Foundation Repair Company Serving Fresno, CA

How old is your home? It doesn't take long for any home to develop foundation problems. With the soil that we have here in California, with the help of earthquakes, many homes are in need of help. Consider a foundation inspection like a cancer screening for your home. 

In the case of this home, the inspection that was done by Mike Almond, one of our amazing Structural Consultants, revealed that there was some major foundation distress. The foundation of the home was created using bricks. In the years since it was built, the bricks have started to separate from each other in a few areas. Within the crawl space of the home, the wooden support posts were also supported by bricks that were beginning to fail like the foundation. Nature and time are the culprits; Poorly compacted soil, wet weather, dry weather, earthquakes, are all possible causes for this distress. 

Now with an understanding of both why their foundation was failing and what their possible solutions are, the homeowner has a clear picture of what the future of their forever home looks like. 

Mr. and Mrs. R from Fresno needed help figuring out why their kitchen and laundry room floors were sinking. They found us through an internet search, picked up the phone, called, and scheduled a free inspection. 

Our Structural Consultant, Mike Almond, visited them on a cold Friday morning. They talked for a bit before leading Mike down the stairs into the Basement/Crawl Space. Mike observed that the sections of the underfloor directly beneath the kitchen and laundry room were not properly supported; some of the wooden posts were standing on brick footings that were separating, and some of the wooden beams were bowing. 

Built in 1930, this home has been around long enough for nature to take it's toll. Wooden posts are fine for supporting the floor at the birth of any home, but that isn't the case as any home gets older. Wooden Posts are static, meaning that they can't adjust to the shifty nature of the soil below it. Mike discussed with Mr. and Mrs. R the benefits of a product that can adjust to the shifty nature of soil: The SmartJack Adjustable Steel Post System. He drew up a plan that included a free quote for the proposed work and Mr. and Mrs. R liked what they saw, so they signed with us. Soon, we'll be applying for the permit to do the work and soon, Mr. and Mrs. R can rest assured that their home will be in better shape. 

Mr. R had a feeling that the support posts beneath his home were inadequate. Something just seemed off to him every time he walked through his living room. He found us through an internet search and requested that we send someone to his home to perform an inspection. 

We sent our fantastic Structural Consultant, Jesse Marquez, out to investigate. Since 1952, the year that this home was built, the Earth has had plenty of time to move the soil below it. Jesse determined that the cause of the floor issues was directly tied to the fact that some of the support posts had sunken down; and with wooden support posts, once it sinks, there are only a few options for fixing it: 1) You could add wooden shims to the post, stacking them up like Jenga pieces until the floor is level, 2) You could hire someone to replace the wooden post with another wooden post that is taller to make up for the loss in height, 3) Or, like Mr. R, you could hire an experienced contractor like us to install a product that can adjust to the shifty nature of soil. 

Mr. H wanted to secure the health of his home's foundation because he intended to spend the rest of his life there with his wife and their surprisingly large amount of cats. I've included a photo of their Kitty Jungle Gym for reference (those lucky cats). 

Our Structural Consultant, Chris Hardy, visited their home to check the elevations of their floors including the garage slab and to pet a bunch of kittens. He discovered that the home was generally in good shape, but a portion of the garage was lower than the rest of the home by about 3 inches, an indication of settlement/sinking. 

Mr. H was worried that the news of their garage would continually worry his wife so he decided to follow through and hire us to install push piers to lift and stabilize his foundation. We installed 5 push piers in total. After the foundation was lifted, we injected PolyLEVEL Polyurethane to fill the void that was formed beneath the garage slab.

Mr. and Mrs. M were worried that their uneven living room floor would continue to get worse if they didn't act soon. They called us to come to their home to perform an inspection. Our Structural Consultant, Jesse Marquez met them on a Wednesday. He descended into the crawlspace and made his way to the area in question. He noticed that the wooden support posts were still attached to the rest of the floor system, so the problem wasn't apparent, but he had a feeling that the soil in those areas had sunken down a bit, bringing the floor along with it. 

Jesse went back to the living room and performed a zip level reading to determine the elevation differences using the front door as the basepoint. Jesse discovered that the living room was more than an inch lower than the rest of the home, so his assumption that the soil was the cause of the uneven floor was correct. 

Jesse's solution for the problem was to install 6 new SmartJack Adjustable Steel Posts in pairs of two that would be connected by 10 ft. long steel square beams to bring the floor back to level, which our crew was able to provide shortly after Mr. and Mrs. M chose us to do the work for them. Now Mr. and Mrs. M can watch their favorite Romantic Comedies together without the worry of their floor ruining the movie for them. 

The reason we were called to do this job was because the homeowner wanted to install new floors, but he didn't want to do that until the structural issues were taken care of. The floor was sagging in a few areas so he wanted us to find a solution to bring the floors closer to level than they were then. 

As you can see from the first few photos, it appeared that whoever had been responsible for the house before was building support posts underneath the house like they were playing with Lincoln Logs as a kid. Even some of the floor area was largely unsupported, which was going to inevitably lead to this situation at some point. 

