Crumbling Foundations
Your foundation is the key to ensuring that your home is a solid structure. Because of this it is important to make sure that your house is not one of the many homes throughout Tolland, Windham, Hartford County and even part of southern Massachusetts affected by the crumbling foundation crisis. Between 1983 and 2015 it has been discovered that homes throughout these areas were built with concrete contaminated by and iron sulfide mineral called Pyrrhotite. What has been found is that due to this mineral being in the concrete when it is exposed to water and oxygen it causes the concrete walls of your home to expand or swell which in turn causes them to start cracking.
Step One
Determining if you have a bad foundation.
To determine whether your homes foundation is affected by Pyrrhotite and the severity to which it is affected you will have to have a core-bore performed or depending on the severity of your home’s foundation would be a visual inspection report from a licensed engineer.
Step Two
Filing a claim with CFSIC
Once you have determined that your home does have a bad foundation and that it needs to be remediated you will have to file a claim with CFSIC to get in line for funding.
Step Three
Reaching out to contractors to receive estimates.
After all your paperwork has been filed with CFSIC and the claim process has been started you will then reach out to a minimum of two approved contractors to receive estimates from. After receiving the estimates, you will then send them in and from there choose which of the contractors you would like to go with.
Step Four
Choosing the contractor you want to use.
Now that you have received the funding you will meet with your contractor to go over exactly what date you would like to start the foundation remediation. This would be a great time to discuss any last questions you may have or bring up any type of renovations or extra’s you may want to add into the job before the process has started.
Step Five
Prepping the home to be lifted off the old foundation.
During this part of the process some things you could expect to be seeing done are disconnecting and removing any of your plumbing, electrical, heating utilities, etc. that must be removed to replace your foundation. We will also be removing the concrete slabs in your garage and basement at this time, as well as making what are called beam pockets to get steel beams under your home in order to lift it.
Step Six
Lifting the house from the original foundation.
After the home is prepared to be lifted from the original foundation there will be approximately two days where we will have the professional lifting company we use come and lift your home off its old foundation using a mix of cribbing, steel beams and a complex hydraulic jack system to ensure your home stays stable and level throughout the whole process.
Step Seven
Removing the old foundation.
Because the home has been from the original foundation, we are now able to start removing the old one. We will remove all the old concrete from under your home including the walls, footings and any piers that were under your basement or garage slabs.
Step Eight
Prepping for the new foundation to be poured.
Since all the old concrete has been removed, we can now begin preparing to pour your new foundation. During this part of the process, we make sure that under your home all the grades have been set appropriately, that everything is flat and level and finally that the ground we will be repouring on is compacted and stable for your new foundation.
Step Nine
Pouring concrete footings and walls.
After the home is prepared to be lifted from the original foundation there will be approximately a short period of time where we will have the professional lifting company we use come and lift your home off its old foundation using a mix of cribbing, steel beams and a complex hydraulic jack system ensuring your home stays stable and level throughout the whole process.
Step Ten
Setting the house back down onto the new foundation. We will start by backfilling up to the beam pockets that are in the new foundation walls. Then, just like in step six we will now have our professional lifting company that we use come back to the job. However, this time instead of raising the house off the foundation they will be lowering it back down onto the new one.
Step Eleven
Pouring basement/garage slabs and reconnecting utilities.
With the house set back down on the new foundation we will now pour a new slab in your basement and garage. After letting them harden for a day or two we will then get to work on reconnecting all the utilities we removed at the start of the process and installing any that you chose to upgrade at this time.