Before & After Photos

Bowing walls can be hard to spot early in their transition. A slightly bent wall doesn’t look that different from a normal wall to the untrained eye. That was what happened to this homeowner. After purchasing his home one year ago, he began to notice horizontal cracks running along the walls. These sort of cracks, especially multiple ones, are a sign that there is added pressure on basement walls and they have started to bow as a result.

On the positive side, the bowing hadn’t affected any of the other walls - which is a common problem when foundation settles. Almost just as lucky for the homeowner, PowerBrace exists! PowerBraces are a unique support system used by Ayers Basement Systems, that are perfect for repairing bowing and cracked walls. PowerBrace steel beams are attached to the floor joists in the basement ceiling and buried into the foundation floor.  Repairing this severely bowed wall required 8 different PowerBrace beams. The beams are zinc coated steel and can be tightened, so they will continue to straighten the walls over time without the possibility of rust or mold. Let us know when you get tired of fighting your bowing walls and we’ll tag in the PowerBrace system!

Ever noticed any cracks in your basement walls or maybe it not being perfectly vertical? Well this customer certainly had that problem. They wanted our help fixing their bowing walls so we drove to their home and installed Wall Anchors. Wall Anchors are the most heavy duty repair option that we have and it also repairs the wall over time. We install these by digging a tiny hole in that is a few feet away from the home. Then we drill a steel rod through a 1 inch hole in the basement wall. After that, the rod connects to an anchor that is placed in the hole of the soil. Once we place the plates on afterwards, we have permanently stabilized the basement. So that the homeowner doesn't have to worry about an unsafe basement ever again.

Brandon called us to take a look at a large diagonal crack in his Michigan-style basement. His concern was that the crack would become more severe as the wall slowly failed. If left alone, Brandon was very right. Cracks like these don't just get better. It was only going to get worse unless something was done.

The best solution in this case was a series of 3 PowerBraces. These zinc-coated steel I-beams help to support the home above and evenly distribute the weight that they're supporting. They extend from the floor to ceiling where they connect to the joists at the top of the wall. What makes these beams unique from other I-beams is that they feature a tightening system at the top which allows the homeowner or our service team to possibly straighten and improve the condition of the wall over time. When we fix walls, we fix them with solutions that are intended to be a "once and for all" fix. Brandon won't be losing any sleep over this crack in the years to come.

Cheri had water entering through her basement walls. She couldn't keep the water out so we installed the CleanSpace Basement Finishing Wall System to prevent more water intrusion. This system utilizes a poly sheet material to completely cover basement foundation walls and act as a vapor and moisture barrier. The material is waterproof, stain resistant and can be applied over many different types of surfaces. This system was perfect for Cheri and put a stop to all water intrusion into his basement immediately. 

It might be hard to tell in the before photo of this cottage crawl space, but the ceiling is starting to slope. The ceilings of crawl spaces are called floor joists, and they are directly responsible for the structural integrity of the floor above them, along with anything else that depends on that floor. While a sloping floor is by no means a good thing, it isn’t a death sentence for your house, either. It’s pretty common for the wood joists in a crawl space to begin to rot due to exposure to moisture and other crawl space conditions. That is exactly why, as foundation experts, we use a permanent solution to stop sloping floors. The added support in the after photo is the SmartJack system. As you can see, the SmartJacks were attached at the top to the wood support beam that holds up the floor joists and secured into the ground with a backfill combination of gravel and concrete. The SmartJacks won’t start to sink or slip away, so neither will the crawl space. SmartJacks are the perfect solution for all sagging crawl spaces.