Device and methods for raising footings and foundations

Abstract

A device and methods for raising an underground footing or foundation beneath a structure such as a home, office building or roadway, using a means of pumping expandable fluid into substratum below the area to be raised. The device includes an elongated shaft comprising a trailing end and a leading end and may define a fluid pathway from the upstream trailing end to the downstream leading end. The trailing end is adapted to secure fluid communication between the fluid pathway and the means of pumping expandable fluid may include. The fluid pathway terminates in a downstream fluid pathway exit, in a section of the leading end having a reduced diameter smaller than a diameter of the leading end upstream from said fluid pathway exit. The leading end further comprises a tip region converging to a point facilitating pushing of the leading end deeper into the substratum. The enlarged diameter of the leading end upstream from the fluid pathway exit defines an obstacle to upstream travel of the expandable fluid outside the fluid pathway exit, thereby containing the expandable fluid in the area beneath the footing to be raised. Besides the initial pushing of the leading end of the shaft into the substratum, the method for raising the footing also includes initially injecting a relatively smaller amount of expandable fluid at the initial depth, allowing the fluid to expand and solidify, then pushing the shaft further into the substratum to a deeper depth for injection of additional expandable fluid beneath the initial treatment area. This facilitates the raising of the initial treatment area rather than just the area of current injecting.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.