A customer has asked me to see what could be done to repair part of a wrap around porch on a 100 year old brick house, with a limestone block foundation, that has settled badly over the last several years. A representative of a company that has a system of pushing steel pileings down to a bearing stratta, and then attaching them to brackets bolted to the foundation and lifting, told me that there was nothing that they could do in this case becouse of the limestone foundation. They need a substantial concrete foundation to lift on. This makes sense to me. We discussed underpinning, or installing a new foundation under the limestone, in sections, so as to maintain support under most of the porch as new foundation was added. They could then lift against this new foundation. He didn’t have much good to say about underpinning, and the adding of a cement foundation in sections, sounds like a lot of work and expense. We live in south central Kansas, and have highly expansive clay soils. There have been several years lately that have been below normal moisture, which has most likley contributed to the problem. Has anyone out there had experience with a similar problem, and how would you solve it?
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Replies
I'm involved in a repair of (for this area) an elderly front porch, about 95 years young. Like your customer's this one had settled badly.
I really got lucky because a pair of 4x6 framing sills over the concrete pillers were replaced, and even though I had to reframe everything, it's looking better.
In your case, a foundation pour may be the only way out. Your customer will have to bite the bullet, either through you or another contractor.
Good luck.
Quality repairs for your home.
AaronR Construction
Vancouver, Canada
Why has it settled -- just drying soil, or is there erosion or soil movement? Is is just the porch foundation that's settled? What's the construction of the porch?
The only area that appears to be settling badly is one area of the front porch. There is some evience of movement in other areas, but at this point minimul. I don't think that it is caused by soil erosion. The soils in this area can move quite a bit when they dry out. The foundation is large limestone blocks, layed with morter,about 24' high, with a cement cap for the porch floor. There are brick colums about 8' apart, which support the roof, and brick balasters about 12" square,and 16" tall, which support a limestone cap about 14" wide, by 4" thick which is the railing between the colums. The colums must be supported on cement foothings, becouse they don't appear to be moveing. The movement is in the support for the porch cap, and railings.