Use a Helical Pier instead of pouring concrete
Failing foundations can happen for a variety of reasons. We have discussed several issues in previous posts and will continue to do so in future posts. But when you have a failure, what should you do? One historically bad idea is to bring in bags or trucks of concrete to pour under the existing home. The thought behind this is – Concrete is a solid base, it is used for footings, it spreads the load out, and it will fill all the voids. And while these are all true of concrete, the one aspect you do not see listed is the weight of concrete. Concrete weighs around 145 lbs./cubic ft, although depending on the mix it could be more or less. If you multiply by 27 you will get the weight by cubic yard (which is a standard for concrete trucks) = 3915 lbs/cubic yard. (as a side note: soil can weigh between 60-120 lbs/cubic foot).
We will use an example of a corner of a home that is showing settlement on a 10×10 corner of the house. If a contractor decided to pour concrete under this corner, he may want to pour it one foot thick and may go 2-3 feet into the existing home. If that’s the case then he would have poured 40-60 cubic ft of concrete (or 2-3 yards). This equates to adding between 7,830 and 11,745 lbs to the corner of your home. Stay with me – because an average single story brick house on a slab weighs around 1,141 lbs per foot (or for this 10×10 area – 21,679 lbs). Basically, the contractor just increased the weight of your home by 50% – and this is using conservative numbers of what the contractor poured, and a very modest home (a 2 story brick house on a basement would have a weight of 3,656 lbs per foot). We have heard stories and seen jobs where the amount of concrete poured under a corner of house is 6-7 yards or around 25,000 lbs.
All of this to say that if your home is settling due to poorly compacted soils, loose soils, organic debris, builder debris, water issues, etc then the soil does not have the adequate bearing capacity to support your home. If the soil was not good enough to support the existing structure, why would anyone add a 10-30,000 lb anchor to an already sinking foundation? Once more, what do you think this will do when you have to repair the house after the concrete is poured? This repair – which would have cost a few thousand dollars to begin with, will ultimately cost several thousand dollars – not to mention you may not be able to lift a structure once you have added all the additional weight of concrete.
Before you decide to go with a contractor that wants to pour concrete under a corner of your home, or if you are thinking of pouring concrete under your home, do some research about helical piers and resistance piers. If you are a homeowner, then your largest investment depends on how you decide to repair a sinking foundation.
Background: Helical and Resistance Piers are considered deep foundations, which mean they both penetrate areas of poor soils to reach soils of adequate bearing capacity. They do not add weight to your structure, and require little disturbance around your home to install. They last for years and years and typically come with long warranties to protect against any future issues. Atlas Piers provides services in repairing foundations. We lift and stabilize houses all across Atlanta and the State of Georgia. We have been in business for over 20 years and have seen other companies come and go. If we can’t lift a house – it can’t be lifted. Visit our home page or call us @ 770.740.0400 for more information.
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Garage Column sinking issue? Cracks above the garage doors?
Garage Column failure is a very common issue around the Atlanta metro area. In fact, Garage Column settlement is one of the top 3 issues we see in foundation failures. So what is it and how do you fix it?
Garage Columns are the center columns between two or more garage doors into a garage. The Column is generally a structural element that carries either a brick load, beam load or header load. What this means is that the column generally carries a concentrated load where other parts of the home carry a line load across a continuous footing (think of the house over the garage door openings, instead of sitting on the ground they area passed to either side of the opening).
When many houses were built, the soils for the garage were moved into the area (especially when there is a basement) and then compacted. In many cases, the builder or grader failed to compact the soils enough to carry a concentrated load. These poorly compacted soils can cause the garage column to settle over time – if you have a brick house then you will have a crack above the garage column as this happens. As a result of the failure, you may also notice sheet rock cracks in any rooms above the garage. You may see a crack on either side of the garage floor where the floor slopes towards the middle.
The fix for this failure is typically to install 1-2 helical piers. In years past, when helical piers were not used as much, we would install resistance or push piers. It was a dangerous process, that put unnecessary stress on the column and resulted in many companies having warranty issues. Overall, it’s not a good idea to install a push pier under a garage column.
