Garage floor was sinking in this Wilmington, DE home
Challenge
This homeowner called with a concern in his garage. The entire floor was sinking and it was starting to push on the basement wall behind it. Try to imagine how much a concrete slab in the garage weighs. Generally they are at least 4 inches thick and solid concrete. That is quite a bit of weight pushing on the basement wall. Thanks to the full inspection that DryZone provides free of charge, the homeowner was able to understand the reason for his basement wall bowing inward. He had previously thought this to be an unrelated condition.
Solution
The solution to this foundation settling problem consisted of two steps. The first step was installing four helical piers in the corner of the garage to lift the entire slab. Ordinarily we would've had to use a push pier system, since it was indoors, but luckily we parked our mini excavator in the garage just like a car. These helical piers are basically large screws. They are driven into the ground until our gauges reach a desired pressure or resistance. This tells the foreman that he can transfer the slab onto the heavy steel pier. Before the piers are installed, the garage floor is resting on dirt and nothing else, but now there are four heavy duty supports in the ground to take the weight. The second stage was to fill in the voids left after lifting the floor. This is called mudjacking. The process involves pumping a thick "slurry" of grout and cement up under the floor. Then it is sealed off, cemented up, and the whole floor looks great again.
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