This House Owns Us

It began with a small crack that ran along the base of the garage floor slab and the outside wall.  Then we noticed a hole where the slab met the entryway.  When hubby removed the brick pavers he noticed the cement apron was cracked.  Then we stuck a re-bar in the hole and found it went into an empty space that was a least one foot by one foot!

Time to call in the foundation companies of which we could only find two that would drive to our area.  They were concerned and were talking helical piers and thousands of dollars.  Time to call in the engineer at $300 a visit.  He seemed to feel the basement companies were on over kill mode and recommended removing it all and seeing what we found and probably needing to only put in a footing.  This garage sits next to a retaining wall and a slope which makes us nervous.

We paid for a repair plan and called in the big dogs.  They had to take a cement hammer to remove the apron and then began removing the filler sand.  We sit on a clay peninsula which meant sand was the best permeable fill to keep moisture and water away from the house.  And thus they began to remove the sand to see how big a hole was beneath the slab!

They dug a three foot deep and 1.5 foot wide trench that followed the front of the garage.  We were releaved to find the hole was only a small area where sand must have compressed.  There was no water leakage or erosion.  Thus they recommended a cement footer along the outside lip of the slab.

In a few days the pavers can be reinstalled and it looks as though we passed the danger zone.  Still waiting for a letter from the repair people as our house insurance has hinted we may have difficulty getting our insurance renewed in August if we do not have proof of responsible repair.  They do not pay for the repair, of course, because earth shift is not included in our policy!

This whole process has taken months to line up inspections and workers and cement trucks and then took only a day to do.  It still is going to cost thousands but not the tens of thousands that they had predicted.  We could have had some local workers do the repair at much less expense but it would have been a difficult hurdle to get the insurance company to accept that process.

This house has required a number of small repairs since it was built ten years ago and we are always looking for wall and foundation cracks and/or shifting, but it has stood the test of time thus far and we have no complaints with the builder, although he has long ago closed his company.  Now how about a photo of the front yard in all its spring glory while tucked against the surrounding woods so that we end on a happier note?