A Fort Thomas scenario: push piers, helical piers, one house

This is an illustrative scenario. It is a composite of a pattern common on the older hillside streets of Campbell County, not a specific house or job.

The house

A 1920s two-story brick home in Fort Thomas, on a lot that falls away toward the back. The original house sits on a stone foundation. Decades later, a concrete front porch slab and steps were added on shallow footings over backfill.

Over a couple of years the owners noticed two things. Inside, the back door began to stick and a diagonal crack opened in the plaster above the kitchen window. Outside, the front porch tipped slightly toward the street, and a gap opened where it meets the brick, about 3/4 inch at the top.

What the inspection found

The specialist measured instead of guessing:

• Floor elevations across the first floor showed the rear corner about 1 1/4 inches lower than the front of the house, with the drop concentrated along roughly 40 feet of the rear and side walls.
• The brick at that corner had stair-step cracks wider at the top than at the bottom, the classic signature of a corner that has dropped.
• The porch had settled on its own. Its tilt and the gap at the house pointed to the shallow footings and the backfill beneath them, not to the main foundation.
• Water. Two rear downspouts emptied straight onto the slope behind the house, and the soil below them stayed soft for days after rain.

So there were two separate problems: a heavy masonry wall that had settled, and a light porch that had sunk independently.

Why the engineer chose two pier types

The licensed engineer who reviewed the findings specified push piers for the house and helical piers for the porch, and the reason is the whole lesson of this scenario.

Push piers need weight to push against. A hydraulic ram drives each steel pier section down using the weight of the structure above as its reaction, until the pier reaches refusal on competent material. A two-story brick wall is heavy enough to supply that reaction. A porch slab is not, so there is nothing to push against.

Helical piers make their own resistance. A torque motor screws them into the ground, and installation torque indicates capacity as they advance. That makes them the standard choice for light elements such as porches, stoops, and steps. Helical products are evaluated under ICC-ES acceptance criteria AC358, and the engineer's design set the minimum torque each one had to reach.

In this scenario the plan called for seven push piers along the settled rear and side walls and four helical piers under the porch. Because the original house sits on stone, the engineer also required each bracket location to be exposed and checked before a bracket was set, since old stone footings are far less uniform than poured concrete.

Lift it, or just stop it?

Once piers carry a settled foundation, it can often be raised part of the way back. Old plaster and brick can crack further when a house moves, though, so the owners and the engineer agreed on a partial lift: recover about an inch of the 1 1/4, accept some patching, and stop there. The porch, a separate slab on its own piers, could be brought back to level and the gap at the house sealed.

The water had to change too

The regional landslide guide posted by the City of Cincinnati names water management as the first line of defense on a slope that has moved. So the scope included carrying the rear downspouts in solid pipe to a stable outlet instead of dumping them onto the slope. Piers carry the house past the weak soil; drainage keeps that soil from getting heavier and weaker with every storm.

Permits and paperwork on the Kentucky side

Kentucky's residential code regulation leaves permits for single-family homes to local ordinance, so part of the scope was confirming what the city's building office required. The closeout package included the engineer's plan, the depth and load reading for each push pier, the torque reading for each helical pier, before-and-after elevations, and the manufacturer's transferable warranty.

The timeline in this scenario

The engineer's review and stamped plan came back about a week after the inspection, which is typical. The permit check with the city took a few more days. On site, the push piers along the rear and side walls took about three working days, including digging to the footing at each location, driving and load-testing each pier, the partial lift, and backfilling. The four porch helicals and the porch lift took one more day. Downspout piping and regrading the disturbed areas finished the job, and plaster patching inside waited a few weeks so any small settling cracks from the lift would show before they were repaired.

What it cost in this scenario

At typical Greater Cincinnati pricing of $1,200 to $2,500 per pier, eleven piers put the structural work between about $13,200 and $27,500, before drainage, engineering, and restoring landscaping and plaster. Pier count and depth drive that range more than anything else, which is why a stamped plan comes before a fixed price.

What to take from it

• One house can need two pier types. Heavy walls and light additions settle for different reasons and call for different hardware.
• Measure first. The elevation map found the drop and separated the porch problem from the house problem.
• On a slope, fix the water. Otherwise the soil that let the house settle keeps getting worse.

Our push pier page, helical pier page, and the push versus helical comparison go deeper. If you have a porch pulling away or a corner that seems to be dropping, read our answer on a settling porch or stoop, then call or text us with photos.