Higher home prices make foundation repair worthwhile

Published 4:00 pm Friday, November 30, 2007

If your home’s windows and doors stick, or cracks appear around the corners of doors and windows, odds are the soil under your home is affecting the foundation.

Roger Faris, a radio construction talk show host in Seattle, said, “The Northwest has some of the most unstable soil in the nation.” He went on to say the last Ice Age laid down a layer of soil geologists call “glacial till” and it is this porous sand, gravel, dirt and decaying vegetation that most often causes foundation failure.

“The cold and rain play a role too,” said soils engineer Richard Bergquest, president of Bergquest Engineering in Seattle.

The winter-summer dynamic of expansion and contraction lets the water seep deep into the porous soil and eventually it runs into a deep layer of clay that exists under much of the Northwest.

Now add the focused weight of a concrete foundation to a heavy load of glacial till poised on a slippery bed of clay (shaken occasionally by earthquakes) and, well, eventually things move.

“And this whole problem of unstable soil movement gets magnified if the home sits on any degree of slope,” said Bergquest. In this situation the clay layer becomes like an ice rink and the house starts to migrate downhill.

Foundations crack, walls heave, doors stick, and very often floors are uneven. What to do? Who to call? And the big question: How much to fix?

The questions are reasonable but need perspective. The dollar amount to repair or replace a foundation may seem high, but in proportion to current home values, today’s fix is less expensive than in the past.

In the 1960’s, houses in Astoria were priced between $6,000 and $20,000. To repair a concrete foundation ran between $3,000 and $6,000 dollars. Today the same homes are valued from $250,00 to $450,000, and to repair or completely replace a foundation under one of them runs in the $10,000 to $70,000 range.

Foundation repair is highly specialized, heavy duty construction, and the challenge for any consumer is to find a company with a good reputation.

The owner of a duplex near downtown Astoria is one of the lucky ones. Walt Postlewait bought the duplex just off 8th Street thinking it would be a good investment, but knowing the foundation might need a little work. The job was bigger than expected.

The first action Walt and wife Marni took after purchasing the building was to request a city inspection and, unfortunately, the city tagged the duplex as uninhabitable.

“We were surprised, but felt the building had historical significance,” said Walt, “And we didn’t want to tear it down, so we looked for an alternative and we found Joel.”

“It is important customers do their research,” said Joel Bergeman of Bergeman Construction in Astoria, a firm that specializes in foundation repair.

Bergeman said his company installs about a dozen foundations a year in the Astoria area.

“When someone calls us they don’t know what to ask and often don’t realize they might need a structural or soils engineer to evaluate the home site,” he said. There are additional factors in that most cities also require permits before construction begins.

The simplest approach to foundation repair is to realize there are only a few ways to fix one. Some companies take the more traditional approach, while others rely on hi-tech engineering to both “stitch” the foundation, back together and stabilize the soil beneath the home.

Bergeman said his customers look to his company to both educate them and fix the problem. He said his company uses the standard method when installing a new foundation which includes lifting the house to replace the concrete foundation, using I-beams, hydraulic jacks and six-by-eight wooden cribbing.

“It sounds simple, but lifting a house is a lot like lifting a 50 thousand pound baby,” said Bergeman.

“First you find its pressure points, support them and then lift up gently.” He said if his crew doesn’t take care they can break a house in half.

Other factors influence the scope of work as well. The average one-story house weighs in around 50-100 thousand pounds. The house may also have a heavy brick or stone fireplace that can add another 20 thousand pounds to the house and will require its own separate rigging to lift.

“Bergeman Construction has worked on our house for about a month now,” said Cliff Larson of Astoria. Larson said the company has made their new foundation install painless. “They even managed to arrange things so we can still live in our house,” he said.

There are also homes that sit on what the industry calls a “pier and post” foundation. This kind of house support consists of concrete pier blocks placed under short vertical beams which then support floor joists.

University of Washington Project Impact structural engineer, Kaveh Aminian said pier and post foundations are the easiest to fix because they don’t require demolition or replacement of concrete walls but they are the least stable, especially during earthquakes.

“The shaking walls set up a pattern of movement that gets amplified the more the ground shakes,” said Aminian.

For years organizations like the University of Washington geotechnical engineers and the Structural Engineers Association of Washington have sought to develop new building materials and repair techniques that make new foundations stronger, and repaired foundations last longer.

Robbins and Company, a structural rigging and foundation repair firm based in Burien, Wash. has been part of this evolving technology.

“Our GripTite foundation systems are a popular alternative for repairing settling foundations,” said company president Rod Robbins.

Robbins said his company’s technology makes foundation repairs cost less and saves time.

Foundation repair technology has developed to the degree that it allows the Robbins Company to “stitch” a broken foundation back together using either its GripTite push-pier, or helical-pier technologies.

In addition the company offers a wall anchor stabilization system that can strengthen and straighten both basement, and exterior retaining walls.

“Not every damaged foundation requires the same approach, and the beauty of this technology is its versatility.” said Robbins.

A traditional foundation repair takes a crew of about six men tromping around the home for an average of two months. With GripTite the install crew consists of two men, one small truck and, on average, four days.

Both Robbins and Bergeman agree that any homeowner considering a foundation repair or replacement should educate themselves.

“That’s probably the most important advice I can give someone,” Bergeman said. “Talk to people who’ve been through it.”