Residential project, Mission Viejo, CA
Helical piers as the first step in a hillside home rehab in Mission Viejo
A two story hillside home in Mission Viejo had been taken down to bare walls and subfloor for a rehab, and with the finishes gone the cracking was plain to see. The foundation work came first.
At a glance
- Location
- Mission Viejo, CA
- Home
- Two story hillside home with a pool, stripped for a rehab
- Problem
- Cracking in interior walls and above the fireplace
- Method
- Helical piers
- Filmed
- May 2020, first week of the work
On video
01
Helical piers under a hillside home
This home sits on a hillside lot with a pool along the back of the house and the slope falling away behind it. It had been stripped to bare walls and subfloor for a rehab, and with the drywall finishes and flooring gone the cracks were easy to read: a diagonal crack running down the wall beside the staircase, cracks above the archway between the living areas, and a crack climbing from the fireplace mantel. On a rehab like this the foundation is the first thing to address, as the video from the first week put it.
The crew drove helical piers with a hydraulic torque motor mounted on a drive head. On the pool side of the house a helical shaft was fed in through the open sliding door. The short video from that first week shows the site from above: the house, the drained pool, and the hillside around it.
Cracks showing up in a home you are working on?
Cracks over an archway, beside a staircase or above a fireplace are worth a look before the finishes go back on. A free evaluation tells you what the foundation is doing and what, if anything, it needs.
From the site
The cracks in the stripped interior, then the piers going in.
What this means for your home
Seeing cracks before the finishes go back on?
With the finishes stripped, a house shows you the cracks it has. Cracks over an archway, beside a staircase or above a fireplace are worth having looked at before the drywall and flooring go back in.
A free evaluation tells you what the foundation is doing and gives you a straightforward recommendation, whether that is helical piers, something else, or nothing at all.
