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Foundation Repair

Pelzmonster | Posted in Construction Techniques on January 14, 2011 10:54am

I got hired to fix a sagging corner in a hundred year old one story home. The foundation is made up by piers made out of brick and beams.

Most of the piers are in good shape and dont look like they moved. They only require some tuck pointing

When the house was built originally they did not transfer the load of an entire corner to the ground so right now it is sagging.

I am kind of short in options on how to fix it because the crawlspace is very narrow we cant get anything that is more than 12 inches under the building. I can not dig and just create a concrete post base to get enough support under it. because of other piers, concrete in the way.

I thought of adding three deck piers to support a beam which will support the floor joices in the area and transfer the weight to the ground . The only concern is the longevity of this solution. I dont think deck piers are the most reliable foundation but several of them would work i think.

I ll greatly appreciate any input on this.

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  1. calvin | Jan 14, 2011 11:29am | #1

    Pelz

    The sagging corner I take it is not on the outside corner of this structure?

    By narrow do you mean that the crawl is short?  and you have only 12 inches from ground to bottom of beams?

    Deck piers?  do you mean posts?  If so and the post was big enough (not 4x4's) and they sat on a FOOTING, that would surely work IF-the footing was sized properly for the load.  If there is a perimeter foundation around this structure and the piers are interior, there could be no reason to dig down for pour this footing.  An interior footing wouldn't need to be below the frost line if the ground will not freeze.  It only needs to be on undisturbed ground (never dug up and backfilled).

    Is 12" enough room to get in there with a footing perimeter form, drag concrete to it, fill it and get out?  Jack up the problem, post under or stack block in place of a post?

    or cut a hole and access from above?

    And I see you mention floor joists.  So you have joists on TOP of beams or fastened to the sides of a beam?  Are the joists the problem or the beams?

    1. Pelzmonster | Jan 14, 2011 01:47pm | #2

      Foundation Repair

      The joists are butted into the beam. 

      1. calvin | Jan 14, 2011 02:51pm | #3

        ok

        and how are they fastened? 

  2. DanH | Jan 14, 2011 08:48pm | #4

    By "deck piers" I assume you

    By "deck piers" I assume you mean the pyramid-shaped deck footing blocks.  How well they would work depends on how stable the soil is.  If it's reliably dry and won't freeze very deeply, and the nature of the soil isn't too sandy or loamy then they shouldn't move very much. 

  3. Ian_Duffy | Jun 20, 2025 01:56pm | #5

    Adding multiple deck piers can be a workable temporary fix in tight spaces, but for long-term stability, consider steel screw jacks or helical piers designed for Crawl Space .

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