Historic home in Georgetown Delaware with sagging floors
Challenge
Many times a floor will only sag or dip in one spot, this floor was different. The homeowner told the DryZone inspector all about the living room and how the entire floor felt like a trampoline. Once the inspector took a look in the crawlspace it became clear why. He saw that most of the piers that were meant to hold the floor up weren't even upright. It seemed they had fallen completely over at some point on the home's history. This was most likely due to the ground under the piers getting loose and then allowing the piers to sink a bit. Once they sank enough to clear the wooden supports, they fell over. Basically, the only thing holding up the long wooden girder was the exterior wall. Luckily for these nice folks, DryZone has the perfect solution.
Solution
A system of SmartJack crawlspace supports were installed to replace the old concrete piers. The jacks were properly spaced and aligned to the home's dimensions. Some of the existing wood was salvaged, and what couldn't be saved was replaced. Each SmartJack can hold up to 60,000 pounds of vertical load. This is well over the traditional concrete piers and paints a really nice picture of the integrity of the entire system. Each jack gets in own footing, as well. DryZone has found that the biggest reason concrete piers fail is because they are only sitting on the dirt or sand under the home. They sink too easily and lose the structural value as a result. Once this project was completed, the homeowners were simply thrilled.
Project Summary
SmartJack: crawlspace support system
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