Over time, a home can settle a little, and this generally does not cause a lot of problems. However, sometimes a home can settle enough to cause major problems. For example, home settlement can cause cracks in the foundation, cracks in the walls inside your home, and other types of structural problems. Fortunately, there are many things that can be done to get the home back to normal so the settlement will stop, two of which are listed below.
Releveling
Releveling the foundation is one way to stop the foundation from settling. This involves lifting your foundation and then doing the releveling. The foundation is first lifted using a mechanical or hydraulic jack, and then screw jacks are put in place. When the process is completed, the screw jacks are then removed very slowly to place the home back down onto the foundation.
An underpinning pile or pier is placed under the foundation once it is lifted. The pile or pier is attached to the foundation using a concrete cap.
One benefit of releveling is that your foundation is not damaged in any way. This is because once it is lifted, it is placed back down and attached to your home once the releveling is finished.
Releveling generally takes a couple of hours to complete. This does depend on how bad your home has settled, however. You do have to be out of your home while this job is being done, however.
Slabjacking
If you have a concrete slab and the floors settled, the contractor may choose to use slabjacking to repair the settlement problem. This is only if you have a contractor in your area that has experience doing this.
Slabjacking involves lifting the foundation. Once this is done, the contractor uses a special type of drill, which is generally hydraulically powered, to drill holes in different areas of the concrete slab. When the holes are drilled, they are filled with a grout mixture. The contractor will use a pump to place the grout into the holes and keep pushing in the grout until the slab is lifted.
Slabjacking generally only takes a few hours to complete, so you will not have to be out of your home for a long time. You cannot be inside your home while slabjacking is being done.
The contractor that you hire can go over these two options with you in much more details and answer any questions you may have about releveling your foundation.
When you build a home or make a large addition to the home, you will hire a general contractor to oversee the project and do the majority of the work. This individual may subcontract some small tasks to specialists, such as window installers and HVAC techs, but for the most part, it is their responsibility to ensure everything is built according to plan.
As you can imagine, general contractors have very varied jobs. No two days are alike! On this website, you will learn more about what general contractors do, which will come in handy the next time you need to hire one.