Ewing & Ray Finds Niche with Foundation Repair

By WALLY NORTHWAY
CM Staff Writer

RIDGELAND – Six years ago, Ewing & Ray Foundation Services (ERFS) owned one computer – a 286 machine in the bookkeeping office. Today, the company not only utilizes computers throughout the office, but uses them extensively in the field, as well.

However, according to John W. Ray, president of the company, all the computing power in the world won’t lift a single structure. It still takes good, old-fashioned sweat.

“While we do integrate new concepts and technologies all the time, this is a grunt company,” he said. “We may use a mechanical jack or a hydraulic jack, but lifting buildings hasn’t changed much at all.”

ERFS ought to know. Founded in 1968, the Ridgeland-based company has not only done lifting, but also underpinning, grouting and drainage systems to stabilize structures and sites ranging from small, pre-fabricated residences to large multi-story commercial properties.

Employing more than 20 workers (mostly field employees), ERFS has worked on such projects as the Noxubee County Court House and West Point Junior High School, but, according to Ray, the company has stuck closer to home because the active clays that are found within a 30-mile radius of north Jackson play havoc on foundations and affords plenty of work.

How much work? Ray said over the last six years, the company’s sales figures have increases a whopping 225%.

“Our company’s philosophy is based on integrity, honesty, identifying the true problem and meeting the customers’ needs,” and Ray, a Louisville native and Mississippi State University alumnus who bought the company in 1987. “What makes us unique is that we will go on-site, do an evaluation, give a report or quotation, tell them what we recommend and give them a price. People don’t want to have to deal with an engineering firm and a construction company. We offer it all, saving them time and headaches.”

What’s going on down there?

Recently, Ray prepared a presentation for a home show where he laid out some theorems he has discovered through personal observation and experience of why foundation problems are a constant problem, especially in the tricky active clays of central Mississippi.

• Once a foundation begins to fail, it’s impossible to completely correct, especially if the initial construction was shoddy. This can include poor sit preparation, building foundation plans, construction or landscaping. Sometimes the failure can take years to fail, and the final cause may be quite difficult to determine.

• If movement occurs within the first two years of construction, it may be from poor compaction of the fill or poor site drainage. However, if movement occurs after a considerable period of time, external conditions have changed that is causing the failure.

• In older homes, about 80% of all problems are caused either by water or trees/large plants. It can be as simple and innocent as a dripping faucet or air conditioner, or sagging gutters. A constant drip from an outside faucet can add five or more gallons of water per day to the ground. When considering that a 4% change in moisture can create a 10% change in volume (swelling or shrinkage) of active clays under a foundation, it is prudent to keep a close watch on any extra moisture around the foundation.

• In hardwoods, the canopy of limbs represents the size and extent of the root system. Thus, if limbs overhang a structure, most likely roots under the foundation. A large hard-wood can transpirate up to 50 gallons of moisture per week away from the foundation, which can cause adverse effects.

• Twenty percent of the movement of structures is caused not by settling buy by heaving. When it is very dry, moisture accelerates heaving. Settling is generally much easier to remedy than heaving. Often the only solution for heaving is to install a French drain and hope the active clays will shrink back at least partially. However, it will never return to its original condition. The only way to determine if a problem is settling or heaving is to do a scale drawing, take elevations, plot the floor contours and study the results. A four-foot carpenter’s level is not adequate to measure a three-dimensional movement.

• There are two types of foundation repairs—shallow and deep foundation repair systems. Shallow systems are used in 98% of all residential repairs. Examples of shallow repairs are cable lock systems, grout/mud pumping and concrete pads, none of which are considered a permanent fix. Deep systems include deep concrete piles, helical piers and deep push pipe piles. The best bet is to try to match the best solution of the problem to the conditions and budget available.

• Regardless of which system is utilized, all voids should be grout/mud pumped to reinforce the slab. This replaces the fil that has subsided and prevents water intrusion. However, because grout pumping will add about 35% to the cost of construction, most foundation contractors do not bid pumping as part of their quote. This will eventually cause foundation failure.

Contact CM staff writer Wally Northway at northway@msbusiness.com or (601) 364-1016