For Property Owners of the Dallas - Fort Worth Area of Texas

Prepared by the Staff of Granite Foundation Repair, Inc.

Foundation repair and house leveling are issues of major concern for residential and commercial property owners in the Dallas Fort Worth area. This paper looks at the extent to which a foundation can be fixed and what the homeowner can expect after the repair.

'Fix it with us, and fix it forever' is one fantastic slogan: What's wrong with this slogan? Why won't a competent foundation repair contractor make such a straight forward claim?

Truth is that a foundation repair contractor would be ill advised to guarantee that there will never be another foundation problem. We will talk more about that later. It is unfortunate that overzealous foundation repair companies have mislead the public with phrases like 'we guarantee that you will never have another foundation problem' in their radio, TV and print advertising.

Foundation contractors cannot promise to "level a house". Due to stiffening of wooden timbers in walls and the roof, it is seldom practical to achieve a total foundation lift. Furthermore, some houses were not built flat. The foundation repair contractor has to rely upon visual signs, and how the house responds during the lift, to determine the amount of foundation lift and house leveling that is practical without compromising the structural integrity of the house.

Dallas Fort Worth's clay soils coupled with seasonal drying and flooding are the causes of many foundation problems. Clay soil has several characteristics which make it unsatisfactory as an underlying base material to support a concrete slab foundation. These characteristics include: resistance to soil compaction, moisture induced swelling, drought induced shrinkage, and clay's lack of adhesion in the presence of excessive water (clay turns to mud).

During new construction, a contractor may grade off or cut a hill while at the same time filling in a valley. Clay soil in the cut area is densely compacted, while the fill is loosely compacted. It will take decades for the fill to achieve full consolidation of the soil. Throughout that time, as the soil consolidated, it drops. The foundation under dropping soil will bend and eventually break due to the uneven ability of the soil to support the house. Since we can't move the house and compact the soil, piers are added to lift and support the damaged section of the foundation. Also, the soil under the cut area may have been quite dry. As the clay soil hydrates, it will expand, causing upheaval of that area of the house.

Water damage to a foundation can arise from poor drainage, plumbing leaks, or over watering. When excess water is present, clay soil loses adhesion and its ability to support the foundation. The unsupported section of the foundation drops. The repair normally consists of two parts:

1. Solve the water problem with drainage correction (surface drains, French drains and grading)
2. Add piers or pilings to lift and support the foundation.

Moderately excessive water intrusion under a foundation can cause foundation upheaval. The soil expands and lifts the foundation. One foundation repair method is to lift the rest of the house to the heaved elevation. That is not very practical. A practical approach is to first correct the water drainage problem, perhaps with French drains or surface drains, and then wait 6 months to a year to determine if the house will settle properly. Plumbing leaks will also cause upheaval of the foundation.

Construction on a hillside, along a retainer wall, or next to a stream or pond poses two problems that lead to the need for house leveling. As already discussed, there is the problem of excavating or leveling building pads to flat, firm soil, while filling low areas with loosely compacted soil. The other problem is total or partial slope failure, with the soil moving down a hillside or toward a stream. Early signs of this kind of soil movement include leaning mailboxes, tilted telephone poles, and cracks in the street. The repair method for slope failure may include the enhancement or addition of retainer structures, or the addition of piers on the downhill side of a foundation.

Will cracks in the brick close up after the house is lifted? Most of the time the gaps in a brick wall will at least partially close. Sometimes they close to where the crack is barely perceptible.

There are situations when a brick wall may have literally moved or "walked" or slid along the slab. Lifting the slab leaves the crack almost as wide as before the lift. The solution for a brick wall that slid along a slab is to replace the brick wall after the house has been leveled or stabilized. Oftentimes a mason can repair the brick wall using the existing brick.

Are recent advances in foundation rigidity preventing foundation problems? The answer is yes on properly compacted lots. On lots that are poorly compacted, have slope failure, or have water drainage problems, the whole house will simply tilt. The only way to repair a solidly built, tilting foundation, is to extensively pier the house, both inside as well as outside. With recent construction methods, this means interior piers on a grid pattern every 10 to 12 feet, as well as piers around the complete perimeter of the concrete foundation.

The financial resources of the homeowner may limit the extent of foundation repair. A foundation repair specialist or engineer can at times see early signs of future foundation problems, but the homeowner may be unable or unwilling to pay for more piers than are needed to fix any but the worst problems.

Once a slab cracks, it is usually financially impractical to fix the crack. Most homeowners resist removing all the floor coverings to enable crack repair. Crack repair requires widening of the crack, removal of loose debris, and filling the crack with epoxy. Structurally, a properly built foundation with adequate reinforcing steel will continue to hold the cracked area together without the addition of epoxy.

The type of underpinning that is used can limit the quality of a foundation repair. In spite of a lot of marketing hype, there is no one best foundation repair method for all concrete slab foundations. A reputable foundation repair contractor will draw upon a range of foundation repair methods to assure that the repair method is consistent with the needs of the structure. Common repair methods include: Pushed Steel Piers, Helical Steel Piers, Pushed Pre-Cast Concrete Pilings, Poured Concrete Pilings, and drainage correction with French drains or surface drains.

After foundation repair, other areas of the foundation are still free to move and have problems which may later require foundation repair. The rest of the house can move due to any of the reasons cited above, while the stabilized portion of the house remains firmly in place. Additionally, the repaired foundation can be damaged by heaving or soil erosion if drainage or plumbing problems have not been corrected.

Foundation repair does not eliminate the need for continuing maintenance. Underpinning and lifting or stabilizing an area of the house with piers does not make the structure immune to future foundation problems. All areas of the house remain susceptible to water induced damage which may be caused by drying, overwatering and plumbing leaks. Changes in foundation loading, such as the addition of a second story, can adversely impact the underpinned as well as the unrepaired areas of a foundation.

This article is not appropriate for all areas of the country. It has been written to address the common clay soil foundation repair and house leveling problems that are evident in residential and commercial foundations in the Dallas Fort Worth area including the cities of Arlington, Grand Prairie, Irving, Frisco, Coppell, The Colony, Carrollton, Plano, Richardson, Garland, Forney, Mesquite, & Mansfield.