House Leveling Questions

Hello All

A little background first. My house is built on a downward slope. I've lived there since 1999 (it was built in 1981) and during that time I've had a couple of doors that stick (or won't close) and some cracks show up in the sheet rock (they run vertically) at the corners of doors and windows. I've recently noticed a few cracks in the ceiling of my garage, running from the front of my garage to the back (not side to side). With the change of the seasons I notice some doors open/close ok while others that used to open/close ok now won't. I can also see a few cracks in the foundation (at the back of the house - where it's the highest from the ground) these also run vertically.

Here's my question. I'm in the beginning stages of getting my house leveled. I plan on hiring a professional to do this and was wondering what do I need to be aware of? What kind of questions do I need to ask? What is the price range for this type of repair? What license should they have? Do I even need to get the house leveled? etc, etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Is this outfit going to take any core samples of what the house sits on?

Are they simply going to do mudjacking?

Mudjacking ontop of sawdust fill (a wild exaggeration to make my point) will last for a while. Maybe till the first rainy season.

For a quick fix mudjacking job without anything being addressed to the ground under your foundation, let's say...you have to ask yorself how much the job will be worth to you to have it stay crack free for say 5 years.

Find out what they guarantee.

BTW, the sawdust thing? Ha. I spoke too fast. I was maintenance man on a commercial building downtown that had a block wall outside staircase that was pulling away from the building at the top by over 6 inches!!! Do you know what the building's footings were on? Get ready. Sawdust! For real. Eau Claire Wisconsin is known as "Sawdust City", and the whole downtown riverbank area was built upon sawdust.

Me and my partner got the job to use a cutting torch to drop ceiling radiators down from the underground parking lot ceiling in this building and one radiator swung and missed our pallet and crashed through the floor and we found out it was hollow under the floor because the sawdust settled!

Mudjackers came and releveled our little Leaning Tower of Piza stairwell beautifully. But the job had to be done again a few years later.

 

pickle: It's difficult to offer a complete answer from the limited information you've provided. It would help, for example; to know your location (suggests soil conditions, flood plain, history of area for seismic activity, etc etc), if your home is one of many in a development, if neighbors have the same problem as you and if they took any steps to remediate and mitigate the problem, if you're near a busy highway, and/or if there is any new - or if there has been recent - heavy construction of roads or of structures where pile drivers or heavy earth moving equipment were active. These, and others, are all factors that could produce those visible cracks. One of the first steps you should take is the free no cost one - where there's absolutley no expense to you - and that's a visit your local municipal construction office to speak with a local code official. He'll be able to answer many of your questions. He will in all likelyhood have experience with the problems you're experiencing and will steer - for no cost - you in the right direction. He'll know all about the permitting, licensing of contractors, and what engineering investigations and reports will be needed for a permit. He really can not recommend any engineers or contractors but he CAN tell you who has performed similar work in the jurisdiction and then you can use that info to track them down and even get opinions of their work from customers. That's all free. If your local code office is like mine they might have those 25 year old plans for your house on file or in their archives and might, for a small fee, allow copying which will save you some cash in the future. After that comes the real money issues, which should all wait until you do step one - visit with your local municipal building department. OVD

 

I would hire a good engineer to evaluate why is the house sinking, He will probaly do core samples of the ground to see where there is solid ground and how deep it is. I did a job last year where the house was sinking to the back, Heli Coils (Piles)were installed 20 -30' into the ground for me to pour a new footing on then build a new wall on. The house was built on decomposing stumps and other fill.

 

You will of course eventually need to involve an engineer, but BEFORE you go out and pay retainers or sign contracts you should at least do two things:

1) Do some of your own easy, time and money saving investigative work. Look into the prior uses of the land that your home sits upon. Unless those engineers are long time local boys, one of the first questions they're going to ask you is; "What was on that land before the house was built?"

From my experiences, mostly removing USTs (Underground Storage Tanks), I have found that many homes, even big residential developments, are built on lands that were at one time farms, dumps, landfills, military bases; or were erected in areas often flooded, known to have underground streams or prone to sinkholes. Homes and commercial properties are often developed on reclaimed, unsuitable or once very undesirable land. If your home is one of thousands now sitting atop an old soggy landfill for example it will continue to settle long after we're gone. The first thing I'd do is ask around and find out what that land of yours was used for before the house was built. Someone in your community, a neighbor or friend, should be able to remember back to those days; and if not, there's probably someone down in town hall who does.

2) The next thing I believe you should do before interviewing and hiring an engineer is to make an appointment with the building inspector for your town, city or county. He or she will know the community best, know it's history, know it's inherent and chronic problems, and is certainly the best and only real source on how to address your issue with full code compliance. He or she can also alert and inform you about the qualifications, certifications or licenses that the company will need in order to perform the work. That building inspector probably has seen the problem before, and be may be able to share those experiences he had with you. Since permits are open public records he will be required to provide the names of contractors that have done this type of work in your area before. Use those names as leads. He will also know if the enviromental agencies will need to become involved should any soil borings or geoprobes reveal contaminations.

Don't rush into it. Do some investigative work first.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses, I see I have some leg work to do first.

OudeVanDagen: To answer your questions, I live in the Central Arkansas area. I do not live near a busy highway or new/recent heavy construction of roads/structures. I'm not sure if my neighbors have the same problems or not. I will definitely locate my local municipal building department and describe my problem to them - thanks for the advice.

USTguy: Thanks for all the information. I will locate my local building inspector and describe my problem to them - thanks for your advice as well.

To everyone else: Your input is greatly appreciated, keep the good advice coming!

 

Please do let us know what your issues are with the foundation, and how it is to be corrected.

 

I'll be sure to let you guys know what I find out.