Experienced Concrete Repair Contractor Serving Pleasant Hill, CA

This home was given as a gift from the parents to their daughter and her family. And not only was this home a gift, the parents wanted to make sure that, while their children and their grandchildren were living in the home, they would make sure they could help with any issues that needed to be taken care of. They became aware that the foundation was slowly shifting and they wanted to prevent it from getting any worse. 

The way they found us was through a magazine called Local Buzz. In our advertisement, they saw pictures of foundation issues that were similar to what they had seen on their own. They called and scheduled a free home inspection with our Structural Consultant, Chris Hardy. Chris met with them and performed the inspection of the foundation from the exterior and from within the crawl space. He shared his findings with the owners and drew up a quote for a solution that same night. They talked about it and decided to choose us to perform the work. 

Our crew, lead by Foreman Jesus Luna, installed a total of 14 Push Piers, 2 Helical Piers, 1 Concentric Pier, and 18 SmartJack Adjustable Steel Posts to repair this foundation. The Piers were pushed into the Earth at depths ranging from 42 to 52 feet. Now the homeowner's big family can rest assured that the foundation of their home is in great shape. 

Mr. and Mrs. M were on the brink. They had put off fixing their home for far too long. Problems like the ones they were seeing very rarely happen overnight, they happen over a long period of time. On average, most homeowners who know they have foundation issues wait 5 years to fix it. The problem with waiting to fix the problem is that it's only going to get worse and more expensive the longer it takes. Mr. and Mrs. M's problems began with crack forming on the wall above their front door; they knew it was really bad once the ceiling of their hallway began to crack. 

The Solution: 

We installed 17 Push Piers around the left, rear, and right sides of the home to lift and stabilize the foundation, helping it stay put while the soil around it shifts over time. We also installed 19 SmartJacks to help the existing floor system compensate for the amount of lift we achieved as well as replacing a few of the wooden posts that had become useless after the shifting soils had separated them from the rest of the floor. 

Mr. H had called us to inspect his home because his ultimate goal was to put in new flooring and to make his front door easier to open (it had always been a bother and he finally wanted to get it over and done with). We discovered that the foundation was experiencing differential settlement, causing the foundation to become unlevel. To get an image in your head of what that looks like, imagine sitting on a chair that is significantly uneven; this would cause your spine to become uneven the same way the soil screwed with Mr. H's foundation. 

To solve the problem, our crew installed 7 push piers beneath the sections of the foundation that were significantly lower than the rest of the home, which included the area beneath the front door. We were able to push each pier down to bedrock, several feet beneath the surface to lift the home and stabilize the affected area from further settlement. Now Mr. H can open his door without a problem and he can finally put in the new floors his wife had been bugging him about. 

The homeowner, like many people at this crazy time in our history, was stuck at his house during the Covid-19 Pandemic. He got the thought in his head to fix up his home. His main point of focus was to fix his roof which was overdue for a makeover, but in order to get the roof fixed, he would need to fix his foundation first. The right side of his home was experiencing foundation settlement which was causing the walls to crack and the chimney was at risk of falling away from the house if left on it's own; the foundation in that section was 2 and a half inches lower than the rest of the house. 

With the installation of our push pier system, we were able to stop the settlement in its tracks by lifting and stabilizing it. 

The owner of this home was worried about the integrity of their floors because they use this property as their means of income; they rent it out and survive off of the money the earn from that. The floors were sagging which was a cause of concern because if the home was unfit to live in, then their money flow would be hurt. 

Our Crew came to the home and replaced some of the failing wood posts with our SmartJack Adjustable Steel Posts. They were able to lift, level, and stabilize the floor system, and save the homeowner a huge headache. 

Mr. Smith loved his beautiful home. It's where he and his wife decided to settle down. It was their dream house, where the two of them wanted to spend all of their retirement. Their children had grown and moved out, and now they just want to settle down in a much quieter neighborhood. They enjoyed the quiet lifestyle, and loved that the new backyard had the perfect amount of space for their future grandchildren. The house was a gorgeous colonial built home, however upon further inspection there was more than meets the eye. The Smiths discovered this when they started to install new flooring, and they found that their floors were slanting. That's when they realized that they needed to get this looked at soon.

That is when Tracy Holifield was called out. Tracy is a foundation consultant at Foundation Repair of CA, and thankfully, she had the experience and knowledge to know just what to look for. Upon further investigation, she found that the foundation of the home had been sinking at an alarming rate, and worse than that, only one side was sinking, thus creating the slant on the floor. Tracy knew that this would problem would only get worse if left alone, and so recommended the best solution: installation of a push pier system with a poly level void fill.

Push pier system foreman, Vernon "Kimo" Kaauwai, arrived to the site to see that his work was cut out for him. Seeing how the ground was incredibly compacted and hard, digging the holes to install the pier brackets became incredibly difficult. This was fine for Kimo though, as he is no stranger to obstacles, and he and his team pushed forward and worked through it to complete the job. After all brackets were installed, Kimo and his crew lifted the foundation with the hydraulic pump. 

Once the foundation was lifted, the poly level foreman David "DJ" Serpa installed the polyurethane foam underneath the slab to fill in the void that was created from the lift. This gives an added support to the slab and stabilizes the entire system that has been installed into the home.

Now with all products installed, and the foundation has been lifted, leveled, and stabilized, the Smith household now is completely flat and the couple can now install their new flooring.

Over the years, water has eroded the dirt underneath a walkway in this Oakland based apartment complex. The erosion lead to animals beginning to dig around the area as well until the hole became so large that the walkway literally cracked in two and was a serious safety concern. The property manager was able to get approval to go forward with fixing the walkway, and that is when she called Foundation Repair of CA.

One of our best consultants, Jim Palamedas came out to the site and saw the extent of the problem. It was going to take a lot to fix this walkway to be just right, but thankfully Jim has a lot of experience fixing just this sort of issues. Jim knew that the best solution to lift this slab back into place was to use the Poly Leveling system and include the Nexus Pro crack sealant to prevent any future problems.

The Poly Level Foreman, David "DJ" Serpa came out with the Polyurethane crew within two weeks. Upon arriving, DJ knew that this wasn't just going to be a normal job, but was going to be a large challenge. He began by injecting a base of foam underneath the slab to give it support, before attempting to lift. DJ then had his crew members use pry bars to use leverage and pry the cracked slab back up. After it was hoisted up, DJ would inject a small amount more. This was repeated several times until enough lift was achieved to be able to jack the slab up with a bottle jack. After repeating this method continuously, the cracked walkway was brought up to be perfectly level and the crack was then sealed with Nexus Pro to prevent any water damage.

Thanks to the skill, knowledge, and experience of Jim and DJ, the tenants of this apartment complex will never have to worry about the tripping hazards of that walkway again.