Basement walls bowing


  #1  
Old 11-26-11, 10:42 PM
J
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Basement walls bowing

Hello,

I have a house that was built in 1925. I have one bad floor joist and a crumbling exterior foundation. I know I have to get gutters for my house, but I have not been able to get them on yet and probably will not until winter is over with.

The house was build using a cement pad (about 5 feet tall), above the cement there is about 5 layers of red brick. The red brick is two layers wide, back to back. What has happened is the brick has separated and my entire basement wall on the one side is starting to bow. I can literally move some of the mortar and bricks with my hands.

I need to find a way to jack up the house, or at least support it until I can figure out a permanent fix. The side of the house that is bowing is the side that runs parallel to the joists and is the longest part of the house. I'm at a loss as to how to support the house to jack it up as there really isn't anything to jack up, except the next joist over, but that probably is not a good idea. If it were the shorter side of the house that was bad, I assume I could jack up all the joists at once to fix the wall, but this is not the case as it is the longest side of the house.

I really have to figure out something soon that is cheap and that I can do myself. The 5 foot of cement slab appears to be in good shape, but these 5 or so layers of bricks are in disrepair.

I have thought about knocking a portion of the basement wall out and putting a jack between the cement slab and the sill plate, but I'm worried the house will fall. I have no access to credit or savings. My house would otherwise be in decent shape if not for this problem with my basement.

Any help would be appreciated. I have no idea where to begin. I do have 3 steel posts down there that I bought at home depot, one on a major beam and two jacking up the terrible sagging joist. I bought a new joist from the Amish, which fits the old 2x10 style in place for the joist that is bad.

I'm 24 and just graduated from college in May and haven't found solid work, my house is falling down it seems and student loans are soon to come. I'm hoping I can remedy this quickly. I'm not typically good with my hands or rugged work like this.

How much do you think it would cost for a contractor to redo these bricks? The house is about 40 feet long on that side of the house. I figure the bricks are about 1.5feet high. I'm assuming he could replace just the brick and hopefully doesn't have the 5 foot slab of cement as well. Eventually the remainder of the basement would have to be done. This makes me very tense and nervous to where I don't sleep at night.

Thank you
 
  #2  
Old 11-27-11, 03:25 AM
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Welcome to the forums! Generally jacking up houses is best left to professionals, but I understand your problems. Keep in mind, too, we can't see what you are seeing, so we are in the back seat. Maybe you could post a few pictures (not closeups) of the wall, basement, etc. so we can get an idea of what you have. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html
 
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Old 11-27-11, 07:04 AM
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Here is the one corner of my house....



Should I remove this sidewalk that is against the house? Will it help?

Other corner of my house.....



I removed the window as you can see and bricked it in because it was caving in.
 
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Old 11-27-11, 07:20 AM
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All I can really get is closeups, because all I have is a 3.2mp camera phone and it is dark down there.

The board, plate, whatever you call it above this is starting to twist outward.....



Pad and Bricks...
 
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Old 12-12-11, 04:04 PM
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Run, do not walk and get yourself a lally column. You can use that to buy some time to get a structural engineer to help you.

Unfortunately, I think you have bigger problems than a few bricks. First off, those "bricks" are your foundation and your house now has foundation problems. My guess is that water intrusion has a lot to do with the movement of the foundation.

Get thee up to thine roof and check those eaves troughs. Make sure that they are clear and all of your downspouts are draining properly.
 
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Old 12-12-11, 06:15 PM
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I wish you would stop calling that stem or kneewall a cement slab. At least I think that you are talking about the lower poured concrete wall. Cement slabs keep me thinking about a floor. I admire your willingness and sense that this needs immediate attention and must be accomodated with precision. I have more questions about your quandry than I do solutions now but want to point out a couple of things. See your building inspector for a permit and to advise him right off the bat of the repair plan. The longer that heavy wet fill on the outside sits pushing down and inward the closer the wall gets before it caves in.

I don't know what shape the lower poured section of the basement wall is or width or anything other than you seem to think you can save it. If it is sufficient you should be able to drill into the top of the wall vertically and drive some 1/2 rod in the 1/2 " drilled hole at the core location of an 8" or better yet 10" concrete block. Bricks are usually supposed to be laid above grade only because they are clay and tend to spall apart as moisture soaks in and freezes or otherwise effects the clay.

You will not be able to line your support columns up on the top of that concrete base wall because you need to build a replacement wall there. You will need lots of lumber but I have had to provide support under similar repair work and it will need to be at least tripled 2X8 or 8 " steel beams spanning the wall every 3 to 4 feet or every third block in the top course of blocks . You must also try to sister hopefully two more joist of similar width to o/s band joist to support o/s wall before taking up weight of structure. You could do section by section I suppose in order to reuse the beams and jack columns. Of course you will excavate the outside and allow a three foot work and tile area.

I mentioned 8" steel (which is ideal if you could find it or if you must 2 X 8 beams. as a block wall is laid up the plan would be to lay two blocks and skip the third for now because that is where the temporary 8" beam is. When those two two top course blocks joints cure in a couple days th beam can be removed and a good block mason plugs the pocket hole with a special two man tuck point method or pumps hydraulic grout in. The plan provides for basicallly only jacking the house up perhaps not more than 1/4 to 3/8 or 1/2 " above it's original grade. You are just taking up the weight of structure so hopefully old sill can be removed. In other words you will be replacing sill board in shorter sections. The original height of the block replacement foundation can allow space for a 1 1/2" sill board replacement sill board (GREEN) .

I have hopefully helped remind you of a couple of points perhaps you need to be awre of. I have done a few jobs of this nature and while I have lot's to learn I could write forever maybe a book on all the tricks you will need to learn. Good luck and I wish you safety and efficiency for our big job.

bs5

bs5
 
 

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