DIY Foundation Pier | OUR HOUSE IS SINKING SO WE HAD TO JACK IT 😬 #diy

Our house was sinking on one corner which was causing cracks to develop in both exterior and interior walls. We prefer our house without cracks so we knew we had to install a foundation pier to stop the movement. Since the sinking was minor and we believe it was due to the dry soil contracting (rather than permanent, large scale movement of soil), we installed a single foundation pier. The pier brought our foundation back to level and the cracks which were developing in our walls have closed back up. We will be monitoring our foundation closely to determine if additional piers are necessary.

#diy #foundationrepair #jackit

Useful tools for foundation repair:

[Chapters]
00:00 - Intro
02:17 - What's Happening
03:24 - Acquiring Supplies
03:53 - Anna Introduction
04:25 - Digging
04:50 - Demo Hammer
05:30 - More Digging
06:54 - Pier Explanation
07:26 - Jacking & Pier Installation
11:18 - Cap Installation
11:57 - Cutting Shims
12:29 - Shim Installation
13:22 - Replacing Dirt
15:44 - Outro

Disclaimer: This video is provided for educational purposes and is not intended to be a thorough demonstration of all safety requirements. Incorrect installation of foundation piers can be dangerous and may actually lead to further damage.

[williamault]

Having worked in foundation repair for years and running successful piering crew I find this quite impressive and you saved yourself thousands

[canchadhandlethat]

You made what most people think as a worst case scenario look like simple maintenance tasks. Thanks!

[fidbau]

I loved when they brought in a crew specializing in dirt transportation.
Great family job!!😊😊😊

[noprivacyleft]

Nice job. I would have recommended injecting any cracks you had access to in order to mitigate corrosion of reinforcing, and would have recommended formed and poured concrete to encase the piers and flowable grout to fill gaps around the steel shims. Also would have dropped some spiral reinforcing around the top pier cap below the cap stone prior to encasing to mitigate potential for compressive failure of the top of the pier from what is almost certainly an uneven bearing reaction between the cap stone and the pier, unless those precast piers are reinforced there is a potential the the top pier will experience a sudden compression failure spall allowing the foundation to drop again. The chance of such a spall failure could also be mitigated by chamfering the top corner of the pier under the cap stone. At least if it did fail the repair of that would be easier than the first time around.

[mitchwelliver]

Unless bracing off of load-bearing strata or bedrock, it’s a temporary solution. Anything within the first 10-15ft of a foundation is being installed in ground that can absorb rain water, washout, or isn’t properly compacted. This method will save money, but doesn’t address the root cause of the problem.

[zacharymcdonald]

Should have shown the cracks and door afterwards

[geraldheikes]

Recently bought a house next to a lake in south Texas, about an hour from both San Padre and the Rio Grande. Driving down the street you can see almost all of the pier and beam foundation houses are leaning towards the lake, when I walk through ours, it’s drunken sailor not flat. But cosmetically everything looks fine, even the stucco on the outside. So maybe to keep it from getting worse, do this in a few places as needed. In the Netherlands, all of the buildings near the water are put on concrete piers pushed down until they won’t go any further, then leveled off, and construction begins.
Thanks for your YouTube!

[Politics-jzgg]

Awesome and informative video. Why didnt you show the before and after of the cracks especially if they look better?

[timbatman]

Same thing is happening in my house in Dallas. Going to get the piers adjusted next week

[_SYDNA_]

Gosh really good job guys. Even the dog got into it 😊 very informative thanks. I found myself wondering how you avoid pushing too far and start lifting the house beyond the target level but I guess you watch for that and the cracks in the house help you monitor that. I note too that this method puts a lot of force on a small surface area which. means the concrete pins are going to settle down to a firmer substrate using only the weight of the house from above, which is part of how this works. Thanks for sharing your experience!!!

[MerchantNation]

Where do you live that has so much foundation issues that your HD stocks piers 😮

[cousinos]

Good quality video here folks! Although I think you might have to instool a new window in the master bath

[lakid]

Wow, that was cool
I have a fixer upper and noticed cracks, now I know why
Thanks

[StLbfdup]

Have some foundation issues so I’ve been watching videos on helical piers and straight piers. I’m very handy at many trades. Watching some other professional companies do this i cant help but think this is not rocket science. They are going to charge me an arm and a leg. After watching your video I am pretty sure I can do this on my own. As many as stated, some jobs are left for professionals. In my case meh. Thanks for the video

[zarcero]

Outstanding! Dude, you better keep that wife too!

[iceman]

Note, get a pneumatic jack. Great video, thanks.

[koreycladd]

How did you know which location to jack up?

[LCort]

Your foundation seems to rise/ drop as you're pushing your pilings down. It looks like you only sunk two of them in the video. Did you do more? How did you know when you had gone down far enough? I'm doing this right now and I have 4 pilings in the ground already. My foundation hasn't budged and the pilings just keep going every time I put another one in. The only part I haven't been able to figure out is how many to drop in the ground. Any ideas/ pointers from your experience?

[artifactsantlersoh]

Very nice HARD work. I got to do this also.

[YHVHYeshua]

Great Job. Small hint in case you ever have to do this again... get 20 ton hydraulic jacks from Harbor Freight that can hook up to an air compressor... it will do all the work for you instead of jacking away for hours and hours... I lifted an old cottage up using 10 of those jacks at the same time with 3 air compressors.