At Precision Foundation Repair and Concrete Lifting, we often find ourselves tasked with preserving pieces of local history. Recently, we completed a fascinating project in Hico, Texas—a 100-plus-year-old restoration on an old grain depot.
This historic structure features a covered area where farmers once pulled their wagons through to dump grain into a subsurface boot cellar. However, after a century of use and exposure to the elements, the foundation needed serious help.
The Problem: Compromised Soil Structure
Over the years, the way water had been pooling around the facility, combined with the nature of the slopes surrounding the depot, had severely compromised the soil structure. The earth supporting this heavy, historic building was losing its load-bearing capacity.
When approaching a repair on a century-old structure, the goal is always to achieve maximum stability with minimal disruption. We could have gone through and used any number of traditional products, like helical piers or steel push piers. However, given the specific conditions of the soil and the owner’s goals, we opted for a unique, non-invasive solution.
The Solution: Poly Grouting for Soil Stabilization
Instead of invasive piering, we opted to address the competency of the soil itself. We utilized a process sometimes referred to as “poly grouting.”
Here is how we restored the foundation’s load-bearing capacity:
- Deep Injection: We drove specialized rods deep into the ground around the perimeter of the building.
- High-Density Polyurethane: We used those rods to pump high-density poly directly into the compromised soil structure.
- Targeting Weaknesses: The foam is designed to find imperfections and fissures in the soil. In this case, the poly followed those fissures so perfectly that it even sealed cracks in the wall of the old boot cellar!
By pumping poly into the weak zones around the perimeter, we successfully restored the load-bearing capacity of the soil without heavy excavation.
Advanced Soil Stabilization Applications
This technique isn’t just for historic grain depots. We use deep soil poly grouting frequently in other challenging environments, including:
- Stabilizing soil around lake walls and seawalls.
- Addressing layers of incompetent soils in new construction settings.
This was a cool project and a solid solution to get this historic structure stable and ready for lots more years of use.