Living in Charlotte, NC is a great thing, because there is always something exciting to do and experience. Regardless of where your home is located, a little bit of settling for...

Living in Charlotte, NC is a great thing, because there is always something exciting to do and experience. Regardless of where your home is located, a little bit of settling for a home is not unusual.

The concern is when you begin to notice things such as doors or windows not closing/opening properly, a leaning chimney, cracked tiles, sloping floors, bowed basement walls and large cracks in the outside wall.

If you note any of the instances above, then talking to a concrete slab repair team is important, as they will need to determine what steps need to be taken to repair the structure -as different concerns have different solutions. For instance:

Displaced Load Bearings Walls, Cracked Slab, Bowing Interior Walls, Settling or Cracked Foundations – The most common approach for this is the placement of helical underpinning. This approach can prevent water damage from cracked walls, as well as prevent any further sinking.

Settled/Leaning Chimneys – Typically, this scenario is corrected by installing steel resistance piers. These are designed to support and straighten the chimney, thus minimizing risk of future problems with the foundation.

Bowed Basement Walls – To repair or correct a bowed basement wall, helical tiebacks are the solution. A structural repair team will use these tiebacks to stabilize and strengthen the walls. They are installed from the inside of the wall through a small hole and then used to pull the wall back to its original design.

Cracked Concrete Slabs – There are three primary approaches for this situation: helical slab piers, hydraulic slab lift pier, and soil permeation grouting.

• Helical Slabs – Installed by drilling a hole and placing a bracket and screw into the bedrock thus supporting the concrete above. They are often the most cost effective and allow a concrete slab replacement team to repair the slab rather than replace it.
• Hydraulic Slab Lift Piers – This is fast becoming a preferred method of repair. The hydraulic slab lift pier are end-bearing piers that evenly distributes the weight of the structure without relying on skin friction (the parameter of pile shaft displacement). It causes little to no vibration, requires minimal setup and repair time, uses portable equipment, can be used with slabs 4+ inches thick and installs rock to end bearing stratum.
• Soil Permeation Grouting – This is often used for garage slabs, patios and basement floors. The procedure fills the soil pore spaces with a predetermined injection of cement or chemical based grout that causes soil cohesion. It is ideal for situations where there is fine sand or excess moisture in the area. The approach is time efficient, environmentally friendly, doesn’t disturb the work site and is considered relatively economical.

A Sherrill Structural Repair pro will be able to determine which concrete slab repair approach is best for your needs.

Dealing with a residential concrete slab repair doesn’t have to be frightening and overwhelming. The pros at Sherrill Structural Repair can assess your Charlotte home’s concrete foundation and determine the best way to proceed. Contact us today if you suspect that concrete slab repairs may be in your future.