Until you’ve seen a professional team of foundation repair specialists working on the job, it’s easy to think that repairing a slab is just a matter of digging a hole and jacking up the concrete foundation back in place. But there is so much more, and each additional thing is significant toward a long-lasting resolution of your foundation problem.
One of those important steps is how deep the supporting pier or pilings must go to do the job. In the pressed piling method, the pilings are impacted by the “point of refusal.” “Point of refusal” does not refer to the repair company’s reply of “No, we don’t do that” to your questions like, “Do you test the soil before you decide how far to go down? How do you guarantee the pilings are deep enough? Or, can you forego the Mandatory Arbitration document?”
The “point of refusal” is the moment when the weight of your home cannot push the concrete pilings any deeper into the ground. The “point of refusal” may or may not be deep enough to reach stable soil. If the concrete pilings, which are stacked one upon another, are not deep enough to reach stable soil then they have little to no chance of providing permanent support for the foundation. What is even worse, if the contractor’s workers do not stop the hydraulic jacking process immediately after reaching the “point of refusal” they will literally lift a portion of your foundation and home into the air. However, they won’t lift it very far into the air because it will break with a thunderous crack. If this happens, then you have far more damage to your home than when you started, and unless you are taking a video at the moment of damage, you will have a hard time proving that the repair contractor is liable. You can’t sue the contractor either, because you have signed away your right to sue with a Mandatory Arbitration clause in the contractor’s contract. (“Good Luck” with Mandatory Arbitration because the contractor selects the for-profit arbitration company that rules against consumers 90% to 97% of the time.)
This is another reason that the bell bottom pier system is much better for your home than any pressed piling or cable lock system. Contractors that utilize the pressed piling method rarely perform a soil test so they don’t know how far below ground level is stable soil. Therefore, they are guessing and hoping that they can drive their stacked concrete pilings deep enough to reach the stable soil or bedrock.
In the pressed pilings method, often the “point of refusal” is more shallow than stable soil! When that happens, the method is doomed to fail because the soil underneath is unstable. Unstable soil shifts from side to side because of moisture changes. It shrinks when dry. It swells when wet. This unstable soil, even though it was the “point of refusal” for the pressed piling, is unable to hold the pressed pilings in place.
Bell bottom piers are not dependent on the point of refusal in order to do the job you want them to do for the rest of the life of your house. It is a simple fact—Dawson Foundation’s bell bottom piers are constructed to be permanent and they reach well into stable soil. Dawson does a soil test on every installation site to confirm that they know the depth of stable soil. When the concrete is poured into the bell bottom pier, the bell bottom acts as an anchor and is solidly positioned within stable soil.
Your home is too valuable not to be certain about the quality of the repair work done to it. Since 1984 Dawson Foundation Repair has used the bell bottom repair in North Central Texas, Central Texas, South Texas, and Southeast Texas to provide trusted foundation repair to homeowners. This time-tested, proven, permanent foundation repair method is superior to steel pilings or pressed concrete pilings.
Dawson Foundation Repair installs only Bell Bottom Piers for homeowners and commercial property owners. Bell Bottom Piers have far more advantages over any other method of foundation repair and we feel the homeowner should receive the best option available. Dawson Foundation Repair services homes and commercial businesses all over Texas including Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and other smaller cities. Call us for a free inspection and assessment of your home’s foundation security.