Foundation Crack Problems in Ottawa and How we Solve Them
The best way to repair a foundation from settling is to underpin the foundation. The last resort however is to strengthen the cracks that have appeared as a result of soil movement and waterproof them. Jerry Sirois, President of The Foundation Guys, knows that this is the case.
In order to solve foundation cracks permanently, you must "Arrest the Settlement". To do this, you need to bypass the moving soil and drive steel push piers to load bearing strata or bedrock.
Ottawa, Ontario seems to be behind the times when it comes to common construction practices, especially in Foundation Repair. In the United States and even in places like Western Canada, deep driven steel piers have been being used for decades. In fact, contractors in Ottawa are still underpinning with concrete. When you underpin with concrete you are just adding more weight on poor soil. You are not getting to the root of the problem which is the soil.
A misconception is that Foundation piers are more expensive than concrete underpinning. That is not the case, it can infact be the same price or less expensive. Filling a crack is doing nothing to stop the foundation from cracking. You are just filling the cracks and the contractor is getting a few hundred bucks for a couple hours of work. So when you are getting estimates on foundation crack ask some questions and do your research!
