House Raising

The Week of April 9-12, 2012

Monday morning a caravan of workers pulled into our driveway from Foundation Recovery Systems. The sight of trucks and equipment were enough to make me want to shout, “I’ve changed my mind.”

Once the jackhammer started ripping out concrete chunks on the south side, I slipped inside, trying to get away from the noise. In the main bathroom the glass doors on the tub/shower unit rattled in time to the jackhammer. Another machine bumped and scraped against the west wall as a man dug away dirt next to the foundation. I decided to take a walk, visit the neighbors, work in the garden -anything to be away from the house.

Workers notched out footing and added steel foundation brackets. They drove steel tubes hydraulically through the brackets and into solid rock.

On Wednesday, the workers raised the southwest corner an inch. The whole process took less than a minute and it happened right over my head since I was standing in the basement. There was no popping and cracking, but more the sound of the wind when doors are opened from outside. What a strange sensation!

When they raised the west wall of my living room, I felt a slight tremor beneath my feet.

      The large crack in the corner of the foundation went back together and our bedroom window unit snugged up against the brick where it had previously pulled away. Doors that stuck before now open and close with ease. If I hadn’t witnessed it firsthand, I wouldn’t have believed anything of this magnitude possible.

If my house can be moved on its foundation, nothing is impossible. 

                Until next time,