Pier of some sort?

[Tom Yeager]

Any idea what these are? 1995, South Denver CO, slab basement floor (believed to be floating but not confirmed.) I could not view the majority of the slab because of the carpet. Found at least three of them but many walls were junked up with personal belongings.

[Dale Duffy]

Hmmmm.....First for me also Tom...be interesting to find out what they are...

[Dale Duffy]

Tom...did you take those Red Caps off and look, I imagine you probably did, if so, what was inside?

[dbucknavich]

I'm going to take a wild guess (not knowing were in the house these things are) and say those caps expose holes, which are piped into the ground for a radon mitigation system.

[Christopher Currins]

Originally Posted by dbucknavich

I'm going to take a wild guess (not knowing were in the house these things are) and say those caps expose holes, which are piped into the ground for a radon mitigation system.

Good guess, I wasn't thinking radon, but hydronic radiant floor heat.

[Tom Yeager]

A little more info:

Dale, I did not take the red caps off. I tried but could not get them to budge.

Radon - no way. No mitigation system in place at this time. Radon test will be picked up Friday. Oh! Another chance to try to get the caps off - without the client present! Might have to rip up some carpet...

It appeared the bracket attached to the wall can "float" over the "pier" in the floor. The pier in the floor seems to be two pieces, an inner and outer sleeve with the inner sleeve being held in place by the bolt.

Huh.

[Barry Adair]

scroll down for illustration

Steel Pier

A 2 7/8" to 3 1/2" well casing is pressed into the ground to a resistance of 5000psi. The pier is then topped with a special bracket which attaches to the beam of the foundation. The structure is then lifted using this bracket.

Pro's: Steel piers are favored over drilled piers because of their lifting ability. They are pressed into the substrata to a resistance which provides usable support for the structure.

Con's: Steel piers deteriorate quickly in the high alkalinity Texas soil. These piers are typically pressed to 5000psi, which is really not enough for a single story brick home. Our Dual-Piers are pressed to 6000psi minimum. Steel Piers are more expensive and they will rust and corrode over time, leaving the house with no further support.

[ROBERT W. NEWLAND, JR.]

Agree with Barry. I had them installed at my house and they are typically below the surface (due to depth of footing). Plastic cap may be for safety or to simply keep the tube sealed.

See here (scroll down) http://johnlanglin.home.comcast.net/...lin/page4.html

[Tom Yeager]

Barry and Robert - THANKS! Makes sense.

[dbucknavich]

Yeah, looked a little heavy duty to be the mitigation. Worth a stab though. I would love to see a diagram on the system pictured though.

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

They're also called "micro-piles". We just shot a segment on a foundation repair in Superior, CO in which they used these to support a foundation resting on soil which had heaved almost 6" in less than 10 years.

They drilled down about 40', belled out the bottom of the hole and installed the steel casing into the top 20'. Then they ran 1" allthread down into it, then poured the whole thing full of concrete. The allthread was used to bolt the micro-pile to brackets attached to counterforts and grade beams.

[Tom Yeager]

Nice! When will that episode be available?

i learned after only one inspection in Superior - that is one place I will never buy a home. $80K in structural damage. And the outdoor section of the Flatirons mall is having all kinds of issues.

Thanks!

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

Originally Posted by tyeager

Nice! When will that episode be available?

i learned after only one inspection in Superior - that is one place I will never buy a home. $80K in structural damage. And the outdoor section of the Flatirons mall is having all kinds of issues.

Thanks!

That video is in the lineup, but it was one of theose things we shot when we had the opportunity to get the footage, but will have to wait its turn to be edited while we finish other projects. We'll put it up as soon as we can.