The typical installation for garage columns is to remove the driveway slab around the column, install 1 helical pier on either side of the column and then lift the column back in to place. Many of the cracks in the brick veneer will close, but you may still need to repoint (fill in) the mortar for a better look.
Some of the unknowns in repairing garage columns are 1) footing or grade beam under the garage slab, 2) depth of the helical piers, 3) lift results. Give us a call to determine what solution is best for you.
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Television Spot featuring homeowner and Atlas Piers – Trash Pit/Debris Pit
Here is a link/video to a job we are working on in NW Atlanta, GA. The current homeowner bought the house after helical piers were installed to fix a foundation problem over a debris pit (buried wood debris under the foundation). The helical piers were installed but did not penetrate the debris. Atlas Piers of Atlanta installed 3 resistance piers (or push piers) a few years later on another area of the house. Since the original helical piers failed due to poor installation (the company has since gone out of business, but started another piering company), Atlas Piers is now repairing the area above the debris pit with resistance piers. We will be updating a longer post about trash and debris pits, but wanted to share the video.
WSB News about trash pit found under a house
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Torque it in – Take Flight part 2
In part one of this discussion, we talked about what a helical flight is. This post will hopefully add some insight into how torque equates to loading in helical piers. We will also discuss one of the HUGE blunders of a local manufacturer.
Helical piers are screwed in by a hydraulic gear motor. This motor generates a hydraulic pressure on the gear that equates to a torque (force) on the pier being installed. This torque is then multiplied by a soil factor (when soil testing is done there is an actual number defined for the soil and for the product, when soil testing is not performed a generic ‘average’ is used). For the purposes of this post lets use the following equation (used from a technical manual written by Don Clayton, PE) -
Ultimate Capacity = Torque x “k”
where “k” is equal to the soil multiplication factor.
This is a simple equation, and to give an example for a light duty pier – we generally install our helical piers to 4,500 ft/lbs and use a standard average soil factor of 8.
Capacity = 4,500 x 8 = 36,000lbs ultimate capacity
since the ultimate capacity on a single flight is between 40,000-50,000 lbs (steel and weld capacity) – a contractor could use a single flight configuration for this loading.
Now for the HUGE blunder by a local manufacturer. Let’s review some details of helical piers:
- Torque is one of the main factors of the ultimate capacity of piers
- Helical pier types can handle different torques (thicker pipe = stronger, etc)
- Flights have an ultimate capacity of 40,000 lbs for the flights – but the pier torque is what generates the ultimate capacity.
I have run across the situation where a standard residential pier (.203 wall) is sold as a high capacity pier (60,000-70,000 lb ultimate capacity) by the salesman telling the contractor that he’ll just add another flight to the pier. If you double the flights you do add additional capacity, but the problem is – You simply cannot install a standard residential pier to the torque required to generate 60,000-70,000 lbs. The pier will fail during installation – remember the equation
Capacity = Torque x “k” where “k” is the soil factor.
60,000 = Torque x 8
60,000/8 = Torque = 7,500 ft/lbs
Typical residential piers can be installed to around 5,500 ft/lbs – max. You cannot get there from here no matter how many flights you add to the pier shaft (in fact you will notice the equation doesn’t even factor in the number of flights). But I’ve seen this, and I’ve seen general contractors buy this lie from the local company “engineer”.
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Take “flight” with Helical Piers
Helical Pier Diagram
What is a flight? It’s either an airplane trip or, in our business, it’s a steel plate welded onto the main shaft of a helical anchor (see picture). These plates are generally 3/8-1/2″ in thickness and have a pitch of 3″. This pitch allows the helical anchor to advance into the soil 3″ per revolution or 4 revolutions per foot.
How many are needed? Great question and there is no definitive answer for all applications. On a standard residential project where the loading is 10-30,000 lbs, one-two plates will work (each plate can handle between 20-25,000 lbs/ea depending on the manufacturer). Adding flights can increase the surface area that is made with soil and multiple flights decrease the loading required on each flight. We have found that adding flights can also help us install the product better as you have two or more flights pulling a helical into a the ground instead of just one single.
In part two of this blog, I’ll give some insight into how adding flights helps, and what are the limiting factors of helical pier capacities.
