Residential Concrete Lifting Case Studies: Sinking Slab Restored in Bronx, NY Motel

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016 by Sarah Gozick

Challenge

The owner of this Bronx, NY motel called in for an inspection because the slab floor was sinking towards the middle of the room. In addition, the owner noticed supporting foundation walls were starting to separate from the sheet rock. The motel owner knew this was an indication that the foundation was settling into the soil, and this big problem needed to be fixed. He called Quality 1st Basement Systems for a solution to save his motel and keep his customers safe. Collin Peare visited the Bronx property and upon inspection he noticed that the slab floors were sagging towards the middle of each room. He noticed that the sheet rock was completely detached from the ceiling sheet rock about one inch, and the bottom portion of the sheet rock had also dropped an inch. Each of the ten motel rooms Collin inspected showed signs of foundation settlement. The load bearing foundation walls also showed the same characteristics, causing the floors to become un-level. The owner was concerned that the floors had been uneven for ten years and were getting worse. He could not chance having something more severe happen to the slab or the load bearing foundation wall.

Solution

In order to fix the uneven slabs, Quality 1st Basement Systems injected PolyLevel. The PolyLevel system is a state of the art approach to repairing sinking concrete. PolyLevel takes the original concept of mudjacking and combines it with modern technology. Instead of a mixture of concrete and mud, PolyLevel uses a high density polyurethane foam to raise slabs back into place. Penny-sized holes were drilled into the motel slab and structural grade polymer was injected into the void. After the void is filled, the expanding properties of the polymer allows for an accurate lift and leveling of the slab. Finally, the small holes were grouted and sealed so the slab is completely restored and safe. Then, Quality 1st Basement Systems installed a push pier system. The push pier system utilizes high strength round steel tube sections and a load transfer bracket to stabilize settling foundations. The foundation bracket is secured against the existing footing and pier sections are driven hydraulically through the foundation bracket into the soil below. The weight of the structure is transferred from the unstable soil, to the foundation brackets, through the piers, and to firm load bearing soil.

Quality 1st Basement Systems successfully injected 7500 pounds of the PolyLevel system to each slab of the ten rooms, not only filling in any and all voids underneath the slabs, but raising the slab back to a level position. For the settled load bearing walls, the push piers not only permanently stabilize the sinking foundation but they lifted the foundation back to floor level. After the job was completed, Collin walked around the rooms with the owner. He told Collin that he never expected the floors to get back to such a level state and, "it seemed like there had never been a problem there to begin with."