Using Piering Systems For a Sinking Foundation

Your home can suffer all kinds of damage from a sinking foundation. There are many different reasons why a home will start sinking, but most of them have to do with the soil eroding away under the home or from the climatic changes causes shifts in the ground. It is not uncommon for homes in certain areas to start sinking. When this does happen, the best way to remedy the problem and stop the sinking is with piering systems.

First, how can you tell if your home's foundation is sinking? Here are some signs that you may encounter in your home if your foundation starts to sink.

• Cracks in the foundation walls
• Windows and doors stick and are hard to open
• Sloping and uneven floors
• Chimney starts to lean or develops a gap between the house
• Cracks in the slab concrete floor
• Nails and gaps showing in odd places on walls and floors

Once you start to notice any one of the above signs of your foundation sinking or leveling, you need to take care of the problem as soon as possible to prevent any further structural damage to your house. If you let the problem go for too long, your house is going to suffer even more damage that may end up costing you thousands of dollars more in repairs to your home.

The best solution to stop the sinking of your house is to use piering systems to stabilize your home. Some people may think that replacing your slab will help, but if you do not get to the root of the problem, your house will start sinking again. Piering systems utilize steel piers (or poles) to stabilize your home into the ground. The piers are placed underneath the home, deep in the soil to transfer the weight of the home onto the piers to stabilize and level the home. This prevents the home from sinking or shifting any further.

After the piering systems are placed under your home, you can them fix the cracks or problems that you have with the foundation of your home. If you choose to just try to fix the cracks or sloping floors without having a piering system installed, you will find that your efforts are wasted as your cracks and sloping will only come back with time. Piering systems is an actual fix to a sinking home that allows homeowners to be worry free about any future foundations problems that they may have with the house.