How’s it going? Everybody is Lucas Scheele with KC Pier and Kansas City Property Guys and currently I’m standing outside of the KC Pier office and we’re getting ready to go out to Gardner, Kansas and touch base with the project manager, Brian Dufour on a foundation repair project that we’re working with out there, so I’ll hit you guys up when I’m out there and we’ll touch base with Brian.
Lucas Scheele:
How’s it going Brian?
Brian Dufour:
So far so good.
Lucas Scheele:
Awesome. Where do we have today?
Gardner, Kansas Foundation Repair Job
Brian Dufour:
Today we are in the middle of Gardner, Kansas out in the country for a huge foundation repair job. What we are doing today is we are doing a wall push back on two exterior walls. Right now we’re in the middle of excavating the front wall. This is day one of the project. We would be a little bit further, but we had to be a little tedious around the levers and the kickout to make sure that we didn’t do any damage to the structure. We are digging all the way at this wall and then we’re going to dig the sidewall out as well, that should be done by the end of today.
Brian Dufour:
We are still in Gardner in the basement and what we’re looking at, we are looking at Earth Anchors that were installed on the walls. The reason why we are excavating is because the Earth Anchors have failed, either because they were installed incorrectly or they just wasn’t tightened over the years with the bolts. This is one of the reasons why we started doing the wall push back. Once we get that in place, it’s a maintenance free process so once the beams are installed you don’t have to touch them anymore and you don’t have to worry about spending money twice on the same repair.
Brian Dufour:
Now, we’re at the rear of the home on the back wall. What we’re doing here is we’re doing interior drain and wall sheeting. What we’re doing is we’re going to take the C channel off and we’re going to put four I-Beam braces on this wall. This wall has moved in, but he has a brand new sunroom on the back of this house and he does not want to take it off, so what we’re going to do is instead of three we’re going to tighten it up with four braces to help support it a lot better, and then we’re going to put wall sheeting on the wall so if any water comes in, it’s going to hit the back of that wall sheeting and run down into the drain system that you see is already full of water, just because of the hydrostatic pressure that we have in the Midwest.
Lucas Scheele:
How’s it going today, Brian?
Brian Dufour:
So far so good.
Lucas Scheele:
Awesome. Where are we at?
Day 2
Brian Dufour:
Today, we’re still in Gardner, Kansas working on this foundation repair. We are on day two of the project. As you can see now the trench is filled with gravel. This morning we went in and we pushed the wall back to plumb the sidewall and the front wall and now we’re starting the backfield process. Right now we have about 20 ton of gravel in the side and then we’re slowly working our way around the front. We’re going to add another 20, 25 tons. Once we get to that point, we’ll start backfilling it and get a positive slope. We should be done with everything today outside, other than the small cleanup.
Brian Dufour:
Now we’re down in the basement and what you see is what we discussed outside. These are the I-Beam braces that are secure Now that the wall is flush, what you’ll also see is you’ll see holes where the Earth Anchors used to be. We took those out, we cut them, we sealed them from outside and then we’re going to seal them from inside to give it a flush look and then we’re going to clean up the cracks so it looks a lot better down in the basement.
Lucas Scheele:
How’s it going Brian?
Brian Dufour:
So far so good.
Lucas Scheele:
Where are we at today?
Day 3
Brian Dufour:
Today we are still in Gardner, Kansas for this huge foundation repair. We are on day three of the four day project. What we have now is, this is a back wall that was in the video previously. We have wall sheeting down the entire wall covering the wall that couldn’t be excavated because of the new add on they put in the back. What we did was we got all this in, we got it set, we got it all set into four inch drain tile, filled with gravel, ran over to our three quarter horse pump. It’s not plugged in yet because we still have to do concrete and make sure it’s flushed before we plug it in, and then this project to be wrapped up down here.
Brian Dufour:
Right now we moved upstairs to the garage area. One more thing we’re doing on the job is we’re installing the DynaPure System around the garage. The garage is dropped about two inches in the corner, so we’re going to recover as much as it will allow us and get it stabilized so it don’t settle any further and cause any further structure damage to the house.
Lucas Scheele:
How’s it going today, Brian?
Brian Dufour:
So far so good.
Lucas Scheele:
Awesome. Where are we at?
Day 4
Brian Dufour:
We are in Gardner, Kansas, day four of the foundation repair. What you’re seeing now is the cleanup and the finish. What we have is we have the I-Beam braces that are in and fully secured and concreted. You have the holes that were on day one where the anchors were going through. We cut those, removed them and packed all of those so they’re no longer being used. Everything is secure With the maintenance free I-Beam braces, we have five on the front wall and four on the side. We got everything concreted in and secured and tightened up. Over on the back wall we have our pump installed, we have the concrete in and then we have the C channel back on the wall and secured. We got the wall shield down the entire back of the wall. We got it clean, we got the concrete in and we got it around the corner to wrap up the basement and make sure everything’s taken care of.
Brian Dufour:
Now we moved outside. What you see here is the finished product of everything back-filled and cleaned up. We had the AC put back level, it’s working properly and it comes all the way over to the front. We got it all cleaned up and backfilled, homeowner’s extremely happy with what it looks like right now. We also have the downspout discharge and the subpump that runs down to a leaf guard approximately 40 feet away from the house running down positive slope so all that water is going to get away from the house and it’s going to be dry in the basement and taken care of.
Brian Dufour:
And now we’re over at the garage area where the foundation piering was done. Right now we are cleaning up the area, we’re getting it taken care of and then we’re re-concrete in it, getting it all cleaned up and taken care of for the homeowner.
Speaker 4:
We were impressed with KC Pier by when they came, each of the workers seem to know their own job and they just got right to it. There was no waiting around or thing. They all knew what they were doing it seemed like and we were very hardworking and just did a great job. Cleaned up very well, I was really impressed with that.
Speaker 6:
And I was impressed with just me having explanation about what is being done and Brian walked me through everything that they were going to do, showed me all the different things and then didn’t have any problem with me watching every once in awhile.
Speaker 4:
Yeah.
Speaker 6:
I appreciated understanding a little bit more on what they were doing. I feel I understand what they did and they did a good job. Good material. As my wife said, hardworking.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, very impressed.
Speaker 6:
Very respectful to the property. I was-
Speaker 4:
Yes.
Speaker 6:
… pleased with how they treated-
Speaker 4:
Yep, very-
Speaker 6:
… everything here.
Speaker 4:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Speaker 6:
And did a good job. We’re looking forward to having no more water problems, that’s for sure.
Speaker 4:
Yes. And-
Speaker 6:
I think the way it was explained, I don’t think we will either.
Speaker 4:
No, And I think KC Pier did an excellent job and we should never have to have them back again.
Lucas Scheele:
Thank you guys.
Speaker 4:
Yeah.