Foun­da­tion Repairs: Hydraulic Push Piers vs. Pressed Con­crete Pilings

Jan 31, 2013 • By Matthew Stock with Barry Schilling.

When your home suf­fers struc­tur­al foun­da­tion dam­age, it’s pret­ty seri­ous busi­ness. It’s not a repair you can put off because the dam­age to your foun­da­tion – and the rest of your home – can only get worse. It’s also not a repair you will want to trust to just any con­trac­tor, or any repair method, until you’ve done thor­ough research on what’s best for your home and family.

When your foun­da­tion has dropped and your home requires under­pin­ning to regain and main­tain sta­bil­i­ty, it’s worth con­sid­er­ing all rea­son­able meth­ods but some are just bet­ter than oth­ers, which has been proven over time. A fair com­par­i­son will give you the best information.

Why Hydraulic Push Piers Are Bet­ter than Pressed Con­crete Pil­ings to Re-sta­bi­lize a Dropped Foundation

One thing that will tell you a lot about a struc­tur­al foun­da­tion repair method is the way in which it is installed.

Hydraulic Push Piers – Hydraulic push piers are con­struct­ed of heavy-duty steel pip­ing. The installer begins the process by dig­ging a small hole next to the foun­da­tion and cut­ting a notch in the spread foot­ing below. He then installs a lift brack­et in the notch, mounts a hydraulic dri­ve on it and then uses the hydraulics to dri­ve the steel pier into the ground by sec­tions until it reach­es a load-bear­ing stra­tum. After the des­ig­nat­ed num­ber of piers has been installed, a hydraulic pump rais­es the house back to lev­el and the installer per­ma­nent­ly attach­es the lift brack­ets to the piers. The holes are refilled, leav­ing the repairs invisible.

Pressed Con­crete Pil­ings – Pressed con­crete pil­ings are pre-cast cylin­ders of con­crete, approx­i­mate­ly one foot long and six inch­es in diam­e­ter. The installer begins by dig­ging a two-foot hole next to the foun­da­tion and uses a hydraulic ram to dri­ve the cylin­ders, one on top of the oth­er into the soil until sig­nif­i­cant resis­tance is felt. A con­crete cap is then added. Bot­tle jacks are used to lift the house as close as pos­si­ble to its orig­i­nal posi­tion, addi­tion­al cylin­ders and met­al shims fill the space between the piling’s cap and the foun­da­tion and the house is low­ered onto the pil­ings. The holes are then backfilled.

There are a num­ber of rea­sons why hydraulic push piers are bet­ter than pressed con­crete pil­ings for rais­ing and sta­bi­liz­ing a dropped foundation:

Advan­tages of Steel Push Piers

• Hydraulic piers extend all the way to the load-bear­ing stratum
• Hydraulic piers have unlim­it­ed lift­ing capacity
• No fur­ther drop­ping or set­tle­ment will occur; foun­da­tion is com­plete­ly stabilized
• Instal­la­tion requires no heavy equipment
• Depend­ing on num­ber of piers need­ed, instal­la­tion is done quickly

Dis­ad­van­tages of Pressed Con­crete Pilings

• Instal­la­tion depth lim­it­ed to five to sev­en feet
• Fur­ther set­tling can occur due to posi­tion in poten­tial­ly unsta­ble soil
• “Skin fric­tion” from sur­round­ing soil may pull down con­crete pilings
• If a cylin­der is bro­ken dur­ing instal­la­tion it can­not be removed or repaired
• Pil­ings must be adjust­ed and/​or shimmed annu­al­ly lead­ing to fur­ther dam­age to above­ground construction
• Instal­la­tion con­trac­tors expe­ri­ence high turnover rate due to numer­ous callbacks

The only pos­si­ble advan­tage to using pressed con­crete pil­ings is their low­er cost but the need for reg­u­lar main­te­nance and the like­li­hood of fur­ther dam­age pret­ty much off­set any cost savings. 

Foun­da­tion repair is seri­ous busi­ness. Any type of repair is dis­rup­tive and cost­ly and the poten­tial result of doing it the wrong way should cause every home­own­er to make his or her deci­sion very care­ful­ly. By choos­ing hydraulic push piers, the home­own­er knows that the home will be per­ma­nent­ly sta­ble and that the risk of fur­ther dam­age to the home and its foun­da­tion has been eliminated.

Of course, the repair is only as good as the com­pa­ny that installs it. At U.S. Water­proof­ing, our spe­cial­ly trained advi­sors and installers use only the high­est qual­i­ty mate­ri­als and equip­ment in installing hydraulic push piers and have the finest tech­ni­cal and engi­neer­ing resources to draw on when need­ed. Why not ask us for a free con­sul­ta­tion on your foundation?

Tags: foundation repair, house foundation repair, home foundation repair, structural foundation repair, hydraulic push piers

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