Our solution was to install our SmartJack Adjustable Steel Post System with cast-in-place footings and a steel I-beam to lift and stabilize the floor system so the homeowner could move forward with replacing the whole floor without any worries about the new floors getting damaged due to a structural issue. 

Mr. Stewart loves his pool and he loves his kids, but, more importantly, he loves when his kids are smiling and having fun. That is why it became such a concern that a portion of his pool deck had broken off the main slab and had begun to sink down and create a tripping hazard. Because summer was coming within the next two months, he became increasingly distraught at the thought of his children and their friends playing in the pool, only to trip, fall, and scrape their knee, or worse, break a bone.

Thankfully for Mr. Stewart, Jim Palamedas was able to evaluate the issue and find the best solution for him. When Jim arrived at Stewart's home, he took his time to properly document and assess the problem area, and used the opportunity to carefully explain to Mr. Stewart of how the solution will work.

When David "DJ" Serpa arrived at the home two weeks later, he agreed with Jim's assessment that the Poly Level system would be the perfect solution to lift the sinking slab. The only problem with this was that only one side of the slab had sunk, thus creating this tilted slop that made two separate tripping hazards.

DJ knew how tricky it was to only get one side of a slab to lift, thankfully he has the experience, skill, and knowledge to fix this specific problem. DJ used a Slab Jack to give the slab a tilt and slowly injected back and forth around the slab to make sure that the foam was spreading evenly. After what felt like forever, DJ measured the area to find that he lifted and leveled the slab perfectly.

Mr. Stewart appreciated the work done by Foundation Repair of CA. Jim was timely and thorough and DJ was an expertly careful craftsman, and thanks to the two of them, Stewart's children can play in the pool with no worries of scraped knees.

Mrs. McElroy has always wanted to buy a brand new car. After years of driving an old and dilapidated two-door car, she was finally ready to upgrade to a nice SUV with plenty of room for her grandchildren. The only problem is that her driveway has been falling apart for the past five years, and has actually been the cause of some tire issues on her old car. Therefore, she found it prudent to fix her driveway before making the investment for a new car, and that is why she called Foundation Repair of CA.

Thanks to our reputation for quality work, we were called out to solve the issue. Foreman David "DJ" Syrup and his crew arrived and began to assess the problem area. Seeing how badly the slab had cracked, he knew that it was going to be a challenge to raise the problem area to be evenly level with the rest of the concrete.

To better assist with the lift, DJ injected the polyurethane underneath the problem area but did not immediately lift. After the foam had hardened to the underside of the slab, DJ then used a tool to lift the section as a whole. Now that there's hardened foam underneath all of the cracked section, the entirety of the problem area was lifted as one piece. DJ then drilled through the concrete and the foam to fill in the newly created void between the ground and the foam. 

After that was completed, DJ and his crew then opened all the cracks and proceeded to install the Nexus Pro crack sealant to not only smooth out the divots made by the cracks but also make the driveway look nicer as a whole. Now that all of the slabs are leveled out and the cracks sealed up, the problem with the driveway is fixed and the slab is protected from any future damage.

Now that Mrs. McElroy has a functional and good looking driveway, she can now finally get her dream car!

Mr. and Mrs. Underwood love to throw summer pool parties. They both grew up around water and absolutely adore swimming, and being as popular as they are, they know how to throw the best parties. One of their parties went a little too far though when Mr. Underwood's cousin tripped and fell into the pool due to a tripping hazard made from a slab of concrete sinking into the earth. The slab had sunk by two inches due to pool water seeping through the joints between the slabs. 

Thankfully, when Jim Palamides saw this, he knew exactly how to fix the problem. Having seen this issue many times before, Jim used his experience to suggest the Poly Leveling installation. This process works by drilling holes into the concrete, injecting a polyurethane fluid in through the hole, and the polyurethane will begin to foam underneath the slab and thus raise the slab to its original position. Jim, having the experience and foresight, also suggested that the crew inject all around the pool as well to fill any voids that have been created, and thus add extra support to stabilize and prevent future damages.

When Foreman David "DJ" Syrup arrived at the Underwood residence, he was both cautious and confident. Seeing that the slab was not cracking and had simply fallen straight down, he knew that this slab can come up beautifully, however, due to the amount that it has fallen, he knew that he needed to be conscientious about how fast he injects. And just like the turtle versus the hare, DJ was able to slowly and surely lift this slab perfectly to match the surrounding areas. Once the sunken section had lifted up, DJ then drilled holes into the surrounding area. After drilling the first hole, however, DJ discovered that there was a significant void under the concrete and that it was good that they were injecting to stabilize and protect from future sinking.

Once all of the injection was completed, DJ and the crew cleaned everything to be spotless and talked to the Underwoods. DJ was polite, and informative in his communication with them, and informed them that the most likely reason for the void and sinking was the sprinkler system that was installed around the pool. Now the Underwood parties can continue, and anyone in the pool is jumping in by choice.