Stabilizing Your Home's Foundation
As a home ages, the foundation used to support the structure can begin to fail. In order to prevent your home from settling due to a faulty foundation, you may need to stabilize the home's foundation. This is done through a process known as foundation underpinning. There are several different types of underpinning available on the market, and selecting the right one can be crucial in determining the success of your foundation repairs.
Here are three types of underpinning to consider and some tips to help you determine which is right for your home.
1. Round Shaft Piers
The addition of round shaft piers underneath your home's foundation can be a simple way to stabilize the foundation and prevent further sagging. If you live in an area where soil conditions are soft (meaning your soil has a high clay content), then round shaft piers can be a beneficial way to effectively underpin your home's foundation.
The cylindrical design of round piers provides the greatest amount of contact area with the surrounding soil. This ensures that the pier won't shift in the soft soil, allowing for maximum stability for your home's foundation in the future.
2. Square Shaft Piers
If you are planning to stabilize your home's foundation horizontally rather than from below, then square shaft piers are a wise investment. Square piers cannot provide the same surface area contact with the soil as round piers, making them more susceptible to buckling when used in a compression situation and installed beneath your home's foundation.
Square piers can easily be installed to provide tensile support to your home's foundation walls by abutting the walls to keep them from spreading sideways and compromising the structural integrity of your home.
3. Concrete Pillars
Statistics show that the average homeowner can expect to pay between $1,763 and $5,880 to repair a faulty foundation. If you are worried about reducing the expenses associated with your home's foundation repairs, then investing in concrete pillars can be beneficial.
Concrete pillars are pre-cast concrete columns that can be installed during both compression and tensile foundation repairs. These concrete pillars will break down over time and need to be replaced, but their initial cost is often more affordable than the cost of structural steel round and square piers.
Understanding the different types of foundation underpinning that can be used to stabilize your home will help you select the right application to meet your needs in the future.
