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Why did only one side of a 1958 brick home in The Village need piers?

Reviewed by Preston, Oklahoma foundation repair consultant · Updated 2026-10-14

The Village (Oklahoma City metro)20251-story wood frame with brick veneer, built about 1958, about 1,100 sq ftShallow perimeter foundation; report describes slab-on-grade and a crawl space with interior stem walls

In short: A 1958 brick home in The Village showed its worst cracking and a 3/8 in. trim gap on the east side, and an elevation survey found the floor up to about 1.2 in. low toward the east. The engineer attributed it to consolidation and shrink-swell of highly plastic clay and specified 4 steel piers on the east side only, with the west side to be monitored 1.

What did the house show?

On the east side the engineer recorded brick cracks of 1/32 to 1/8 in. under the windows, brick pulled about 1/8 in. off the window frame near the southeast corner, a 3/8 in. gap at the frieze trim at that same corner, and interior cracks above the east bedroom windows. The engineer classed this as significant movement 1.

The west side had smaller brick cracks (1/16 and 1/32 in.) and some previously patched interior cracks, which the engineer rated as not significant 1.

An elevation survey taken with a digital level (stated accuracy about 0.1 in. over 200 ft), zeroed at the front door, read from about 0.0 to −1.2 in., lowest toward the east. The crawl space was dry and the floor framing showed minimal deflection 1.

What did the engineer find was causing it?

The engineer named highly plastic clay soil, settling through consolidation and moving with moisture change. Rain and drought cycles, drainage, plumbing leaks and trees were listed as the moisture drivers 1.

What repair was specified?

What happened on the job?

The repair contractor installed the piers in 2025. Its markup of the engineer's plan logged the piers at roughly 9,500 psi driving pressure and recorded about 1/4 to 1/2 in. of lift 1.

What does this case show about Oklahoma foundations?

The soil mapped for the area in the project record is the Renthin series 1. USDA describes Renthin as a deep, well-drained soil weathered from Permian clayey and silty shale, with 35 to 55 percent clay in the subsoil, very slow permeability, and slickensides and shrinkage cracks typical of shrink-swell behavior; its linear extensibility is 6 cm or more within the top 100 cm 2. Soils like this change volume as they wet and dry, and the upper 1.5 to 2 m of soil sees the most seasonal moisture change 3.

This case also shows that movement is often uneven. One side of the house had dropped more than an inch while the other side was nearly level, and the engineer treated only the side that had moved 1. Seasonal clay movement usually lifts or drops a house unevenly rather than as a single block 3.

Free, plain-English answers. It asks a few questions and walks you to the repair that fits.

Common questions

Why weren't piers put on the whole house?

The engineer judged the west-side cracks (1/32 to 1/16 in.) not significant and recommended monitoring them, with re-evaluation only if movement continued.

How did the engineer decide when to stop driving the piers?

The plan said to drive the steel piers hydraulically until the foundation started lifting, at no more than 8 ft spacing, and warned against over-lifting.

What did the pier log show?

The repair contractor's markup logged the piers at roughly 9,500 psi driving pressure, with about 1/4 to 1/2 in. of lift.

Sources

  1. Engineer's evaluation report, 2025 (private client report) Licensed professional engineer, Oklahoma
  2. USDA Official Series Description - Renthin Series USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
  3. Shrink-Swell Subsidence (Hazard Information Profile) UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction / British Geological Survey

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