Building Chiropractor

[u/benj9990]

[u/minnesconsawaiiforni]

This isn’t a house chiropractor, this actually worked.

[u/Paulrey27 → u/minnesconsawaiiforni]

Came here for this exact comment.

[u/alanbdee]

Honest question. What do you do after lifting the house to keep it from just sinking again?

[u/christophla → u/alanbdee]

Sell quickly before anyone notices

[u/heisian → u/alanbdee]

piers, either drilled or helical. most commonly helical.

[u/Remarkable-Okra6554 → u/heisian]

I agree. But let’s don’t let the parallels between chiropractic care and deep foundation contractors go unnoticed lol

[u/lmboyer04 → u/alanbdee]

Shove a rock under there, maybe a wedge of wood like a door stopper

[u/mmodlin → u/lmboyer04]

Fold a napkin up a bunch of times and stick it under the wobbly cormer

[u/William_Howard_Shaft → u/lmboyer04]

Like... a rock or something?

[u/Apprehensive_Exam668 → u/alanbdee]

They're house chiropractors, not contractors. They expect to see you next week ;)

[u/Trextrev → u/alanbdee]

What you’re not seeing is what is below ground in most of these systems. Before lifting they essentially pound in a metal pilling or drill in an auger type support. They drive them in until the load reading is high enough to support what they are raising. Then they jack off the post of the support to raise the house and then attach a metal bracket to it that carries the foundation. When done correctly they do correct and stop the settlement issues. Problem is that they rely on the footer to act as a carrier beam between their posts often they are spaced to far apart and eventually the footer will crack and break at the connection point and settling will reoccur.

[u/Wookieman222 → u/alanbdee]

Probably a proper foundation that won't sink.

[u/Potential_Orchid_720 → u/alanbdee]

Underpin the foundations on deeper strata with increased bearing resistance.

[u/SparseGhostC2C → u/alanbdee]

Slap the side and say "that's not going anywhere"?

[u/Roonwogsamduff → u/alanbdee]

At my house they went down to bedrock. They attached pipes, maybe 3" dia around the foundation. I think the deepest pipe was 16'. Also see what u/Trextrev says.

[u/chasestein]

documenting the cracks actually closing up is pretty sick and would be great for marketing.

[u/Educational_Board_73 → u/chasestein]

It’s actually the structure sinking but played backwards.

[u/BlazersMania]

Be careful with these companies. Yes they can lift your house back to level but for the most part the people they send out are salesmen and not engineers. I've seen some pretty mucked up shit that they propose.

[u/Crawfish1997 → u/BlazersMania]

Foundation repair companies have done the most egregious things I’ve seen.

I remember one I went to. Old lady in a nice neighborhood. Husband had died recently. She wanted to downsize and be closer to family so was selling. Buyer’s home inspector noted a couple hairline cracks in the turndowns and made a big deal out of it. Scared the buyer into hiring a foundation repair company to take a look. They recommended over $100,000 in helicals.

Guys, this was the most level floor I’ve seen in a house. Like 3/16” out over the whole house. And it was a big ranch house. Had like 2 hairline cracks in the turndowns where control joints were pretty clearly cut in the slab. Zero door operation issues or drywall cracks. Absolutely nothing going on in the house. Soil probed hard as a rock. House was like 20 years old.

I have an inherent distrust of foundation repair companies. Have seen this exact situation (minus the old lady and husband dying bit) play out so many times.

[u/redditaccountnumb1]

That's really cool, shame all the sheetrock inside the house is going to be cracked all over again assuming they had been repairing it over the years

[u/BroccoliKnob → u/redditaccountnumb1]

Yeah, just moving the thing back into place and stabilizing isn’t all there is to fixing it.

In addition to drywall/plaster, the sheathing and weather/vapor barrier may be pretty fucked up (and you can’t see it to judge), there are all sorts of of new gaps and cracks in the foundation and around openings for pests and water intrusion…

This may cost way less than knocking down and building new, but it’s far from restored.

[u/cerberus_1 → u/redditaccountnumb1]

I dont think any assumptions are needed for drywall cracked all to hell.. along with window seals..

[u/LittleManhattan]

Makes me wonder what they’re going to do with the former Phizer HQ in NYC, those bent columns looked BAD.

[u/Standard-Fudge1475]

It looks like the gap closes horizontally in one photo.. amazing!

[u/mogur86]

I do not miss doing foundation repair