Dig Deep for Big Trouble

In the merry month March 2025, we went looking for trouble - and we found it, in spades.

The old house is has been home for 35 years, and it has old age issues. As plain as the wrinkles around my eyes in a Monday morning mirror were the signs of an aging house. In places, the mortar between the bricks has gapped to an unsightly degree, inside the house our drywall has jagged cracks and the Master Bedroom ceiling has a fault line running down the middle with a quarter inch displacement where the popcorn-coated ceiling sheetrock panels have separated. It is ugly. It needs to be replaced, but I find it all easier to ignore.

Returning to Texas an this old house in January from my residence in a newly constructed country estate beauty of a house in Washington, the ugliness can no longer be ignored. Plans are made. Chances will be taken.

I got three bids to do a foundation repair, which entails digging under the slab and setting a stack of concrete piers under the slab which has differentially settled. This settling over the years has caused stress cracks in the masonry joints outside and the drywall inside. The house will be lifted at various points with a hydraulic jack, and once the tilted house is returned to a less slouchy position, the slab is stabilized with support piers sunk to rest upon the solid limestone bedrock 6 to 8 feet below. This has to be done we are told if we ever intend on selling the house. We are thinking it is good to live in a house that is not build upon sinking sand, or in the case of North Texas, expansive montmorillonite clays which compose the substrate upon which our neighbor is built and inevitably shifted and damaged.

We select a reputable contractor for the repair. It is suggested that we install 16 piers; 14 piers to lift and stabilize the south corner of the house and the north corner and 2 piers to be installed in the master bedroom by cutting through our wood floor to get to the concrete slab underneath and then dig a big hole in the middle of our love nest. We negotiate with the contractor and go with just the outside 14 piers and skip the destruction inside. 

Excavating holes along the south, master bedroom wall

A crew of six arrives at 8:30 AM on Monday. El Hefe marks the walls with a piece of blue tape to tell the crew where to dig the 5' deep holes. The crew flashes their spades and gets after it and they have lots of holes around my house in surprisingly little time.

The workers fit themselves into the holes and using hydraulic jacks, they drive 1-foot concrete cylinders into the clay under our slab until they hit bedrock. The house is coaxed back closer to its original position and the final pier is installed and shims are fitted between the last pier and slab. The house groans and cracks like the adjusted spine of a hobbled patient under the skilled hands of a chiropractor. 

I had ulterior motives and high hopes that the crew would have to remove all of the Ligustrum bushes in front of the house, as we are wanting to relandscape and are hoping not to have dig out all the bushes ourselves. No luck. They did dig out 2 or 3 Ligustrums, that leaves 5 for me to handle. 

We are in almost over our heads with this foundation repair project

Six to eight concrete cylinders are driven to bedrock to support 
the house from here on out 

All of the work is done in a single day. The crew cleans up everything real well and drives away.

The gaping crack above the master bedroom door has closed up. Good! The gaps in the mortar joints on the outside of the house are still open, as are the cracks in interior fireplace. The idea was not to stress the house to necessarily fix the cosmetic cracks, but to return the foundation slab to a stable, less warped condition. I think they did a good job with that. 

An independent structural engineer came the following week and said that his opinion was that we got a got job for our money. 

A jackhammer is used on the front porch and back patio
to allow digging and pier placement

Yikes! 

Nothing to do with the foundation repair work, but it just goes to show you that bad things come in threes. The night after we supported our house and the contractor's yacht club fund, it had warmed up enough in Texas to turn on the A/C. It did not cool down in the house that night.

I suspected a need to recharge the coolant line and called my A/C technician. He tested out unit and found the that the circuit board was fried. 

Still under warranty (good) but more expensive to replace with labor costs than just recharging the system (bad). Oh, besides, our duct work in the attic needs to be repaired because of rodent damage. Estimates start at $1725. Rats! 

This is getting expensive.

XXX!!!!!!XXX

In order to get a lifetime warranty on the foundation repair, we were required to hire a plumber to test both our water and sewer lines under the slab to see if any of the plumbing was now leaking. The foundation company has a clause in that says that if a leak develops after our work, we take no responsibility and if that is the case, then: It Sucks to be You. I signed that contract.

The plumber came out after the foundation was lifted and found that our potable water lines were all good. He could not find the sewer clean out valve and told me it was likely snapped off and it would be $1275 to replace it. I declined and gave the plumbing company 2-stars out of 5 for charging me full price and performing only half the work.

Sue, went digging in front of the house to wrestle with the Ligustrum and easily found the clean out valve that the licensed, professional plumber was unable to locate. 

Plumbing company returns after bad review to look a second time - at no charge. They use the sewer clean out that Sue located and test our sewer. It fails. There is a leak under our slab. For another $450 they can tell me where the leak is located.

I pay the piper, and find out that our sewer line is leaking below the closet off the master bath. This is getting expensive. Now even more.

I have a crew scheduled in early April to dig a 12' tunnel under our slab to reach the suspected leaking location and repair it. 

I guest after calculating my 2024 Federal Tax bill, doing a little lift work on the foundation, fixing the A/C and scheduling a nasty plumbing repair bill to coincide with 1st half of 2025 property taxes and insurance for both our vehicles I should be thankful that all my problems can be simply solved with money.

Not all of life problems can be fix so easily. 

Yet, I find small consolation this spring season. A leak in my plumbing and a leak in my wallet.