Commercial Foundations Photo Album: Helical Piers Used to Stabilize Church in Hazard, Kentucky

We used our helical pier system to stabilize a sinking foundation for a church's new addition in Hazard, KY. The new addition had footers that sat on top of the soil, which was causing the soil underneath the foundation to go through cycles of expanding and shrinking. It also didn't help that this church was on a steep hillside, which can cause soil washout. No matter though, as we were able to successfully stabilize the new addition by wrapping the structure with our helical pier system. We started by digging shallow trenches all around the addition, and then screwed our piers down into load-bearing strata. Once we knew we hit load-bearing strata, (thanks to our pressure gauges) we then hooked the "L" shaped brackets to the top of the piers and to the bottom of the footing. Once the brackets were attached, the weight of the structure successfully transfered into stable soil. We then attempted to lift the structure with hydraulics attached to the brackets, which helped close a lot of the gaps seen inside the church. We wrapped up the project by backfilling the trenches with soil, cleaning up after ourselves, and logging the project in our system. The result is a stable church addition that won't shift any longer.