My garage is heaving out of the ground from frost! The corner posts must not be sunk in past the frost barrier

Question

The Piers(?) in the corner of my garage that sink into the ground clearly didn't get set right and now they are heaving out of the ground with frost. The piers cut into the corner of the concrete slab that the garage used to rest on. The garage has lifted nearly a foot on one side and at least 6 inches on the other. How do I correct this? Would it be feasible to cut off the exposed portion of the piers and set the garage right down on the slab or am I looking at digging and chipping to correct the builders errors?"

The piers are running through the slab so I am not sure they will sink back into the ground if I dig under them. In one corner the pier is both running through the slab and bordered on the outside by a sidewalk so short of cutting the exposed pier off in that corner I will be doing some chipping anyway. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

How has this affected the integrity of the house? You might want to get a pro in to inspect this problem.

Answer 2

That's really something you should probably consult with a reputable contractor for.  I had a simlar problem with a storage building.  Smaller, but the process should be about the same.  Jack the building up, dig out the existing piers, and pour new ones a good 4 feet or more (depending on local codes) before lowering the structure back in place.  

A mini-excavator can dig deep enough to remove the existing concrete, then set the tubes for the new concrete.  The major problem you'll run into are going to be with raising and lowering the existing structure.  My building was small, so I just threw down a few floor jacks and stablized it on concrete blocks a couple feet from the corners on each side.  It was tight work with the excavator, but slow and patient got it done.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Sorry, but you will need to correct the building errors before you attempt to fix this, or else it will just keep happening.