Foundation Repair Photo Album: Stabilizing a Garage in Gaylord, MI

Our customer called when he discovered that the garage for his new cottage - which was right at the water's edge - was sinking. He suspected the water was washing out the sand and causing the slab foundation to settle. He was right, and luckily he called us early enough that we could fix the problem rather than haul away the collapsed blocks. We used slab piers to stabilize the slab foundation. For the walls and ceiling, we installed a combination of wall anchors, SmartJack support posts, and reinforcing galvanized steel beams.

Visible Gap in Wall Shows Bowing

The gap between the wall and the beams proves that there's a severe bow in the wall.

Multiple Cracks in Bowing Wall

Block walls are especially dangerous when bowed, because after a certain point the blocks can just pop out, leaving the wall unstable.

Cracked Block Wall

This is the quintessential "stair step crack" that we warn to watch for. While poured walls will crack horizontally or vertically, bowing causes block walls to crack in this formation.

Close Up of Stair Step Crack in Block Wall

On another wall, the stair step cracks are just as prevalent, and the gapping between the wall and wooden beams is visible here, indicating bowing.

Multiple Cracks in Block Wall

Sometimes there are just cracks everywhere, in every direction, which is the case here.

Cracked Floor in Sinking Slab Foundation

As water washed away the sand where this slab foundation was poured, the slab settled and cracked.

Crack Chaos on Block Wall

The severity and multitude of the cracks in this bowing wall made it vital that we stabilized the garage as quickly as possible.

SmartJacks Reinforce Garage Roof

We usually see SmartJacks in crawl spaces, but they do come in the XL variety and can be used to stabilize support beams in larger spaces.

Securing SmartJacks in the Concrete

We remove a small section of the floor in order to secure the base of the SmartJack.

Wall Anchor Secured in Ground

The cable attached to the wall anchor is secured in the ground far away from the unstable point. This allows us to tighten the anchor as time goes by and straighten the wall.

Unstable Garage in Gaylord

We weren't kidding when we said this garage was right on the edge of the water.

Wall Anchor Installation in Progress

Those metal rods you see sticking out are the ends of the cables, which are secured outside. Anchor plates will be installed here and the ends of the cables cut off.