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Piering Manufacturers
In 2003 there were 20 helical or resistance pier manufacturers, 4 of them were considered “Major”. The top two companies were AB Chance and Atlas Systems (where we received our name). In 2009 there were over 50 manufactures of piers, with AB Chance topping the list followed by Earth Contact Products then Dixie, RamJack, DriveRite, etc.
As you can see, there has been a LOT of manufacturers enter into the business in the last few years. Many of these manufacturers are making helical and resistance piers from their own shop or “basement”. The top companies – and ones with the longest history have licensed engineers behind all their designs, a full fledged manufacturing facility, and quality control. The smaller guys are making a few piers - and while some of these 2nd tier or 3rd tier manufacturers may have engineers that help design, there is no way to compete with the larger companies in quality control, manufacturing and oversight. When you are supplying multiple thousands of piers (sometimes tens of thousands of piers), your quality has to be top notch. You cannot afford product failures, you cannot afford for a 3rd party engineer or inspector to question your products. There is just too much riding on them.
Why does this matter? Atlas Piers of Atlanta only purchases from platinum manufacturers. We have too much at stake to trust a lesser manufacturer. So when you have someone look at making foundation repairs to your structure ask which helical pier or resistance pier manufacturer they install. Piers may seem like a commodity, but there are vast differences.
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Helical Pier installation video
This video shows the basic helical pier installation sequence for residential applications. Helical piers are used for foundation repair or for new construction in poor soils.
Atlas Piers of Atlanta installs new construction helical piers in Atlanta; we install residential and commercial helical piers for foundation repair in Atlanta, Georgia, and across the southeast. See our main page for more information (www.atlaspiers.com)
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Helical Tieback Video
See the youtube video below for the typical helical tieback installation. There is a link below the video in case you cannot view from our blog.
Helical tiebacks (www.atlaspiers.com/products.htm) are great for bowing basement walls, retaining walls, shoring, etc. Give us a call if you think you have an application for this (such as bowing basement walls, horizontal crack in block walls, leaning walls, railroad tie wall failure, etc). If not, there may be an opportunity to use carbon fiber strips.
Helical Tieback installation video from AB Chance
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Resistance Pier Installation Video
Click the video below or check out the link to the youtube video at the bottom of the post. These show the process of installing a Resistance Pier for foundation repair. We have been installing resistance piers in Atlanta and across the Southeast for over 20 years. These are the strongest underpinning piers for residential foundation repair. Unfortunately, you cannot use them for every application. More to come on that later.
Atlas Resistance Pier Installation Video from AB Chance
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Welcome to the Atlas Piers Blog site
Our first blog post. A historic moment for the company, and one where we want to talk about history.
Wayne Farris started installing resistance underpinning piers in 1987. The original name was Concrete Repair Specialists, inc. Once Wayne went to a World of Concrete seminar in Atlanta, he met some representatives from Atlas Systems – a deep foundation piering manufacturer. They were looking to start a venture in Atlanta and Wayne was up for the task. In 1989, Atlas Piers of Atlanta, inc was formed as a small foundation repair company working out of a home office and basement in Atlanta. From it’s humble beginnings, Atlas Piers of Atlanta rose to winning multiple trophies and awards for the most piers installed across the country for Atlas Systems. In fact, Atlas Systems pretty much decided they needed to do something different after Atlas Piers of Atlanta won so many trophies. (#1 in 1994, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005; #2 in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002; #4 in 1995, 1998)
But Atlas Piers of Atlanta wasn’t the only foundation repair piering company in town. There were a few others around the same time. Interestingly, all of those have now gone by the wayside. There was Terrafirm, Permajack and one other company who closed the local office but has since come back……and there have been many since. Many of our competitors have either changed business models or gone out of business. Many of those companies that started installing helical piers or resistance piers were once water proofers or pressure grouters. We have stayed true to our original business model, we only install the strongest helical and resistance piers by the best manufacturers. We have not deviated, nor do we compromise by manufacturing any of our own helical or resistance piers.
As we look at today’s landscape in the piering and foundation repair industry, as much as times change, things stay the same. We still see competitors come and go, and we see other companies “add” piering to their other trades.
Over the next months and years, we hope to explain many of the issues in our industry – from individual projects to the overall landscape.
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