Hey, this is John Lindquist with KC Pier, and today I’m out in Bucyrus, Kansas, where we’ve got a wall pushback on a home where the yard’s just been pushing up against the poured foundation, just pushing it into the home. So you can see in this big wide open flat area that we’re in, even in an area like this, you still can have issues where the earth is moving, the ground is still moving here. So let’s go check it out with Brian and see what kind of plan he’s got.
Bucyrus, Kansas Foundation Wall Pushback
Brian Dufour:
So today what we’re working on is we’re working on a foundation wall pushback in Bucyrus, Kansas. What we’ve done is we have excavated the sidewall, the wall was in about five inches. The homeowner purchased the home with I-beam braces already on it, knowing that in the future that he was going to have to excavate it and push it out and do what we call the full repair plan.
During that process, the previous beams held up just as they needed to until we got here. He pulled the trigger and let us come out and do the work. What we’re doing is we excavated the wall. We got all the pressure off the wall itself. On this one, there was a bunch of negative drainage to the house and there was also some very large trees in both corners of the sidewall that wasn’t helping the process at all.
So what he wanted to do is he wanted to take care of the main issue first, which was excavating the wall, getting the wall back the plum, and then use the extra dirt that we had and come in and do positive grade around the whole house. Today, what we got done was we excavated the whole wall out. We got it completely cleaned. We dug the hole for the pump. We made sure that it was accessible from inside and outside, so when we put in the exterior drain tile, we can run it underneath the footing into the pump itself.
Waterproofing
Once we got done with that, we put on our Mel-Rol membrane, which is our waterproofing material that we use. We got that on and then we pushed the wall. In this case, we got the wall completely flush. The wall did exactly what we needed to do. The cracks closed up, the wall went back and it actually lifted this side of the house right around a half-inch. So they actually got some recovery upstairs where it looked like there was settlement when it really wasn’t. What we’re working on now is setting the beams, getting the beams broke out and getting them set so that way we can get them adjusted, put in, and then we can start backfilling with gravel.
On this one, we’re going to use three-quarter gravel. We’re going to backfill probably about 18 ton. And then we’ll use the excess soil and put it up against the house and get positive grade away from the house. That way, when the rain hits, everything runs away from the house and you won’t have any further issues on the side wall. With us doing the full repair plan the good thing is is he gets a lifetime transferrable warranty on the side wall. If the wall is to leak or move any further than where it is once we leave, everything is covered and you don’t have any issues.
Scott:
How I heard about KC Pier, I looked around on the internet for different reviews of different foundation companies. Found four picks, KC Pier was the highest rated of all of them. So when Eric showed up for the consult, we walked around the house, he kind of showed me some things on the outside what he was looking for, some cracking, damaged window wells. Then we went into the basement and looked at some more cracking down there. He measured the walls. He went through the whole basement to find out where most of the problem lied and we found that to be worst on the East wall.
We made it to about lunchtime and it was going a lot faster than I thought it was going to. We got to day two and most of the work was done and Brian and Jaime showed up with one more guy. In a matter of half a day, the rest of the job was done.
Very impressed. Mostly because of the communication with Brian. All the way through the process he wanted me to see what was going on, show me the techniques they were using, the materials. He explained everything in depth. I was thoroughly impressed.
I just want to let everyone know that, you know, looks at KC Pier and thinks about using them, I would highly recommend them for Bucyrus foundation repair to anyone I talk to. Overall a great company to work with from start to finish.
John Lindquist:
All right. So end of day two out here in Bucyrus and behind me you can see a completed job. This is a wall pushback with braces that are anchored into the foundation with concrete and a new sump pump in the corner for pumping exterior water away from the foundation to relieve that hydrostatic pressure that had been pushing against this house for a long time.
Contact KC Pier for Bucyrus Foundation Repair
So if you have any issues with your foundation or you think you have issues with your foundation, do not hesitate to give us a call or contact us on our website. We have a nice form that you can fill out there. So, until next time.