Dawson Foundation Repair has staked its reputation on utilizing the bell bottom pier method of foundation repair since 1984. For almost thirty years this method has proven to last longer and withstand more foundation stress than all other forms of foundation repair.
How did bell bottom piers become the reliable “gold standard” among foundation repair experts? Well, it has several things going for it. But it probably helps to know how a little of the history.
You have to go back to the early 20th century in San Antonio, Texas. With the Alamo City growing at a record pace during the early 1900s, one of the city’s pressing concerns was the need to widen Commerce Street. A major obstacle was the historic five-story, marble-clad Alamo National Bank Building (ANB), which was directly in the road’s path. After agreeing to move its building in 1913, the bank called on a young Willard E. Simpson for assistance. Simpson was a graduate of MIT and returned to his hometown to work. His creative solution to moving the ANB while allowing the bank to remain operational during the entire moving process was to utilize 1,800 simultaneously controlled screw jacks to raise the building onto rollers. The building was then slid onto rollers, then on to its new foundation several hundred yards away from the street widening. No one thought it would work, but it did!
Because of the success of this and other engineering innovations, Simpson was the first to be inducted into the Engineering Hall of Honor by the Structural Engineers Association of Texas in 2005.
It was Simpson who first realized that one of his buildings was suffering severe damage due to soil movement. Soil erosion was well-known and many structural designs had planned for erosion. But, soil movement had not been studied, researched and considered in the designing of buildings. Geotechnical engineering had not concerned itself with expansive soils.
So what’s a good engineer to do? Right. Go and figure out a solution. Simpson undertook to observe and analyze foundation soil because his large buildings required the most secure footing to endure decades of service. One day he saw a local well driller drilling for water. The driller had a mule and an auger. An auger is a large tool with a spiral bit to drill holes in the ground. The driller would stick the auger in the ground and walk the mule around in a circle to have the auger bore into the ground. Simpson had come across the solution to finding support for his large building foundations. Initially, Simpson merely drilled a hole and filled it with concrete. Thus, the “drilled pier” foundation support system was created.
But buildings were getting larger and heavier. Simpson made an adjustment to his design that would be more weight-bearing. He reamed out the bottom of the drilled shafts, creating a much larger bell-shaped foot that could support greater weights. This was done by lowering a man into the hole and the man would hand carve a bell bottom. That is how the bell bottom pier was born. It is so effective and durable that it has been used for 100 years to support buildings and bridges and broad expanses like highway overpasses.
The development of bell bottom piers was such a significant structural improvement that it earned Simpson the incredible recognition of being the first inducted into the Hall of Honor. Frankly, there has been no engineering evolution to foundation design that has had the same structural impact. Dawson Foundation Repairs used this researched method of foundation repair to give its customers security in the repair done and value in their home for years to come. All other designs are measured against the bell bottom pier design and the bell bottom piers still outperform all others. That is why it is the gold standard of foundation repairs.
Dawson Foundation Repair installs only Bell Bottom Piers for a reason. It is the Highest Quality foundation repair method available. All of the stacked concrete cylinders methods fall far short of the quality and permanence of Bell Bottom Piers.