They owe my plumbing company over $14,000 and refuse to pay. They use delay and avoidance tactics and lie to your face. They are very arrogant and from what I understand, are in major debt and are teetering on bancrupcy. I would not put much faith or validity in any warranties or guarantees they claim to back. They now use only plumbing companies that test for free in hopes of getting the job for any repairs of leaking systems. How many plumbing tests do you think the plumbers will report as failed, since getting the repairs is the only way they make any money? Can you say,conflict of interest? Very corruptand dishonest business with no moral integrity or ethics what so ever. DO NOT trust Perma-Pier Foundation Repair Company. You ll be sorry if you do!!!

Gary

So if we want the repair amounts (or a portion of them) deducted from the list, is that fair? Or will they claim it has already been deducted? I suppose finding out when it was actually appraised would be helpful. If it was appraised at 215,000 before the foundation report was made, I may have room to negotiate to bring the asking price down to at least $170 and cover the other $8k myself.

Does this sound about right?

The builder is giving you bad advice in efforts to sell the house. Gutters are preferable. Think about this: right now our soils are bone dry when the rain comes all of a sudden the roof line will dump water right at your foundation and that is not a good thing because the foundation will become over saturated very fast. You can always have them installed yourself after you move in. The cost is very reasonable. We paid approx $1300 in 2010 to have our house done (DFW area). Our house is about 2000 sqft. Good luck!

Having said that, I don’t think it is ever too late for soaker hoses, and many foundation repair companies recommend using them as on-going maintenance of your foundation. Look at the comment Tim Dupree left on this post about how to set up and use them. Just scroll up to find it.

So I would get soaker hoses going around your house again and see if you can reverse the settling you describe. But remember I’m just a homeowner and a writer and NOT in the foundation repair business. The person you should listen to is the engineer.
Best Regards,
Digger

Our big question: Is it too late for soaker hoses to solve the problem?

We’ve also had a structural engineer visit our house and provide a report. In a few days a plumber will be here to inspect our water and sewer lines. Assuming that we don’t have a leak, is there any way that installing soaker hoses and consistently watering the foundation and nearby plants/trees will solve our problem. Or is the damage already too far gone, and are piers (or a comparable repair) our only option?

I have significant pulling away of soil on the NW and NE corners of my house. I happen to have crepe myrtles within three feet of each corner of my house. Could that be the cause. Should i just cut them way back or take them out?
Thank you

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Resistance piers are basically steel tubes that are driven into the ground by pressure, which is accomplished by bracing them onto the structure – so obviously the structure needs to be heavy, like a two story brick veneer building. The advantage with them is they are easier to use to lift the structure back into place.

I’m not against using pressure grouting, but it’s applications are more limited.

George

First, I’m in Arizona, where the soils are hard. you would never get a large concrete cylinder in the ground, so it may be rather moot for here.

Second, I am not sure the cable helps with concrete cylinders that could crush durning installation. the cable would only help keeping the system together in tension and provide little help in compresion.

Although the cylinders have greater friction as you mentioned, the goal may not be more skin friction. Sometimes more skin friction results in more risk of downward drag, a term used whent the soil surrounding a pile grabs it and pulls it down. The better strategy might be to rely on end bearing, something smaller diameter steel piles could provide more efficiently.

Concrete cylinders may present a more favorable cost solution and in some cases do the job just fine.

-attach a Y connector to your outside water faucet

-attach a regular water hose to one end and a battery or electrical operated timer to other end of Y connector.

-attach a pressure regulator below the timer that will reduce water pressure from the faucet down to 10-20 p.s.i.

-attach a 2nd Y connector after the pressure regulator and attach soaker hoses to each Y

Lay or bury just below the surface the soaker hose 1-2 feet distance from the foundation and flatwork all around home.

Program the timer to water your foundation as follow:

-(Fall & Winter) 15 minutes every 12 hours

-(spring) 15 minutes every 8 hours

-(summer) 15 minutes every 4-6 hours

When watering your foundation monitor the moisture in the soil by sticking a plumbers probe or long screw driver in the soil about 1 foot deep on all sides of the home. The resistance should be consistant. When you pull the probe out the dirt should stick to it but not look like chocolate pudding. If it looks like chocolate pudding reduce watering if it doesn’t go in the ground easily and dirt isn’t sticking to it increase watering. The reason you water less in the fall and winter is because it takes longer for the claysoils to un seal enough to take in more water. Clay soils seal up after about 15 minutes and the will not absorb any more water. The secret to watering your foundation is slow low and often

Bob

But i have a question totaly off this subject: Do you use a seperate blogposting program or do you make your blogposts in the wordpress admin? If you post your answer here below,then i will read this in the next few day’s.

Thanks Opstalverzekering

I have a very old Male Spanish lime tree that has caused my hse to move and the preious owners had already raised the interior floor by 2 inches and the front porch is colapsing. I have to approach the tree commission in my city (FL) and they will want me to save the tree at the expense of my hse. I want to remodle but live in a historic property and the tree need to come down. Do you know what my rights are and is there any case law to assist me with my argument with the tree comission.

Thank you

Get a price from 2 or 3 of them and also ask if they have any financial ties to any foundation repair company. Don’t use them if they do.

Armed with an inspection report not done by a pier salesman, but rather an unbiased professional third party, (the engineer) you would be in a better position to negotiate with the seller for a reduced price if indeed the home needs foundation repair. If it does, get at least three other bids.

There is what seems to be a high spot (you refer to “a dome” in one article) in the center of the house (which just happens to be the point the foundation fellow set as his reference), but we can’t really tell if it is in the slab or just bunched up carpet padding. Unfortunately, we can’t pull the carpet until/unless we own the place, but are a little leery of purchase if we will have $$$$ worth of repairs we haven’t budgeted.

We (and the home in question) are located in Central Texas, so we do understand the soil shift of this locale.

Does this sound like something we should investigate further (ie, hiring a structural engineer) or is it just a simple case of settling?

It takes more time to get more estimates but you’ll be better informed before you decide.