What is a crawl space?
Our friends at Wikipedia define a crawl space as “an unoccupied, unfinished, narrow space within a building between the ground and the first floor.” Crawl spaces are named so because there’s typically only enough room to crawl versus stand in them.
Maintaining your crawl space is vital to the overall health of your home and your family.
Our friends at Wikipedia define a crawl space as “an unoccupied, unfinished, narrow space within a building between the ground and the first floor.” Crawl spaces are named so because there’s typically only enough room to crawl versus stand in them.
A crawl space supports the entire structure of your home and it affects the air you breathe. It’s important to keep it rid of water issues, mold, wood rot, and pests. All of those pesky problems will contribute to sagging floors, damaged wooden floors, and overall weakened structural integrity over time. Left untreated, foundation failure can depreciate your home up to 20% per recent market studies.
What is certain is your crawl space will never be cheaper to fix than it is right now.
With the right advice from a professional that specializes in foundation and crawl space repair, you can be safely on your way to better living. After all, foundation problems don’t get better with time, but they do get better with AMC911.
Big or small, at AMC911 we crawl them all!
What Is a Crawl Space Jack?
A crawl space jack is also sometimes referred to as a screw jack.
Traditional crawl space jacks provide a cost-effective way to fix bouncy, bowing floors. They are most often adjustable and easily installed by a licensed professional.
When it comes to foundation and crawl space repair, it’s important to remember though that not all products and solutions are created equal. At AMC911, we offer a crawl space pier that’s a cut above your run-of-the-mill crawl space jack.
It’s no secret our crawl space pier is much stronger than his feeble brother, the traditional screw jack. Our steel crawl space pier is constructed of quadruple galvanized, thick wall steel made right here in the USA by a top-rated manufacturer.
Our crawl space piers provide support to sagging floors above your crawl space and they help remove the bouncing or squeaking caused by inadequate support. Our crawl space pier is designed to stabilize and provide lift. It’s fully adjustable and can be progressively tightened to lift floors back to a more level state.
AMC911 crawl space pier installation in a nutshell:
- We remove any loose debris that could impede our work. We need clearance, Clarence!
- We prepare the footing pad base by digging a hole to house the footing.
- We fill and compact the excavation with gravel and level it so that we can fit the pad right beneath the girder beam. The gravel distributes the weight evenly into the soil.
- We measure the space between the precast pad and the girder beam and cut the pipe to size.
- We fit together all of the pieces of the crawl space pier and place the entire pier securely on the pad.
- We install all of the crawl space piers prior to the lift. The piers are typically spaced 6 feet apart and at girder beam joints. It’s imperative to support major joints so that both sides of the girder beam have support and are level – not a step up or down.
- During the lift, we lift each pier a little bit at a time to ensure no single pier takes the bulk of the load of the lift. There are usually two workers in the crawlspace manually wrenching the crawl space piers while a third worker is in the home monitoring floors with a level.
When do you need a Crawl Space Jack?
Having your crawl space inspected should be a regular item on your to-do list. It should be inspected as often as your roof, basements, attic, or gutters. That’s how important it is!
If your floors are uneven or sloping, or if they are sagging or bowing, your home may need to be leveled. If you see floor and wall gaps or experience stuck windows and doors, you might need crawl space jacks. Whatever the symptom, it’s important to have it diagnosed by a professional that specializes in structural repair before the problem gets worse. Our team of foundation and crawl space experts will assist you in diagnosing the cause of your problems and advise on what we can do to provide you a permanent solution to foundation settlement.
Are Crawl Space Jacks permanent?
How much do Crawl Space Jacks cost?
It’s never been cheaper to fix your crawl space than it is right now.
In fact, if you wait to fix your sagging floor, it could mean a rippled damage effect to other structural members of your home. Most crawl space pier installations at AMC911 start at around $5k. It’s important to note that the digging and setup alone can easily account for 80% of the project time. Crawl spaces are small and difficult to maneuver in. The cramped space adds time to the digging, transfer of equipment, and leveling process.
Some repair projects will require the incorporation of deep-driven exterior piers prior to installation of crawl space piers. Some repairs will require sections of deteriorated wooden girder beam to be replaced in conjunction with a crawl space pier. All of these factors could potentially add to the cost of your repair.
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