On this job, the house was built in the 1980′s and the support for the second floor over the garage was a “glue lam” beam.  It wasn’t sized right, and had bowed about 1 1/2″.  Removing the existing beam would have been difficult and expensive, and the homeowner didn’t want to lose headroom in the … Read more →

In this house, the previous owner excavated a large pit about 4′ deep in the crawl space.  The problem is the pit was too close to the foundations and the owner removed the support piers in the basement.  This put the entire structure of the house at risk.  We were called in to come up … Read more →

One of the recurring problems here in Atlanta is settlement of garage floors.  The reason is that many houses are built on sloping lots, and the garages are placed on fill.  Putting a garage slab on fill is not a problem if done right, but from what I’ve seen, most weren’t done right.  This is … Read more →

In this job, we examined a house built in the 70′s that has a concrete block basement subwall.  It is exhibiting typical structural failure for this type of wall – a horizontal crack.  It also has problems with water seepage. Typically the problem with subwalls in older houses is they were constructed out of unreinforced … Read more →

For keeping crawl spaces dry, is it better to ventilate or to seal the space?  I have been given the sales pitch by the various companies that specialize in basement drainage, but I wasn’t convinced that sealing a crawl space is the best way.  For some time I was against the idea of crawl space … Read more →

Pressure Grouting Explained Pressure Grouting is a common solution for failures in slabs.  To do it, a mixture of cement, sand, and water is injected under high pressure under the failed slab.  However, there are problems that can develop.  The sketches below explain.  My apologies in advance for the terrible artwork. Runkle Consulting, Inc Home … Read more →