Residential Photo Album: River Erosion Causes Cottage Foundation to Sink in Severn Bridge, Ontario
Escaping from the city and heading up north is a great way to refresh. We long for it all week, and when Friday night comes around, we love to head straight to the cottage. A customer in Severn Bridge, Ontario, realized he could build off of our need for the great outdoors, and decided to build a cottage resort. The units were built on concrete slabs next to the beautiful Trent Severn Waterway, but that nice view came with a price.
As time went by, the river eroded the soil beneath the concrete slabs, affecting one cottage in particular. The erosion caused the foundation to settle almost five inches, creating a noticeable slope when you walked in the front door. Unable to sell the cottage due to this issue, the owner turned to Canadian Concrete Leveling.
He had no idea what could be done and was afraid the foundation would have to be poured again. Fortunately, Project Manager Paul Mendell was able to put the customer’s worries to rest after he showed him our PolyLevel® Injection System. He was thrilled to find out we had a minimally invasive technique to level the cottage foundation.
Foreman Kyle McKeown went to the site and used PolyLevel® injections to lift the concrete slab slowly. He was able to level the entire foundation, removing the noticeable slope. Kyle also injected PolyLevel® beneath the foundation to stabilize it.
The customer is ecstatic that he can finally sell the unit, and the repair cost him significantly less than he thought it would. He said we exceeded all of his expectations, and he was very impressed by the entire process.
Before
The back of the cottage was sloped five inches lower than the front
After
We lifted the back half of the foundation five inches, making the foundation level again
The Cottage
It's hard to tell, but this cozy cottage was sinking towards the river behind it due to erosion and settlement
PolyLevel® Injections
We carefully injected our expanding polyurethane throughout the interior of the cottage to lift the foundation
Keeping Things Level
Kyle kept a watchful eye on the ZipLevel tool, which tells you the slope, to ensure the floor stayed level as he made the injections
The River
It's hard to believe that a small river could cause such an issue, but water always finds a way, which is why we stabilized the foundation as well to ensure the problem doesn't return
ZipLevel
This useful tool tells us the slope of a floor or foundation from one point to another