Foundation Repair in West Vancouver

West Vancouver's mid-century modern homes frequently used post-and-beam construction with individual concrete point footings rather than continuous foundation walls. These point footings, often set on glacial till without deep embedment, can settle independently — causing one corner of the house to drop while others remain stable. We use helical piers through the original footing pad to reach bearing soil and arrest the movement.

West Vancouver experiences more freeze-thaw cycles per year than any other Metro Vancouver municipality, particularly in the Properties and Caulfeild. Water that enters cracks during warm periods freezes and expands in overnight frosts, widening cracks with every cycle. By spring, cracks that were hairlines in October are full-width fractures. Sealing cracks before winter is particularly important in West Vancouver.

Many British Properties lots have multiple retaining walls stepping down steep grades. These walls are often structurally interdependent — when the uppermost wall displaces, it increases load on the next wall down, which in turn loads the foundation. We regularly assess systems where one failing retaining wall has triggered movement in two or three walls below it, ultimately loading the house foundation itself.

Cantilevered deck slabs and floor slabs that project beyond the foundation line — common in West Van modernist homes — develop flexural cracks on their underside as they deflect under load over decades. These cracks allow water in, corrode the rebar, and accelerate the deflection. Carbon fibre plate bonding on the underside of the slab is the least invasive structural repair for these situations.

In the upper parts of West Vancouver where topsoil is thin over bedrock, water doesn't percolate — it runs horizontally along the rock surface and concentrates at any obstruction, including foundation walls. Homes in these areas have chronic hydrostatic loading on the upslope wall even though there's no deep soil mass behind the foundation. The fix is rock-surface drainage interception upslope of the building.