If you’re trying to learn how to underpin a basement in order to support your home, there are several important things to consider before you get started, particularly if you’re working with an older house.
Using incorrect techniques or materials can cause the concrete walls and supports to crack or fall apart over time, which will require costly repairs and even threaten the structural integrity of your home, so it’s important to know what you’re doing when underpinning your basement.
If you’re thinking about trying to do this on your own, it always helps to bring in a professional contractor to assist you through the process.
Reasons To Underpin Your Basement
There are many reasons why you might want to underpin your basement foundation.
- The first is if the foundation has cracked or shifted due to movement in the ground below. This may be caused by frost heave or water seepage, or other factors such as the house settling.
Uneven ground under the house may result in settling over time, which strains the supports.
- The second reason is that your basement wall is not completely level. This could be because of uneven ground or because some parts of the house were built before others and did not go up at the same time.
So the wall that was supposed to be level now isn’t, and this creates an uneven surface where the floor meets the wall, which can cause cracking and leaking in your basement walls if left alone long enough.
- A third reason is that you have an old home with an original dirt floor basement that needs updating into a finished space (which requires excavating down to grade level). If your home was built before 1960, it probably has one of these dirt floors in at least one room — even if you don’t know about it yet.
- The foundation for the basement wall (especially in much older homes) is often made of concrete blocks which are heavy and have little structural strength. Basement underpinning can provide stability.
Basement Underpinning
A basement is a great place to store your stuff, but it can become a very dangerous place if the foundation of your home is not properly supported.
The first thing that needs to be done is to determine if there is any water leaking into the basement through cracks in the walls or floor. This water can cause severe damage to your home and it must be stopped before you can begin underpinning.
The next step is to find out if there are any cracks in the foundation walls. If there are, you may need to have them repaired before underpinning can begin.
If everything checks out fine, then you can start the process of underpinning your basement by digging down into it and installing beams every three feet or so along the walls and ceiling of your basement. You will then cover these beams with concrete slabs that will provide additional support for your home’s foundation wall or walls.
These concrete slabs should be at least 12 inches thick and make sure they line up with each other perfectly so that there aren’t any gaps between them when they’re covered with dirt after being poured into place.
This process is often easier said than done, and if you have no experience in doing it, it’s best to leave it to the professionals.
To be sure you underpin a basement the right way, hire a professional contractor who has experience with this type of work. He will be able to provide an estimate based on the scope of work and your home’s specific needs.
The cost of underpinning will vary depending on the size and shape of the space you’re trying to reinforce, as well as what type of materials are required for each project.
For example, if you need new footings installed under your entire foundation rather than just in one area, it will likely cost more than if you only needed them under one corner where there was some damage or movement detected in your home’s foundation walls.
Can I Underpin The Basement On My Own?
The short answer is that you can underpin your basement on your own, but it’s not easy or cheap.
The process of underpinning involves digging down to the footing of your foundation and then pouring concrete into the trench. The concrete will support the foundation and prevent it from sinking further into the ground.
If you’re considering doing the work yourself, here are some things to consider:
- You’ll need to rent a jackhammer or hire a professional
- You’ll have to dig down at least 12 inches below grade level and pour concrete into that hole. This means renting or borrowing a jackhammer (which is noisy), as well as renting a cement mixer (unless you want to make multiple trips back and forth from the hardware store).
It’s also possible that your local home improvement store won’t have enough cement for what you need — in which case, you’ll have to rent a big truck and go to another store that does carry enough cement for your project.
- You may need permits from local building officials. In many areas, it’s illegal to underpin an existing house without getting permission from local building officials first.
Getting these permits often requires hiring an engineer who can submit plans detailing how much extra support is needed for each individual house — so this could cost thousands of
Is Basement Underpinning Costly?
The cost of underpinning is usually around $80 per square foot, but it depends on several factors. The project can be done in stages, so if you start with one side of the basement, you can then see how the wall holds up before deciding whether to do other walls.
The cost of underpinning varies according to the type of foundation and what you have to do to fix it. For example, if your foundation is made from concrete blocks that are not properly stacked, then you may need to dig out around each block and install a heavy concrete footing underneath it.
This will make the whole process much more expensive than if your foundation was made from poured concrete slabs or a solid block foundation.
The walls in your basement may crumble over time due to water seepage or shifting soil conditions outside your home’s foundation walls. If this happens, then you may need to have them rebuilt or just have them shored up with steel beams underneath them until they’re strong enough again.
Underpinning costs are usually less expensive than rebuilding an entire foundation and replacing damaged walls with new ones
Final Thoughts
For more information on getting started with your next basement underpinning project, reach out to WillFix.
