How the weight load of your house is transferred to the ground beneath it is often referred to as its "load path". For the most part, anything altering this relationship of house-to-ground can create effects in the form of "activity" in the structure; for this reason, it is quite important that homeowners realize the fragile nature of the various elements of a foundation support system.

In the photo above, we see where a homeowner has unknowingly allowed a key support under his house to be excavated close to and partially under it in a way that the support no longer properly bears on the soil as intended. A simple way to imagine the load path is that as the weight is distributed at a 45 degree angle down into the earth, imagine a giant cylindrical cone just below the surface where the tip of it is what each individual support rests on; with that thought in mind, one can then fairly easily determine what amount of digging can safely be done, versus what point one starts to literally undermine the foundation by disturbing the load path.

Simply put, don't allow anybody to dig around under your home (plumbers are a prime culprit...) unless you know that they understand these basic concepts.

At your service, 

Tom Pelletier, Owner

The Foundation Works