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Block Pier Construction
Very often, I enter a crawl space only to see where someone has installed supporting piers in various locations to support a sagging floor structure or a poorly supported main house beam. In my area, most crawl spaces have very little head room so you know is must be very difficult to work in. Typically when I see these add on block piers (cmu's) they are dry laid and generally resting on the soil (no footer). In addition, they are usually not anchored to the floor strucutre. Typically it is a block pier with wood or metal shims. Likewise, I will often see additional beams installed to support several sagging floor joists. Again, beams, piers, and joists are not anchored together. My question is: Should one expect to see footers beneath piers, and beams and joists anchored together. Again, a lot of the spaces are very difficult to get into much less excavate an area to place a footer beneath a new pier. I am just curious as to what other people are seeing and how far to go when suggesting repairs. I am posting a few pictures as an example.
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Greg Jenkins
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