Engineering advice needed on foundation repair

In My Humble Opinion
1

Anybody here a structural engineer or have any knowledge of foundation repair methods? We’ve gotten a couple of bids to have the foundation of our house repaired, but we’re not sure which method is the best. The bids are very comparable price-wise and both call for using the same number of piers to raise the parts of the house that have shifted. The only real difference is the method each employs.

One company uses a “drilled pier” method where they drill down about 8-12 feet and pour a concrete pier to support the house. The other company uses a “pressed pile pier” which consists of driving a series of 12” by 6” concrete cylinders into the ground and locking them together with a carbon steel pin between each cylinder.

My question is which method is the best? The house is in North Texas where the soil is clay-based. Does one of these methods have any advantage over the other? Which one offers the most long-lasting support for the house? We don’t want to have to go through this again 10 or 20 years from now.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

2

Although I do AutoCAD drafting for a structural engineering firm, I’m not an engineer, so take the following for what it is; off the cuff advice from a semi-informed source.

The rule in our office is to keep it simple. A solid poured concrete pier is preferable to block due to possible shifting and cracking resulting from freeze-thaw cycles (although that may not be much of a problem for you down in Texas :)). You don’t mention the proposed diameter of the poured piers, but as long as there is sufficient rebar you should have a nice solid base. I’m not familiar with the “pressed pile pier” method you mention so I can’t comment.

BTW, I hope you’ve discussed proposed repairs with an engineer directly and not just with the contractor. I’ve seen some glorious messes come from contractors who “knew what they were doing”.

Hodge