Polyjacking Restores Historic Belle Meade Plantation

Built in 1807 by John Harding, the historic Belle Meade Plantation developed into a 400-acre thoroughbred horse farm with its own train station, horse park, Greek-revival mansion, and housing for servants and former slaves. Today, Belle Meade Plantation includes 34 acres of its original property and several buildings, including the mansion and several outbuildings. It functions now as an educational resource dedicated to preserving Tennessee’s Victorian architecture, history, and equestrian lifestyle. Visitors can tour the buildings, shop, dine, taste wine, and enjoy special events held at this historic plantation. See their website at http://bellemeadeplantation.com/.

Belle Meade Mansion

The Belle Meade Plantation mansion began as a two-story Federal-style home, built in the 1820s with red bricks on a limestone foundation. On each side was a one-story wing. In the 1840s, William Giles Harding made additions to the original home and updated the style to Greek-Revival. The mansion features three floors with ceiling heights of fourteen feet on the lower two floors and eight feet on the top floor. It also contains a central hallway that extends through the three levels and a circular, cantilevered staircase with empire style spirals carved from cherry wood. Throughout the home are palladium wall niches for holding lamps at night. The home contains bedrooms for family members and guests as well as servants’ quarters.

Foundation Problems at Belle Meade Mansion

The limestone foundation at Belle Meade Mansion was having issues common with many older homes. It was sinking into the soil beneath it. After many years, rainwater had caused hydrostatic (water) pressure, creating cracks and water seepage in the walls and floor of the foundation. Heavy rains also caused water to seep beneath the foundation, and continued freezing and thawing had caused the soil to expand and contract, creating sinking and voids in the ground beneath the structure.

Because of the sinking and leaning walls in the foundation, it could no longer provide adequate support to the structure about it. Signs of foundation failure included sloping and uneven floors in many rooms of the old mansion. Because of the age and historic value of the building, the preservers of the property knew they couldn’t hire just anyone to restore the 200-year-old foundation without damaging the above structure.

Polyjacking Restores the Mansion’s Sinking Foundation

Because of their reputation for doing outstanding foundation repair, including work on prior historic buildings, the management of Belle Meade Plantation did not hesitate to contact Pro Foundation Technology (PFT) and their division, Polyjacking.com, from Kansas City. PFT and Polyjacking.com have more than 30 years of experience doing waterproofing, concrete, and foundation repair in Kansas City and throughout the Kansas and Missouri area. They use the highest-quality products from US manufacturer, Earth Contact Products (ECP) and have won recent recognition from HomeAdvisor for their quality service and workmanship.

Polyjacking.com made three trips to the historic mansion and were able to lift the sinking foundation and repair the underlying structure through the following steps:

• Using ground penetrating radar to detect voids, holes, underground structures, utilities, and other objects beneath the foundation
• Drilling small holes in the foundation floor in preparation for polyjacking
• Filling the voids beneath the foundation with polyurethane foam that expands into the voids and stabilizes the soil beneath the foundation

Not only were they able to lift and level the foundation without messy external excavation, but they also caused minimal disruption to the operations at the plantation and caused no additional damage to the structure or its contents. Belle Meade Mansion is restored to its former glory, is supported by a stronger foundation, is more structurally sound than ever, and will last for many years to come.

Contact Polyjacking.com for Foundation Repair

No matter if your home is over 200 years old or less than 20 years old, Polyjacking.com can lift and restore its foundation both quickly and cost-effectively so that it is better than new. Contact Polyjacking.com today!