Hi, My husband and I are selling our home and our buyers home inspector found a horizontal crack in our basement wall. He recommended that a structural engineer come out and have a look. The crack is 1/8 of an inch wide at it's widest point right in the mortar lines. It's five blocks down on a 13 course basement and at that width it's about 2 feet long. From there the crack does go about 10 feet in total, following the mortar lines and stepping up toward ground level. It's much less than 1/8th of an inch wide after the widest point. So their engineer comes out (and he's in the repair end of the biz too), and basically says that the foundation wall is failing and proposes a very dramatic (and expensive fix). He's proposing that the only way to fix this wall is to drill into the outside foundation, put rebar in every so many feet and pump super mortar (or something) into the wall at high pressure. This would entale taking out all of our landscaping, *moving* all the utility lines, and removing our electrical panel and gas line from that side of the basement. Total cost...$21,000!!!! We're new to this basement crack issue, and while we've learned now that horizontal is more serious than vertical, this certainly seemed like a really drastic fix. Can anyone give me a little guidance on whether or not this guy is off the wall, or perhaps some other options to repair the wall. We have hired our own independent structural engineer heading out later this week to have a look. He is not in the repair end of the business. From what we've read in our home warranty booklet, they recommend "pointing and patching" the wall, which of course this other guy said will not fix the problem. We think that the crack may have always been there, possibly caused by a backhoe during back-filling. This guy said that it's due to freezing and mother nature and will only get worse. Thanks for any info!!

I have read through numerous pages and have noted the following steps for completing the walls without framing, but still have some questions about the process. Assumptions: - Our basement does not have any water issues. I am still going to do the plastic sheet test, but feel we are safe. - Our budget is not allowing us to frame the basement, but we are aware that we may have uneven, wavy results without it. To refinish the walls w/o framing, the following steps need to be taken? 1. Dry-lock (is this necessary?) 2. Vapor Barrier (according to our specific code) 3. Attach furring strips 4. Insert insulation 5. Additional Vapor barrier over insulation, under sheetrock (is this necessary or according to code?) 6. Sheetrock - Are these steps accurate and in the correct order? - We are also looking to install padding and carpet over the concrete floor, is there anything additional that needs to be completed? - With the above process, how far above the floor level should we install the sheetrock? - We are still uncertain about how we want to do the ceiling. What options are available without wall frames? Can the ceiling be completed last or does it need to be done first? Thanks for any information!!!