Before & After Photos

Foundation issues are a problem that should never be put on hold. As much as we want it to be able to stop, the problem will grow and become worse as time passes. This Lake Lure, NC homeowner had thought to hold off on getting his foundation issues fixed. However, after watching the floors continue to sag, he decided that he could put it off no longer..

When our team came to rectify the problem they brought along SmartJacks. The SmartJacks were placed under the floor joist of the home and then used to push the floors back into place. To install it, we excavate a two-foot cube at each SmartJack location. The hole is then filled with concrete or engineered to create a stable, loadbearing footing. The SmartJack sits on top of it with a custom-engineered base.

There are many different kinds of foundation issues that people can be dealing with. Sometimes several different problems can be affecting a home at the same time. Foundation issues can get complicated sometimes, because there are different products that can be used for different problems. This is why our System Design Specialists are trained to apply the best solution to fix the issues. 

In the case of this home, the walls in their basement were beginning to bow. Fortunately it was very minor and was caught during the System Design Specialist's inspection while he was assessing the water intrusion issue that the homeowner was also dealing with. This is actually relatively common, because people do not always realize the signs of foundation problems (or sometimes water intrusion issues when we go for a foundation estimate). As previously mentioned, the foundation problem was caught before it became a huge deal, which led to the Specialists recommendation.

In order to address the foundation issues that this homeowner was dealing with, the Specialist suggest CarbonArmor strips. These are woven carbon-fiber cloth strips that are extremely strong and are able to keep foundation walls from bowing any further. This was the perfect situation and solution for this homeowner, because the walls had not bowed very much and the CarbonArmor strips are very thin and can easily be painted. This allows a homeowner to easily cover up the strips, while making sure that their walls are secure. 

Keeping your basement foundation strong is very important. If your basement walls begin to bow or crack it can lead to severe damage to your home. In this Brevard, NC home the basement walls had begun to bow in. To solve this problem the All-Dry of the Carolinas team was able to install CarbonArmor strips. This CarbonArmor system is a fiber reinforced polymer that is 10 times stronger than steel. The system is extremely flexible and can be used easily against all basement walls. This strip absorbs the pressure that is pushing out from the wall. Along with all the foundation benefits, the CarbonArmor strips are easier to paint and are easily concealable.

This home had been suffering from some pretty serious foundation issues for awhile before they decided to call a professional to help with the issues. When our System Design Specialist went out to the home he noticed several large cracks on both the inside and outside of the home. While this seemed to be a huge issue (and would be if not taken care of), however our Specialist was able to figure out a solution with just a few push piers.

The main crack that can be seen in the before photo is a stair-step crack on the back wall. This was a pretty large crack, between a half inch and an inch wide, but it could certainly be closed up through the help of our push piers. There is also some other minor cracking along the left-hand wall, which is difficult to see because of the angle of the photo. 

This after picture is not as clear to see because the items that had been along the walls of the basement were moved back into place, however there has been quite a bit of progress made between the two photos. The large crack along the back wall was brought back towards its original position and the crew re-grouted the crack. The crack on the left hand wall was also fixed and the same was done for it. 

If you've looked at any other content on our site, you may have seen wall anchors in action. This before and after is going to be a little different than some of the others. This is going to look at more of the cleanup, then the installation of the wall anchors. For this particular project, we had the crew had to install three wall anchors under the garage floor.

The "before" picture shows what it looked like once the crew had cut out the sections for the wall anchors to be installed, and had already excavated the dirt down to the level needed to install the wall anchor. As you can see, this can be a very messy process, especially in a garage. We always do our best to keep wherever we are working clean (as we can), and always clean-up after ourselves! In this garage, there was a tarp laid out to hold as much of the dirt as possible, to keep the floor from getting too dirty.

The "after" picture is a much different story than from before. The biggest difference is the fact there aren't deep holes in the middle of the garage or a huge pile of dirt. Jokes aside, our crew filled the holes back with the dirt, then poured some new concrete back into the holes. Although there will be a few "discolored" areas in this garage, it is all worth it in the end. First off, the only other option would be to rip up the garage floor and completely replace it, and two; the cuts must be made so that the outside wall doesn't get any worse.