I can see that working on a sagging slab put would it work on a rise like CrobTex has?

 

I've heard of this pressure grouting before... A local company called their process "mud-jack" for lifting/leveling sagging slabs. I imagine in sandy soil that would be THE way to level a home's slab.
My mom actually had pressure grouting done to her house slab (quality rebar slab in blackland soil) after the plumbers tunneled under it to do a major plumbing re-route. She had no cracks or slumps in her slab but they backfilled underneath with this foamy grout to KEEP it from slumping after the middle was hollowed out for the plumbing work.
Be aware that this blackland soil you and I have under our houses is not NEARLY as stable as sand is. This infernal stuff greatly swells when wet (as you've seen) and shrinks, cracks and slumps when it dries out(as I've seen). Each wet/dry cycle shifts/heaves the foundation a little more each time.
I'd be afraid that at best a pressure grout job on a cracked slab in this infernal Blackland/Victoria expansive clay soil would be a very temporary fix at best.
Check with your structural engineer.. He's the one that has to put his signature on the line...

K.

 

What are they calling "double" piers and what are they calling "single" piers???

The 28 piers that our foundation company put in were 8'-10' vertical rebar reinforced columns of poured concrete with bell-bottomed bases and smooth flat tops finished to within a few inches under the bottom of the slab footings... Are they calling those "double" piers? if so, what are "single" piers? without belled bottoms?
K.

 

The "double piers" are about eight inches round, 6000 psi, blocks that are hydraulically pressed into the ground until they hit resistance. Each place will have two, side by side. The single piers are drilled holes with concrete poured into the holes. The "doubles" are probably the best, but both have limited lifetime, transferable guarantee's.

 

Well CROBTEX, here I sit upstairs, typing away in our "temporary" master bedroom as we have 10 of what you call "single" piers in the process of being installed on the ground floor. They poured the concrete piers yesterday and now the waiting begins for the concrete to cure a week before jacking up the middle of the house.
12" diameter piers, 8'7" deep from top of slab to bottom of the 24" bell at the column bottoms.
OMG the NOISE! The DUST! 28 old piers on the outside periphery, 10 new ones in the interior... Our animals still are in shock... 4 cats are still really jumpy when any loud noise occurs downstairs. heh heh
Upon digging, we found out the prev owners added-on to the back wall, displacing outward a new footing the old piers were supporting. Not a problem except meant we now need 10 instead of 8 internal piers. Extra 2 get to support the original beam that PO extended out away from by enclosing a tiny porch.
Engineer also said slab should have had one more cross beam than it had and it was obvious the slab builder tried cutting corners by digging one beam on a diagonal to "try" to make it do the duty of two. Also discovered ONLY 1/2" copper water pipe instead of 5/8" cu pipe for the main hot water run... goes in the wall as 3/4" and apparently quickly reduces down to 1/2"... Grrr!
House was built in 1978.. Every single house on this block has had foundation work of some sort or another. Post tensioned cable slabs every one.
Foundation failures abound down here in this region of thick, black expansive clay soil.
Our problems appeared in 1997 after STOOPID alcoholic city mayor put everyone on mandatory water rationing... NO yard(foundation) or ornamental plant watering except by bucket! Walls cracked that summer... I wasn't surprised.
That summer the City greatly raised price of water since "demand was way down" ... No kidding Sherlock!
We are fixing it up, going to effect repairs, and SELL! I've had it with the City and this black soil.

K.

 

Yikes! What a nightmare.
I sure don't look forward to having them start on mine on Monday. And that's just the plumbing part. I still haven't convinced the plumbing company to get to the leaks from the outside. With them being only a foot or so inside the edge of the house, to me, it only makes sense to dig under instead of busting out concrete.
No matter who pays for the foundation repair, I'll probably go with the double, pressed in piers. It seems to be the most "painless" way to go. If I thought I could get my wife out if here in the next year or so, I'd go the cheapest way out.
I don't know of any city in this area that has ever banned watering foundations. You can't use your sprinkler system, but you can use soaker hoses or do it by hand.

Hang in there and good luck,

 

Well, round two is over.
The plumbing is repaired and the insurance paid. And boy, am I glad they agreed to pay for getting to the leaks from outside the house. No big mess and dust in the house. Below is a pic of the dust layer on the outside kitchen/patio pass thru shelf. It took them three days, but all that's left of their repair is a square of new concrete on the patio and a mound of dirt covering the hole on the north side of the house. The broken pipes were rusted at the breaks, so the breaks were old and not caused by the recent drought.
Now, waiting for round three....the engineer report on the dirt samples.

 

YIKES! is right! We know what you mean! We've got concrete dust all downstairs and my poor wife was about to die from the reaction to the stuff after she thought she would sweep the dirt and dust first thing this morning...

We just got the house lifted yesterday morning. The crew came out with a trailer load of bottle jacks and steel plates as "softeners" against the concrete beams.
They all worked in cadence (stroke!, stroke!, stroke!, stop. etc) jacking up the floor to its level with the outside periphery.
They then measured and adjusted the lift in areas + or - to get the desired elevation and flatness. Then they measured the lengths of heavy pipe needed to stuff under the beams to carry the weight so they could get the jacks out.
Concrete truck came next and they backfilled the holes and the area between the top of the piers and the bottom of my slab/beam etc. Concrete vibrator to make sure it slumps and flows into all the nooks and crannies under the beam, locking the weight bearing pipe into position forever.
Then they troweled the patches very flat and even...

We have decided to go back with ceramic tile and today was spent getting a shock at prices of decent tile
Very pleased with the foundation work all throughout this ordeal...
We'll know if we are REALLY through with the foundation work when it passes a plumbing hydrotest...
NOW the real work starts for us... Tile, sheetrock work, siding, painting inside and out,..... (does it ever end?)

Good luck on your work...

K.

 

I feel for your little ol' wife. I can only imagine the mess.

I'm sure glad I don't have to have holes in the middle of the house.

I'm trying not to think about the walls for now. I try to take it one step at a time and not worry about what's down the road.

Hang in there, it'll all end............one of these days.