Helical Pier Installation in Azalea Park

Detecting Early Signs of Foundation Settlement

Our phone doesn't often ring with someone calling just to chat. It's usually because they spotted something off, like a new crack or a door they used to easily open that's now binding shut. Homeowners in Azalea Park often mistake these symptoms for normal settling, not realizing the sandy soil here and the high water table are actually major contributing factors to foundation movement, which is why you should look for professional construction services Azalea Park.

We deal with this daily.

Pay attention to these details, as some are more apparent than others:

• Notice diagonal cracks originating at your door or window corners extending upward
• Observe gaps developing around your baseboards
• Identify hairline cracks in floor tiles that run parallel with your slab
• Trouble operating windows or doors that no longer latched
• Notice interior ceilings separating from the walls in places

This is common! Many residents who live along Lake Underhill Road have contacted us to say they might be overthinking it; they're wrong! Catching it early helps you save on cost and hassle. It prevents small problems from getting worse.

Another misconception is that cracking has to be big to be significant. It doesn't have to be! A crack about a nickel's width has the potential to indicate that soil has moved under your slab and requires helical pier installation. The placement of a crack tells us more than the crack size does. Horizontal stem wall cracking in concrete blocks is very different than vertical cracking down the side of your home.

Rainfall in Florida sends lots of moisture into the ground, which then expands and moves beneath your house in unpredictable ways. Homes located on fill soils, especially, are at risk. If you live in the 32807 zip code and are experiencing any of these indications, there's no need to wait for your flooring to dip or sag. Foundation movement can happen for quite some time before you notice. Contact us today for a free inspection before the damage continues.

How Soil Issues Can Cause Foundation Problems in Central Florida

Azalea Park, FL, isn't a big city where folks can afford to neglect their foundation. We aren't always thinking about what's under our house, that is until we're standing there trying to get a sticking door to latch closed or we're seeing an ugly crack spread down the middle of our living room wall. But the ground under a building is a big component of why it may sink or shift.

Central Florida's geography is unique in that we're surrounded by a lot of organic material and sand which causes soil to be constantly changing. The seasons here bring a lot of rain, so the ground stays wet. Then we get our droughts that dry out the soil quickly. That's what generates the motion. Your home was never designed for that. The houses on and close to Lake Underhill Road, the ones closest to Lake Barton, have been experiencing it longer and more often than most. The water table is high and the soil is constantly shifting. Add to that. Florida sand soil won't pack. Many of the homes constructed throughout the 32807 community back in the '60's and '70s were constructed over fill dirt that hadn't been packed. Over time, that dirt compresses, the slab moves and you have a problem on your hands. That's where helical piers are a great solution for our area. The piers avoid that problematic soil entirely and go right on through the loose and organic matter to reach soil that's capable of bearing loads. when we've hit the right depth because we measure the torque readings. The International Code Council recognizes helical piers as a deep foundation solution to just such soil conditions. Other methods may use that bad soil; we avoid it, that's the key difference. We witness this phenomenon in Azalea Park every week. A homeowner notices cracked tile in the kitchen, gives us a call, and we find what we expect. Loose, damp sand that's been softening over the years. We place our pier right past it and it's in stable, competent soil, and your foundation can be supported, not supported. The way it should.

Here's what a helical pier installation looks like from start to finish

Most Azalea Park homeowners haven't seen a helical pier installed in close-up, nor do we blame them. But being familiar with the process of installation demystifies things and helps you to organize your schedule around the work. A typical helical pier installation:

1. We Dig Access holes. We excavate an access hole at every helical pier location along your foundation line. The holes are generally 2 feet wide. Not a big, ugly trench. We work carefully around landscaping, the driveway, anything nearby.
2. We Drive the Helical pier. We use a hydraulic motor to rotate the helical pier sections, threading them down through the unstable surface soil. As the helical plates pull the shaft deeper into the soil, we continue to install additional pier extension segments, going deeper and deeper until we reach load bearing strata.
3. We Monitor torque. The torque readings for each rotation give us the information we need. The torque is the measure of soil resistance. We don't guess when the pier has hit good soil, and the torque tells us so.
4. We Connect the Brackets to your foundation. We attach the heavy duty brackets to the foundation. This is where your home's weight is transferred from loose soil to solid deep support.
5. Start controlled lifting. With the helical pile in place, we lift the settled parts of your foundation back to their original level. We use hydraulic jacks and raise slowly, do not rush or you risk cracking drywall or stressing your plumbing.
6. Verify, backfill, and clean. Laser levels confirm elevations, we verify position, then backfill the access points and tidy the site.

