Stabilizing a Family Home in Gladwin, MI

Challenge

Debra called when multiple walls in her basement started cracking and failing. The house was special to her, as her dad had built it upon returning from war in 1945 and she wanted to keep it in her family, but with a limited budget, she didn’t know how to stop it from literally falling down around her. That’s when she called us.

One of our system design specialists, Justin, visited Debra’s home and saw that she hadn’t been exaggerating - multiple walls were failing, and taking the rest of the house with them.

Solution

To stabilize Debra’s home and keep it safe and comfortable for years to come, there were three main problem areas we had to address. First, the crumbling sections of the wall needed to be restored. Then, the cracked and bowing walls needed to be reinforced. Finally, the floors that had begun to sink when the walls bowed needed to be lifted and permanently stabilized.

Not too long ago, the only choice for repairing deteriorating walls involved lifting the house to tear out and build an entirely new foundation. If that sounds risky, it’s because it is. It’s also very expensive, you have to move out while it’s in progress, and there’s no guarantee that it won’t damage your home. But at Ayers we use a product called Shotcrete to build new walls atop the deteriorating ones. The result is brand new, strong and stable walls without the danger of lifting the house or the inconvenience of moving out or the project taking a long time. It only takes a few days to spray the new walls in place and let them cure.

The bowing and cracked walls didn’t need to be completely replaced, but they did need extensive reinforcement. We used PowerBraces to stabilize the walls and hopefully straighten them over time. PowerBraces are steel beams that anchor in the cement floor and are attached to the ceiling joists to ensure floor to ceiling stabilization. The brackets can then be adjusted over time to hopefully straighten the wall back toward its original position.

With the walls stabilized and secure, we then addressed the floor of the home, which had started to sink as the foundation walls failed. We used a combination of new steel joists and SmartJack support posts to reinforce and raise the floor back to its normal height. The steel beams are installed among the original joists and then the steel SmartJacks are secured in the concrete floor and attached to the beams to lift the floor. With these new beams and supports, the floor is less reliant on the support of the walls and will stay in the proper position.

While the project ended up being above Debra’s limited budget, we were able to help her secure financing that worked for her life and financial needs so that she could repair her beloved home and stop worrying about her safety and the future of the house.