If your floors sag, bounce, or slope, the fix isn't a new floor — it's what's holding it up. We install adjustable steel support jacks on concrete footings, sister rotted joists, and replace failing girders where they've given out.
A licensed local crew — usually out in 24 to 72 hours. Written scope, fixed price, no pressure.
Structural support work in Waxhaw is heaviest downtown, full stop. On any pre-1900 house within a quarter mile of Main St, you're looking at original brick piers that were laid before the Titanic sailed, sitting on unimproved Piedmont clay with no footings, no continuous perimeter, and no metal connectors anywhere in the framing. After 120+ years of clay expansion cycles, downspout dumping, and occasional truck vibration from Main St itself, roughly a third of these piers have some degree of settlement, mortar failure, brick spalling, or all three. That's where the real structural work is: helical piers driven to bearing, rebuilt brick columns, sistered joists, and full sill plate replacements.
The most complete structural job I did in Waxhaw last year was on McDonald St, an 1889 two-story on a corner lot half a block from the Museum of the Waxhaws. The homeowners had bought the house intending a full historic restoration and had their contractor do a pre-restoration structural survey. The report came back rough: eight piers with settlement over an inch, three with mortar failure requiring rebuild, four cracked joists on the front elevation, 22 feet of rotted sill on the front and side elevations, and a girder under the master bath that had lost about 30% of its cross-section to old rot. Total scope was 11 working days including two for the pier work to cure and one for HDC scheduling on the visible exterior grading work.
What we did: shored the entire front elevation with 12 Tiger SmartJack adjustable steel posts on temporary sill plates, drove 8 helical piers to bearing at 8 to 10 feet depending on soil conditions (Union County inspector was on site for the first two piers to verify bearing depth and torque), rebuilt three brick piers using reclaimed brick from a demo yard in Monroe with Type S mortar to match the historic joint feel, replaced 22 feet of front and side sill plate with pressure-treated Southern Yellow Pine sistered to the original where possible, sistered the four cracked joists with new 2x10s glued and screwed with GRK RSS structural screws, and replaced the failed girder with a doubled 2x12 with steel plate reinforcement on the connection to the pier tops. Union County permit and inspection at each structural stage. HDC review on the exterior grading changes that supported the pier work. That house is now solid for another century.
Out on Waxhaw Marvin Rd in the 2000s luxury stock, structural work is rare — those foundations are engineered fill with block perimeter and they're not moving. When we do see structural issues in Marvin Creek or Longview, it's almost always slow-leak damage: a plumbing or icemaker leak that ran for months in a tall open crawl where nobody noticed, and now there's 30 to 50 sq ft of subfloor rot and one or two joists with deep decay. Repair scope is usually a few days: locate and stop the leak, sister the affected joists, patch the subfloor with 3/4-inch Advantech, treat any adjacent moldy framing with antimicrobial. Union County permit for the structural sistering.
Any Waxhaw structural job starts with a full survey. On downtown historic homes I string a laser line across the footprint at sill level to measure actual deflection per pier — anything over a quarter inch is real settlement, anything over 3/4 inch is critical. Each affected pier gets photographed, mapped, and prioritized. I also probe every sill plate, joist end, and girder with a screwdriver looking for soft spots that indicate decay — on 120+ year old heart-pine framing, decay can hide inside a member with no visible exterior sign until you probe it. Once the scope is clear, shoring goes in first — Tiger SmartJack adjustable steel posts on temporary sill plates spread across three or four joists, arranged to unload the failing pier without letting the framing above drop further. Only after the section is safely shored do we start the actual repair.
Helical pier installation: drive the pier shaft (Grip-Tite or HMI, 3-inch or 4-inch depending on load requirements) with a hydraulic torque motor to either the target torque (usually 4,000 ft-lb minimum for a residential pier in Piedmont clay) or refusal, whichever comes first. Union County inspector will typically want to be on site for at least the first two piers of any job to verify bearing depth and torque readings. Once bearing is achieved, the pier is capped and connected to the sill or girder above via a bracket rated for the load. Pier rebuilds on historic homes use reclaimed brick sourced from local salvage (Old Carolina Brick reclaimed inventory or Monroe Brick and Tile salvage yard) with Type S masonry mortar that includes a lime component to match the historic joint feel. Sill replacement is pressure-treated Southern Yellow Pine sistered to the original where any of the original material can be salvaged, or full replacement where the decay is complete. Joist sistering is new 2x10 or 2x12 glued and screwed with GRK RSS structural screws in a staggered pattern every 12 inches. All structural work in Waxhaw pulls a Union County building permit through the Monroe office — turnaround is typically 5 to 10 business days plus inspection scheduling.
