DryZone, LLC Before & After Photos

This home was built somewhere in the 1930's. There weren't a lot of strict regulations on home building back then like there are today. At some point in the home's history, a homeowner tried to add supports to the sagging floors. The type of jacks that were used are only meant for temporary, light duty usage. When standing in the home, there is a noticeable dip in the floor towards the center of the house. DryZone was able to use the SmartJack support system to drastically improve the supporting structure. The SmartJack system is usually a crawlspace product. In this case, we were able to order longer poles for the jacks to accommodate the basement height. You can see the difference in size, certainly, but its the clean threads on the screws that make this system truly superior. The zinc plating on a SmartJack means that it will resist corrosion and can easily be adjusted if the need should arise.

A concrete slab is very thick and heavy. When the ground beneath it gets washed away or settles, there are large voids left behind. Most slabs are poured directly on the dirt, so nothing else is supporting them. When the dirt is gone, the slab cracks. A slab pier system is designed to support the slab on heavy soils found far below the surface. When the DryZone crew starts to try and lift, many of the cracks will close up a little.

The wood under this home was so bad that it was amazing someone hadn't fallen through the floor. Almost every single floor joist and girder was rotted or eaten by termites, completely gone in some cases. DryZone was hired to remove the old wood and replace it with fresh pieces. This process took almost two full weeks, as you can imagine it is not an easy task. The end result was a sturdy support system of new and dry wood. The homeowner expressed and interest in CleanSpace encapsulation as well, to prevent history from repeating.

Most people would look at these pictures and think it was rust or clay coming out of the pipe. I know that's what I thought when I first encountered this problem many years ago. What you are looking at is actually a kind of bacteria in the ground water. It is called iron ochre and gets mistaken for clay all the time. The reason is that it will build up and clog pipes. When this happens the pipes look like they are filled with clay. This homeowner first called because of a leaky basement. He thought that his old waterproofing system was clogged with clay. The first thing that needed to happen was to get a smooth pipe into the sump. The old pipe has ridges and they act like building blocks for the bacteria to build on, this is what clogged the pipes in the first place. A smooth pipe is less likely to clog, and much easier to clean out.

Whether your crawlspace floor is dirt or concrete, the Hydrolink drainage pipe system that DryZone uses is perfect for fixing a ground water problem. The only way to truly guarantee a waterproofed crawlspace is with the appropriate amount of drainage pipes and sump pumps. A sump pump is great to have in a crawlspace, but how will water from other parts of the crawlspace reach the pump without some sort of piping system? A great and easy way to relate to this concept is by thinking of the sump pump as a city, you could get to the city without roads but it would be a long and rough trip. If you add smooth roads, Hydrolink drainage pipes, then the trip is faster and much easier. One great advantage that Hydrolink has over other pipe systems is that it is made up of smooth pipes rather than ridges like those of a black corrugated pipe. Those ridges trap dirt and debris very easily and can clog incredibly quickly. Hydrolink is far less likely to clog and even has inspection ports built into the system. These ports allow you to see if the system clogs and flush it out with a hose if needed.