Concrete slab foundation repair

masraum · 05-10-2014, 08:18 AM

We are getting some foundation repair done on our house. We had a pretty severe drought a couple summers ago, that caused some mild damage. We had a bunch of folks come out for estimates and got a wide range of estimates. We had quotes from 13 piers to 31 piers (an outlier that was trying to get paid, most were 13-21).

So we went with the group that seemed the most experienced, had the best rep, and seemed the most professional. They came out yesterday and dug a few of the holes. This morning they showed up promptly at 9am and got to work. The had to jackhammer a few holes into our back porch and they have started driving the 6"x12" concrete cylinders. All of the places that we spoke to said they drive to refusal which in this area is usually about 20-22'. They are driving the cylinders in, so there's a hum for a minute and then the house shakes like it was lifted and dropped. It's a little unsettling. It's an interesting process.

ckissick · 05-10-2014, 08:26 AM

Why did a drought cause a problem? And what was the problem? Settlement? Caused by shrinkage of expansive soil? Are you on soft clay? I'm a geotechnical engineer, so I'm curious.

masraum · 05-10-2014, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ckissick

Why did a drought cause a problem? And what was the problem? Settlement? Caused by shrinkage of expansive soil? Are you on soft clay? I'm a geotechnical engineer, so I'm curious.

Settlement? Caused by shrinkage of expansive soil? Are you on soft clay?

I assume that ^. Yes, our area is full of clay. I can't dig more than a few inches in my yard before I hit clay. When we had the drought, the ground seemed to shrink and settle. We experience it some every year. The gate for the fence shifts some making it hard to close or hard to keep closed, but that year, we had very little rain and got a lot more movement than usual. The ground pulled away from the curb by the road out front, in places there was a gap 2" wide and a foot or 2 deep. We didn't have that behavior around the foundation, but all over the neighborhood, the concrete sidewalks, streets and driveways cracked and shifted sometimes by several inches. There were several spots in the neighborhood where water pipes would start leaking because of the seams between sections of pipe getting loose.

In our case, the back of the house seemed to sink, and the garage farthest from the house sank.

They are putting in 19 piers, fortunately, all only at the edge of the foundation, none inside the house.

Mark Howard · 05-10-2014, 09:36 AM

Yep. Identical thing here back in 2008. Same process, no problem since. 21 piles. Paid about $9k. Damn expansive soils.

masraum · 05-10-2014, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Howard

Yep. Identical thing here back in 2008. Same process, no problem since. 21 piles. Paid about $9k. Damn expansive soils.

holy carp! mine is nearly half that.

lindbhr · 05-10-2014, 10:07 AM

I just got a quote for ~ $600 a pier. That got my attention!

masraum · 05-10-2014, 10:15 AM

Wow, no place around here says their price is a per pier charge, and there are extra charges for having to go through and patch concrete, etc, but all of the places that we talked to were in the $255-265 per pier range.

I'll let my wife know about the costs that you're seeing. She'll feel better.

lindbhr · 05-10-2014, 10:22 AM

The PO of our house used this company to put piers under 1/2 the house about 20 years ago. So, I wanted to start with them since they give a lifetime warranty. Our movement is very minor, but we are considering a garage addition so I wanted a third party opinion. I hope you'll update us on your experience.

Thanks for sharing!

masraum · 05-10-2014, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lindbhr

The PO of our house used this company to put piers under 1/2 the house about 20 years ago. So, I wanted to start with them since they give a lifetime warranty. Our movement is very minor, but we are considering a garage addition so I wanted a third party opinion. I hope you'll update us on your experience.

Thanks for sharing!

I'll tell you what I know. We spoke to 4 different companies and a couple of neighbors. My wife also did as much research as she could do online, Angie's list, BBB, etc....

We're using Bay Area Foundation Repair. It was a roofing business for many years, and while doing roofing, they got into fixing the foundations. Recently, the old man split the company into separate roofing and foundation companies and has a son running each. They seemed the most professional of the places that we spoke to, and supposedly, their crews have been with them a long time and have lots of experience.

I have heard from many, many sources that they would not use Allied who apparently does a ton of work around town. I've also heard that there's a company that is VERY expensive, like nearly double the others. I'm not 100% on who that was, it may have been Du-West, but I'm not positive.

So far these guys seem great. They show up on time, and seem to work hard. So far they seem nice, polite and clean. They work 6 days a week. The boss said that he's told them that they can just work 5, and a couple of guys do, but he says most of his crew wants to work 6 days a week. I'll update once they are done.

One place, the cheapest, had all good reviews on Angies list, but while talking to him, he asked if we wanted him to pull a permit, and said that since most of the work was in the back of the house, the city probably wouldn't notice if we didn't. Bzzzt, thanks for playing, next!

The next guy had a couple of bad reviews and seemed more professional than the first, but not enough. We also got an odd vibe off of the guy.

Bay Area was the 3rd place, a little more expensive than the first two, much more professional, and seemed to be pretty experienced.

The last place, had good reviews, but I felt like he was trying to sell us unnecessary work and had sized us up and thought he could do extra work and we would or could afford to pay. He was very nice and good at developing a rapport, but I think he was a combination of inexperienced and too good a salesman.

We had scheduled another appt with a company called Jericho who we'd heard good things about, but they are very busy and couldn't even come out for an estimate for over a month and then the work wouldn't start for another 3 months. We didn't want to wait that long.

lindbhr · 05-10-2014, 11:08 AM

Thanks very much for the details on your search. Olshan did the previous work on my house.

masraum · 05-10-2014, 02:42 PM

Wow, the lifting process was even more unsettling than the pier driving. I've been through some pretty beefy earthquakes in Japan when I was younger. I had forgotten what they were like, but I remember now.

They finished today and mostly cleaned up. They will be back Mon to patch the concrete on the back porch.

Darn hard working, speedy guys. I wouldn't have been able to do it and if I had tried, I'd probably be laid up for a week recovering.