Underpinning

WHY UNDERPIN?

Very often due to the height of our basement ceilings, our basements are only good for storage or at the most a play area for our kids, and the value of the entire house is not as high as we would like it to be. But what about raising that value and adding a family room or a bedroom if your family is growing? If that’s the case in your home, then you’ve reached the correct team of professionals. We offer what is called “underpinning” or basement lowering - meaning that the floor in your Toronto home basement gets lowered to offer full liveable space providing you will a ceiling height of 8 feet or higher. However, underpinning not only increases liveable space, underpinning also stabilizes your home in case of any shifts which could have occurred in the surrounding grounds. Very often with our wet climate, the grounds around our homes, shift and degrade causing significant changes to other surroundings which in result can cause our foundations to be fragile and prone to movement. When this occurs, most often our foundation walls – the stability of our homes become weak and often unable to support the heavy house above, therefore they become vulnerable to cracks. If you happen to notice any changes in the grounds around your home – meaning any slants or slopes towards or away from your home or if you happen to notice a crack or a space which previously was not there, call us immediately and we will be there at your and our earliest convenience to diagnose and provide you with the best solution for you.
Underpinning is the one and only way of supporting your existing foundation walls without major renovations and without breaking your wallet.
However do not forget – Underpinning is the most precise and dangerous job which can ever be done around the house. Make sure to hire a team of true professionals who will do the job right the first time otherwise you might get stuck with serious foundation problems – some as serious as even the house not having strong enough support making it fragile enough to even collapse.

So..... Did we get you interested?????

Read the stages of an underpinning project below:

STAGES OF UNDERPINNING
When you decide to get an underpinning job completed at your house, there are a few steps and stages which need to be followed:

The first step of underpinning your Toronto home consists of agreeing on a suitable for you height however, always keeping in mind that the height must not create a hazardous working or living environment.
The second step is removing the existing foundation – in chunks. You cannot remove the entire slab of concrete which is the houses support at once as it will most definitely make the foundation fragile.
Next comes supporting the recently excavated area with a joint / shoring which then allows you to move forward with removing the next strip of concrete.
After concrete removal, excavation takes place – excavation of the soil to the desired level which in the end will be the height of the basement.
New toilets, drains etc. are planned out and placed into place at this particular time.
Once all the pipe work is done, concrete is poured and the flooring of the basement is set to cure.
Once the cement has cured, the flooring or carpeting (if any) is laid
(whatever was agreed on, prior to the beginning of the job).
And lastly, the very last step of any underpinning job is enjoying your new – larger basement.

*** Please do not forget to take into consideration that many of the above-mentioned steps need to be approved by the City, and inspected by a Structural Engineer.
Very often scheduling these is what take a longer than anticipated amount of time so please be considerate.