How The Dwyer Company Added Column Capacity for a Golf Simulator in a Cincinnati Home
- Project Type: Residential
- Project Services: Foundation Repair, Micropiles
The Problem
A Cincinnati homeowner wanted a golf simulator in the house. Fitting it meant lowering the floor in that part of the home, and dropping the floor changed what the interior columns had to carry. The renovation put additional load on columns that were already doing a job.
Load has to land somewhere. When a renovation adds weight to a column without adding support beneath it, that weight goes into the soil under the existing footing, and soil that was adequate for the original load may settle under a larger one. Adding capacity under those columns was the first item on the list, ahead of any floor work.
Our Solution
The Dwyer Company installed four micropiles inside the house. Micropiles are small-diameter drilled piles that carry load from the structure down to firmer material below, and their size is what makes them workable indoors. The crew placed the four piles to pick up the added load at the columns, so the capacity was in place before the floor came down.
Scudder General Contractors ran the renovation and coordinated the interior work. Dwyer’s crew brought equipment sized for a finished house and kept the pile work contained to the room being renovated.
The Results
- Four micropiles took on the extra load the lowered floor added to the interior columns.
- Support went in before the floor work started, so the renovation kept moving on its own schedule.
- All four piles were installed from inside the house, which left the exterior of the home and the yard untouched.
- Compact equipment handled the drilling in a finished space, so the crew worked without opening up the surrounding rooms.
The Challenge We Worked Through
Why This Matters
Renovations that move a floor or add heavy equipment change the loads a house was built to carry. A simulator bay or a home theater can put more weight on interior columns than the original footings were sized for, and the settling that follows shows up years later as cracked drywall and doors that stick. Micropiles let a homeowner add that capacity from inside the house, in the same room already torn up for the renovation, which is the cheapest time to do it.
- Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
- Completed: May 31, 2023
Planning a renovation that adds load to your foundation?
Deep History • Solid Choice
The Dwyer Company installs micropiles inside finished homes, reaching past soft soil to solid ground so an addition or a heavy new room has real support under it. Tell us what you’re planning and we’ll handle the foundation side.