Simple Facts About Foundation Repair

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Foundations are the lowest layer of a structure, providing support and stability to it. Primarily, the weight of a structure, say a house or building, together with other forces like wind and vibrations are deflected and transferred into such foundations. Damage to these require immediate foundation repair in Dallas.

Such very important elements of structures have two types, shallow and deep foundations. Shallow foundations, or footings, are used for houses or structures which are not relatively heavy. Footings consist of thick strips of metal or concrete that extends several meters below a house and carry the forces that affect the columns and the walls of the structure.

Deep foundations on the other hand are used for building applications, or structures that are relatively heavy. Such building components are used to channel the forces affecting the building from the top soft soil to the lower bedrock or much harder soil. Such building elements can be made up of either stabilized columns, drilled shafts, driven piles, caissons, helical piles, or just simply earth.

Foundations are designed by structural engineers, with the help of geotechnical engineers when it comes to knowing the capacity of the soil to bear stresses. Main considerations in such designs include the settling rate and the bearing capacity of both the soil and the foundation itself.

Due to the importance of these structures, it is paramount that foundations be secured from damage and also be repaired in case of damage detection. Symptoms of such problems include cracked walls, difficulty in opening and closing doors and windows and bulging floors. If these signs show up and you live in Dallas, it is important to foundation repair in Dallas to take care of the problem right away.

In practice, two methods exist to repair foundations. These methods are called slabjacking and piercing. Slabjacking pertains to the pumping of grout under a slab or beam to lift the structure to its original elevation. On the other hand, piercing involves the driving of steel posts into the soil wherein such posts serve as new or additional supports for the structure.