Before & After Photos

Basements can have a lot of different problems, all of which can be quite serious. The most common problems we see in basements are bowing walls and water intrusion, often around the joint where the floor and wall meet. These are both serious issues that should be taken care as soon as possible. Many of the homes we work on have both of these issues at the same time, such as the home that is shown in these photos.

The first photo shows off one of the basement walls that was dealing with both water intrusion and had some cracks had started to develop. Our System Design Specialist inspected the entire basement area and came up with a solution that would take care of both the water intrusion and the cracking along the walls. 

The second picture shows the same wall after our crew came out to the home and installed both our CarbonArmor Straps and WaterGuard drainage system. The CarbonArmor is installed in order to prevent any further bowing and cracking on the wall. The WaterGuard was installed on the floor of the basement against the wall. It leaves a small gap between the floor and wall, which allows water to get through. We also installed a sump pump in this basement to pump out any and all water that gets into the basement. 

It is not uncommon for people who have problems with moisture in their crawlspaces to also have problems with sagging floors. The moisture (if left unchecked) can start to soften the sub-floor which can cause the flooring in the home to seem bouncy and uneven. These issues could come from other sources of course, but this situation happens quite often. 

This was the case for this homeowner, who had some pretty big problems with moisture in their crawlspace. It is difficult to see what was going on in this crawlspace, but the humidity was high enough to start soaking into the floor and floor joists. While this is never a good situation, our System Design Specialist knew that it was something that we could definitely take care of. 

The crawlspace went through a pretty big transformation once the crew had installed the SmartJacks and the CleanSpace. The CleanSpace was installed in order to ensure that the moisture getting into the crawlspace was greatly decreased, which would cause the floor and floor joists to also dry out. There was also a SaniDry Sedona dehumidifier that was also installed to make sure that the humidity level of the crawlspace was lower than 55%, so mold cannot grow. 

Foundation issues are a problem that should never be put on hold. As much as we want it to be able to stop, the problem will grow and become worse as time passes. This Anderson, South Carolina homeowner had thought to hold off on getting his foundation issues fixed. However, after watching the floors continue to sag, he decided that he could put it off no longer.

Where the supports were located, the floor was fine, but, even a few inches away from the supports, you could see great dips in the floor.

When our crew went out to rectify the problem, they brought along beams as well as SmartJacks. The beams were installed horizontally, and the SmartJacks were fastened to the beams to push the floors back into place. Really they were the main stars here. To install it, we excavate a two-foot cube at each SmartJack location. The hole is then filled with concrete or engineered to create a stable, loadbearing footing. The SmartJack sits on top of it with a custom-engineered base.

There are many different kinds of foundation issues that people can be dealing with. Sometimes several different problems can be affecting a home at the same time. Foundation issues can get complicated sometimes, because there are different products that can be used for different problems. This is why our System Design Specialists are trained to apply the best solution to fix the issues. 

In the case of this home, the walls in their basement were beginning to bow. Fortunately it was very minor and was caught during the System Design Specialist's inspection while he was assessing the water intrusion issue that the homeowner was also dealing with. This is actually relatively common, because people do not always realize the signs of foundation problems (or sometimes water intrusion issues when we go for a foundation estimate). As previously mentioned, the foundation problem was caught before it became a huge deal, which led to the Specialists recommendation.

In order to address the foundation issues that this homeowner was dealing with, the Specialist suggest CarbonArmor strips. These are woven carbon-fiber cloth strips that are extremely strong and are able to keep foundation walls from bowing any further. This was the perfect situation and solution for this homeowner, because the walls had not bowed very much and the CarbonArmor strips are very thin and can easily be painted. This allows a homeowner to easily cover up the strips, while making sure that their walls are secure. 

A separating chimney can be extremely dangerous to a homeowner and anyone around the home. Chimneys are often at a higher risk from settlement damage because they are often poured on a separate slab of concrete than the home. While this chimney had separated quite a bit from the home, it definitely was not beyond repair.

The "before" picture shows just how much the chimney was separating from the home. While it does not look like much, the farther up the chimney that you look, the larger the gap is. The gap at the top of the home is more than likely an inch or two wide.

The "after" photo shows off the great work by our crew. You can see that the gap is now non-existent. Our crew installed two push piers on the back of the chimney in order to push it back towards the home. These push piers are a permanent solution to this homeowner's problem because these push piers are driven deep down to more stable soil, so that settlement will not be an issue ever again.