TerraFirma in Eagle Point, OR

    Some southern Oregon homes, over the years, have seen massive settlement. Because of the high temperatures, soils become extremely dry during the late spring, summer and early fall months. With very little moisture in the soils, they contract and become significantly reduced compare to their condition when saturated in the winter. This massive change in volume creates a lot of opportunity for structures to settle into unstable earth. Judy S. of Shady Cove, OR has experienced settlement over the past 10 years of owning her house, and the situation kept getting worse. She reached a point to take action and spoke with a friend who recommended her to TerraFirma.

    Casey Moore diagnosed that settlement had occurred along the entire back side of the home. It was literally pealing away down the middle from the rest of the home. By installing 10 push piers, Judy was able to stabilize the home and lift back to level. These piers are secured to the foundation footing and hydraulically pushed to load bearing soil to essentially put the house on stilts. 

    Judy has permanently stabilized her foundation and can be confident it will stay with way for many years to come. Besides, that's what our warranty says anyways. 

Soil settlement happens for a variety of reasons. One major reason is simply the underlying earth cannot support the weight of the house. Gradually with time and weather, the soils continues to shift and soften allowing the weight of the house to sink itself. Astoria, Or and any Oregon coastal city is known for having soft soils that settle more rapidly than say the soils found in Portland. The combination of sand and clay make this process inevitable. Lewis D. saw similar soil condition in his Astoria home. His plan was to build a second story to his home and was concerned about the weight being too much for the supporting soil, and he would loose the house to foundation failure just as quick as he built it.

Lewis' and our goal was the same, provide enough stabilization and strength to the foundation in order to permanently stabilize the existing house and the addition. The solution as actually quite simple. By installing a full perimeter piering system including 26 push piers to stabilize vertically, and 3 helical anchors for horizontal stabilization, we were able to achieve enough load strength the support his addition and permanently stabilize the entire structure.

Lewis is so happy now. His existing foundation is now permanently stabilized, and can feel comfortable his home will hold up after his new additions. 

The Koch's were experiencing sagging, bouncy floors in the middle of their home floor plan. After a few half attempts to shim underneath the post supports, there was constant readjusting and tweaking to make. This was a very strenuous task every month. As they searched for a new, more permanent solution, they called TerraFirma and asked about Smart Jacks. Smart Jacks are a simple but highly effective solution to support floor posts with little continual adjusting. A perfect solution for hard to enter craw spaces or hard to reach floor posts.

After Installation of a 4 Smart Jack system, the floor is now supported more permanently, in need of less "touch up" adjusting and the floor doesn't sag or bounce anymore. If desired, smart jacks are easily adjustable for more support or lift. The Koch's are now happy to have a well supported floor and are not shy to host parties or invite the family over. 

    When local Eagle Point, OR resident Sharon V. suspected that she had moisture in the crawl space, she started looking around for a company to help her. She started asking all of her friends if they knew of anyone. One of her friends was a realtor and suggested she contact TerraFirma Foundation Systems.

    Within a week of contacting the office they sent out their sales representative Casey Moore. Casey did a full inspection of the crawl space to see which product would be best fit her situation. Casey suggested that they install a SmartSump Crawl Space Sump Pump. This system is equipped with a cast-iron Zoeller sump pump, a reliable liner and a sump alarm. It will pump out any water that comes into the crawl space. Along with the sump pump, he suggested a discharge line which would direct the water away from the foundation so it does not enter the crawl space again.

    Now that Sharon has her crawl space protected by the SmartSump she no longer worries about moisture entering the crawl space.

    Joe W. of Eagle Point, OR noticed that his home was starting to sink to one side. He started looking around for someone to help him. While searching on the internet, he came across an ad for TerraFirma Foundation Systems and decided to give them a call.

    Just a few weeks later he meet with Ryan Thomas. Ryan took a look around the foundation to see what could stop the foundation from sinking. He suggested installing a few Push Piers. This system is secured to the footing of the wall that is starting to sink and steel piers are driven into the ground until the appropriate depth and capacity is reached. These piers would slowly start to lift the foundation back to its normal position.

    Joe no longer has to worry if his foundation will sink any further due to the work that TerraFirma Foundation Systems did on his home.