Foundation Repair Before & After Photos

A homeowner in Camden called because they had purchased an old home and the floors were sagging towards the middle of the house. DryZone was able to come in and help by installing the SmartJack Stabilizer. The before picture is what was holding up the home before DryZone was called, and the after picture is the SmartJack we installed for the home. 

This home was built somewhere in the 1930's. There weren't a lot of strict regulations on home building back then like there are today. At some point in the home's history, a homeowner tried to add supports to the sagging floors. The type of jacks that were used are only meant for temporary, light duty usage. When standing in the home, there is a noticeable dip in the floor towards the center of the house. DryZone was able to use the SmartJack support system to drastically improve the supporting structure. The SmartJack system is usually a crawlspace product. In this case, we were able to order longer poles for the jacks to accommodate the basement height. You can see the difference in size, certainly, but its the clean threads on the screws that make this system truly superior. The zinc plating on a SmartJack means that it will resist corrosion and can easily be adjusted if the need should arise.

A concrete slab is very thick and heavy. When the ground beneath it gets washed away or settles, there are large voids left behind. Most slabs are poured directly on the dirt, so nothing else is supporting them. When the dirt is gone, the slab cracks. A slab pier system is designed to support the slab on heavy soils found far below the surface. When the DryZone crew starts to try and lift, many of the cracks will close up a little.

PowerBraces are one of the great foundation support products that DryZone uses to stabilize a broken basement wall. These are generally used when an underground obstacle prevents a proper GeoLock wall anchor installation. The PowerBrace is a heavy steel beam and an adjustable bracket. It pushes on the bowing wall to provide support and carries a hefty warranty.

Most of us know that once a house is built it takes a few years to "settle". With a basement this can be pretty dangerous though. The pressure from the house, dirt, and water pushing on the basement walls can cause them to crack and start to buckle. When a wall bows inward all the weight from the top and the dirt pushing in can cause it to collapse. Then you have a very unstable foundation and risk your house coming down. To fix this problem the wall needs to be straightened back out, strengthened, and anchored down. DryZone installs a great product for this called Geo-Lock Wall Anchor System. This product consists of three parts. An earth anchor placed securely in stable soil, a long threaded steel rod that connects to the steel plates on the inside of the wall. This system holds the wall in place so it cannot bow any further. The anchor can also be tightened at different intervals to straighten the wall out. In addition you can also get hide away panels for finished or unfinished basements.