Most Lake Underhill Road homes get this done in one day. Some bigger jobs may run two, but that is uncommon for a typical residential installation.

We've lifted hundreds of homes in 32807, and residents can stay inside while we work. No moving out, no hammering against the walls, just careful work at the foundation.

And a couple of surprises: your yard often looks pretty good when we're done. We don't have to rip up your whole property to accomplish this.

What to Expect After Your Foundation Is Stabilized

Once we've installed your helical piles underground work is over but you likely have questions about what's next. You'll see:

Door frames realign, so doors close properly. This is what people in Azalea Park call most often for and what improves first. You'll start feeling the difference after the first couple of days. Floors that leaned away from you at the rear of the house around Lake Underhill Road? Now they're flat. Drywall cracks that had been growing day-by-day will quit increasing.

Things to Look for Immediately

Signs of previous soil settlement may remain. Hairline cracks in drywall or stucco aren't going to fix themselves. Expect that those will require patching and touch-up work after things have had a chance to settle. We recommend waiting about 30 days before doing cosmetic repairs, which allows the structure to adjust to its new position.

So, what to monitor when we're done:

• Preexisting cracks in drywall should stop within a week.
• Doors and windows should operate without binding.
• Spaces between walls and trim should remain even and may even close up.
• New tile cracks won't start in kitchens or bathrooms.

If new cracks show up beyond that 30-day window, give us a call. We've driven piles in hundreds of homes in 32807 and that kind of callback doesn't happen, but we do address each one.

Performance Over Time

Helical piers are a permanent solution. They are sunk deep down into a bearing layer of soil well beneath the sandy soil at the Azalea Park property. They are not going to be affected by any future soil movement or settling at those locations. The galvanized steel of your new helical piers means that there is no real threat of corrosion in the Florida soil conditions. According to the International Code Council, helical piers comply with requirements for deep foundation systems that can be used for residential buildings and commercial buildings.

We have seen customers come back years after the installation and not realize that the helical piers are in place. This is exactly what you want. Fix the foundation once and get on with your life.

How Azalea Park Homeowners Can Protect the Foundation Over the Long Term

Yes, we can fix the foundation problem that you have today with a helical pier installation. But what are the chances that there won't be a problem five, ten, even twenty years from now? We get questions like this frequently from Azalea Park homeowners, and the truth is that a little bit of prevention can go a long way.

The sandy soil conditions here in Florida and frequent and heavy rains create constant stress on any foundation. You can't change the geology, but you can certainly have control over how water moves away from the property and the foundation. This is the main cause of any and all issues with the foundation.

Take Care of Water Around the Property

Nearly every long-term foundation problem that we see can be traced back to too much water in one area and not enough in another. This wet-dry, wet-dry cycle causes soil to swell and shrink as it gets water, which causes the slab or the piers to be pulled in a direction. Consider these solutions:

• Maintain a clean gutter system and make sure that downspouts extend four feet away from the foundation walls
• Grade the entire yard to that it slopes away from the house
• Make sure that any irrigation heads are not spraying directly against the foundation, we see this a lot with houses near Lake Underhill Road
• Look for standing water that doesn't drain away after a storm. Look for this in low-lying areas near the house, which are often the worst areas for water collection

These don't need to be expensive fixes. Some of them are do-it-yourself home maintenance projects. These are things that can save you real dollars down the line.

Watch Out for Early Warning Signs of Foundation Settlement

It's always to catch the signs of foundation settlement early. Sometimes a small crack in your wall is just an empty space in the drywall, but if a door is no longer closing and your windows won't open like they normally do, give us a ring. Same if you notice gaps forming where your baseboards are meeting the floor. There is a family that we've worked with that lives near Colonial High School who first noticed a slope in their hallway, and then called us to look at the foundation because it was concerning them. Getting the call early on meant a few fewer piers and a less complicated installation.

It's always a good idea to check your foundation once a year. Go around the house once, maybe once a year, and look at the outside of the foundation. Look for cracks where your foundation walls meet your floor slab, look for gaps where those two sections separate. Give it 15 minutes.

We give free foundation repair estimates and inspections for homes in and around the 32807 area including Union Park. So, there's no charge to look at whatever has you concerned. You've already spent the money on your foundation, so protecting it makes sense.