 
I believe the previous owner did a bad job and trying to stiffen the floor. On some he must have cut the posts too short then on one of them the block is off center. I can't imagine the block moved that much, half of the house is on cement slab so the house couldn't move that much. I understand there might be some settling over the years. In any case it's a scary sight, I'm getting a couple of professional inspections soon. My only concern now is these foundation guys will try to sell me the moon for some minor work. So any advice here is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Thew sloped side of the exposed concrete is the scary part, it looks like one of those blocks for a deck. The foot print won't be big enough. As someone suggested poke around that to see if it is sitting on a bigger peice of concrete. If not your guys should be selling you a footing for each peer. The floor joists meet over that beam so this is all part of the construction of the house.
If there is concrete below the post still need to be dealt with and the floor leveled.
 
The contractor you choose should make sure there is a footing (sonotube) that is deep enough for code (no frost line in CA???) The post should be fastened to the pier. He's probably going to jack up that portion so he can work under there and then reset everything in place.

The pros here should be able to give you a more complete list of things to do and a better explanation than I can give.
 
OK so the first foundation group showed up, they did their things and came back with a proposal. The posts and Piers are OK, they are normal not a problem at all. I'm taking all this in since they are the professional and know these things. However they suggest that the right side of my house is kind of settling per them due to the down spout in front of the house. They suggest to use their Post Pier System to balance the house. Of course using their product, at a cost of $21k. The guy said all the posts/piers are from the original construction of the house, and they all looked fine/OK. For some reason I find that hard to believe. Looks like I need to hire a structure engineer.
 
My concern would be, given that it's a California house, that it's doesn't meet any California ceismic building codes. I think the main reason they are not on the centers of those bases is just from sloppy measurement when they were originally installed.
 
I think the OP is looking for a "shopping list" so he knows which foundation guys are not trying to sell snake oil. What would the right steps be in fixing this?

I would think step one is find out if those posts are on solid footings. Chrome: did the first company answer that??
 
I forgot to ask about the footing, but I did ask them three times regarding the status of the piers. They said they measured my floor and it's not off much.
 
Confussed, parts settling but the fllor is not out much.
If the foundation is sunk in one area, there will be a crack in it. If it is not cracked, then the gound was soft when the house was built and you jack up the house and shim it. One guy , a coupe jacks and a day.
 
And the tile floor in the living well cracking. Got a handyman to fix the door yesterday but he said he wanted to see the foundation. Attached are pictures, lets say it was a shock. I'm in california so soil movement is normal I guess, but I need your expert opinion here. I have the foundation folks stopping by in a couple of weeks, I need advice before these guys take me to the bank. Any help at all is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Your problem here is that your subfloor is not structurally sound enough for tiles. The simple solution is to get some other type of flooring, vinyl or carpet come to mind. Or a floating floor.
 
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Good point, the guy didn't say anything about a crack foundation. I'll make sure to ask the next foundation guy. Is it safe to say if there are no cracks in the cement foundation, we shouldn't even mess with the foundation itself? I believe the raised foundation -posts/piers need to be fixed.
 
Your handyman didn't try to sell you anything but brought this to your attention. I like him, send him here and we can work with him on fixing it aor at least finding what the problem is.
 
2nd update:
The second foundation company stopped by, did his measurements and said the right corner of the house is off by -1 1/4 inch measuring from the left corner. I asked the guy if he will be going down to the crawl space to inspect the piers and the outside/cement foundation. The guy said Nope, no need. He said its the exterior foundation that is settling. Again suggest the Push Pier approach, still waiting for the total cost from him.
I'm hiring a structure engineer next, done with these foundation guys.
 
That kind of settleing usually happens in the first year or two and the the house is jacked uop and shimmed level. So if this appears to be new damage you will need a geo- engineer to look at soil conditions. If this is new it may be caused by water table going down or some such.
Those guys may be right in that it would be pointless to fix one without working on the other problem.
 
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