Helical piers for downtown Waxhaw pier work: HMI or Grip-Tite steel with either 3-inch or 4-inch shaft depending on load. Minimum bearing torque 4,000 ft-lb or refusal. Pier caps are welded steel brackets rated for the load, connected to sill or girder above with structural screws or through-bolted depending on connection detail. Tiger SmartJack adjustable steel posts (rated at 30,000 lb) for permanent bearing at rebuilt piers where new footings have been poured, and for temporary shoring during work.
Rebuild brick sourced from local salvage — Old Carolina Brick reclaimed inventory or Monroe Brick and Tile salvage yard for anything that needs to match a specific 1890s or early 1900s pattern. Mortar is Type S masonry with a lime component (Type N modified with additional lime) to match the historic joint feel and prevent cracking against the softer reclaimed brick. Never Type M — too hard, will crack the reclaimed brick and transfer stress to adjacent brick courses.
Sill and joist repair materials: pressure-treated Southern Yellow Pine 2x10 or 2x12 sistered with GRK RSS structural screws (5/16 by 5-inch minimum, staggered every 12 inches). Glue is PL Premium construction adhesive applied along the full contact face before mating members. Girder replacement is doubled 2x12 pressure-treated with steel plate reinforcement at connection points where the girder bears on rebuilt piers. All structural work is Union County permitted with inspection at critical stages (pier bearing verification, sistering completion, final).
Yes — Waxhaw is a regular structural support route. Free on-site inspection anywhere in Waxhaw, fixed written quote before we touch anything.
Waxhaw structural work is dominated by pre-1900 brick pier settlement in the downtown historic district — helical piers, pier rebuilds, sill replacement, joist sistering. The Marvin Rd 2000s stock rarely needs structural because the foundations are engineered fill and don't move, except for occasional slow-leak subfloor repair.
28173. All Union County addresses covered.
Depends on how much movement you want to reverse. If the settlement is under an inch and the historic finish materials (heart pine floors, original moldings, plaster walls) can tolerate the stress of a lift, we can drive helical piers and jack the pier back to a target elevation over several days of controlled lifting. If the settlement is over an inch and the historic finishes are fragile, we usually stabilize at the current elevation rather than lifting — the risk of cracking plaster or splitting the heart pine floors during a lift is real, and the visual slope in a 130-year-old house is often accepted as part of the character. I'll walk through both options on the inspection and recommend based on the specific house and your restoration goals.
For simple pier replacement or shoring of a single-pier failure in Piedmont clay, no engineer required — the load calculations are standard residential and Union County will accept a licensed contractor's specification. For more complex work — multiple pier failures on a single load path, girder replacement on a load-bearing wall, any lift over an inch on a historic property — Union County requires an engineer's stamped drawings before permitting. We work with a couple of local structural engineers in the Charlotte metro who know the historic Waxhaw stock and can turn drawings around in a week or two. I'll tell you on the inspection whether your job needs engineering input.
For a typical downtown Waxhaw job with 4 to 8 piers plus some sill or joist work, plan on 5 to 10 working days on site total, plus 2 to 3 for permits and inspection scheduling. You can live in the house during the work — the crew is under the house or in the crawl access area, not in the living space. There will be some noise from the torque motor during pier driving and from tools during sill or joist work, but nothing that requires occupant relocation. On larger jobs with significant sill or girder replacement, there may be a day or two when a specific room (usually the room directly above a shored section) should be kept unoccupied for safety, but that's easy to schedule around.
Union County actively enforces it and will fail any pier or footing installation that doesn't bear at 12 inches minimum on undisturbed soil. The inspector will typically want to see the pier bearing depth verified on the first two piers of any helical installation, and will require excavation to expose new footings before backfill. I've had jobs where an inspector required us to dig further because the original excavation exposed old fill instead of undisturbed clay at 12 inches. Bury it as spec'd or don't bother pulling the permit. We include the county inspection fees and coordination in the fixed written quote.
Free on-site Waxhaw inspection. Fixed written quote. Call (980) 227-1769 or book below.