The Basement Doctor of Central Kentucky Before & After Photos

If you are looking for a home renovation projection to have done, a crawl space encapsulation may be the perfect choice for you. If your current crawl space has high humidity, sagging floors, dirt and pests, or groundwater leaks, an encapsulation may be the best investment you could make for your home. In terms of getting your money back through prevented structural issues, lower energy bills, and better air quality in the home, you can't make a better investment for your home. 

This home was sinking down a side of a hill, causing the side of the house to disconnect from the rest of the home. We installed helical piers in order to raise the side of the house back to health, and to keep it that way. You can see the stair-step cracking in the before picture near the bottom of the downspout and the top of the downspout where the gap sits between the yellow panels and the bricks. 

Not only was this basement prone to flooding, it also had bowing walls that needed addressing. We often see bowing walls and waterproofing issues be intertwined from the effects of hydro-static pressure. This homeowner tried to fix the bowing issues years ago, but their steel beams were not holding up like ours would have. After we finished installing our waterproofing and PowerBrace systems, the basement became dry and is safe from structure failure. 

This crawl space was only about a foot or two high, but the piers were sinking into the soil. This was causing gaps to form on the first level of the home near cabinets, doors, windows, floors, and ceilings. We aimed to fix this problem by installing SmartJack posts, which can be adjusted in the future if ever needed. The gaps began to close as we adjusted them to bring the level back to where it was originally. 

This house was built on a slab foundation, meaning the footers were pretty much on top of the dirt. We often witness foundation problems for structures built on slabs because the footers do not sit beneath the frost line, (the frost line is where the soil is able to freeze underground). Because the footers of the foundation sit above the frost line, the soil beneath it often goes through periods of shrinking and expanding, causing havoc on the foundation. Although scary, we were able to fix this side of the structure relatively easily by underpinning the foundation with steel piers. After lifting the foundation back with the red attachment on the piers, (seen in the after picture) we then take the attachments off and backfill the piers, leaving them completely concealed from the ground.