Belle Meade Plantation
Built in Nashville, Tennessee by John Harding in 1807, “Belle Meade” means "beautiful meadow" in old English and French. Although the property began as a single log cabin on 250 acres, it grew into a 5,400-acre thoroughbred horse farm with its 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 weddings and other events held at this historic plantation. See their website at
https://bellemeadeplantation.com/.
The Mansion
The Belle Meade Plantation house 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. The home features a central hallway that extends through the three levels and a circular, cantilevered staircase with empire style spirals carved from cherry. Throughout the home are palladium wall niches for holding lamps at night. The home contains bedrooms for family members and guests as well as servant's quarters.
Foundation Issues at Belle Meade Mansion
The limestone foundation at Belle Meade was having issues common at 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 floors and wall and ceiling cracks 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.
PFT Lifts the Foundation and Repairs the Sloping Floors
Because of their reputation for doing outstanding foundation repair, including work on prior historic buildings, the management of Belle Air Plantation did not hesitate to contact Pro Foundation Technology from Kansas City. PFT has more than 30 years of experience doing waterproofing, concrete, and foundation repair in Kansas City and throughout Kansas and Missouri. 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.
Contact Pro Foundation Technology for Foundation Repair
Filed under Common Structural Problems, Concrete Leveling, Foundation Repair
Tags: aging foundation, foundation problems, foundation repair, Foundation settlement, polyurethane injection, sagging floors, sloping floors