Raise the Roof...er, the Floor!

Today brings the anticipation of our house's foundation being leveled. This has been a long and drawn out process. In June, we learned the foundation has settled and even prior to that we had suspected something was wrong. (By April we could no longer close certain doors and the cracks in the walls and doorframes kept emerging.) In August, a structural engineer came to assess the foundation. Based on his assessment, the foundation needed to be repaired. Ten days ago the house had 24 holes dug around it and 24 concrete piers put into place. The front landscaping was removed and our house was looking a little disheveled on the outside. Over the weekend we prepared for the inside work and we removed the contents of the study and put them in two different rooms. Then the family room furniture was pushed back and the rug was rolled up (and placed in another room). The inside of our house looks like we are either moving in or moving out. I am living in mild chaos. (On a positive note, the empty family room allows for about 4 cartwheels to be turned in a row...thank you, Alexa.)

Yesterday the flooring company came to remove part of the wood floor to expose a crack running from the front to the back of the house. Today, another company will arrive to shoot an epoxy to fill in the gap. Here are pictures:

This is the flooring that was removed in the family room.

This is the flooring that was removed in the study.

Here is a closer view of the crack; this part is in the study.

This is a view of the front porch. They removed the bricks to expose the crack. You can see the crack through the middle of the brick. It went up the front of the house. There is also one that runs parallel up the back of the house.

In order to raise the foundation, there were many measurements taken inside the house. Then, each section or area had to be raised by a certain measurement. The workers were laying on their stomachs, reaching down into the holes and jacking up the piers. The head guy was inside the house, communicating via walkie-talkie on how far to raise the piers. It was strange to hear something going on under the house since we are on a concrete slab! When all of the jacking was complete and the measurements were where they were supposed to be, I walked around inside and checked everything out. It's amazing how doors now close that didn't before and how large cracks in the wall now look like a hairline fracture. The baseboards now touch the floors again in the bathroom...and I'm very happy that door closes completely!! The head guy said to me he could not believe how big the space was between the floor and the baseboards. We could have almost rolled a marble in the gap; it was significant.
Here is the close up of before the adjusting and after.

Before                                                                          After

The gap is not as wide after the foundation has been adjusted.

Epoxy injection is the next step...stay tuned!