vertical cracking in basement wall

Hello,

I have some minor vertical cracking in my basement wall.
It is a block foundation built in 1950.

I had a home inspector evaluate the cracks and he said I didn't have anythign to worry about. He also mentioned I could remove one of the blocks at the top of the crack and poor a few bags of sackrete in the wall. Similar to the type that you put in the ground for a mailbox. He mentioned the moisture from the ground would make it into a solid concrete wall.

His logic seems sound and he is a reputable person but I haven't seen any fixes like this anywhere, online. All the fixes I've seen are topical in nature and don't actually help secure the wall at all.

Has anyone done a fix similar to this?
Did it work well?

 

If the inspector though your cracks were nothing to worry about why do you feel it needs to be repaired? Is the crack growing or do you have structural concerns?

 

Pilot Dane, thanks.

The cracks currently are nothing to worry about.
Never the less there are still vertical stress cracks going through the center of the block in some instances.

I would rather make the fix than have the crack grow and not be able to repair it by myself later.

Also the area around my house is clay (alot of expansion / contraction in the soil).

 

Often a home inspector or similar will offer something to do if is is a minor situation. It is optional unless he says something has to be done. Give the customer a good feeling without a false alarm.

A building inspector probably would not do something to make a resident feel better.

Dick

 

So I plan to replace some windows with glass block windows in my basement. This will give me the opportunity to fix some of the cracks beneath my window with the sakrete.

Does anyone have experience with this fix?

 

The corners of any window or openings are always a localized spot for cracks to start to form (stress concentration that does not like square corners). You might find some future cracks to show up because you are just plugging an opening and not removing the loads that are already there. - Any method of installing any new material in an opening will eventually shrink and not provide much long term support. The loads and stress adjustments have been there for over 60 years.

The future cracks, if any, are not structural.

Don't worry.

Dick

 

I think any cracks going through the center of concrete blocks, as you described, are structural in nature. Meaning that they have compromised the original integrity of the blocks, making them unable to fully perform their intended function. The concrete blocks in your foundation are what are supporting the house, and keeping the backfill from collapsing the walls. If that isn't structural, I don't know what is.

Very few home inspectors are adequately qualified to recommend proper repairs of concrete foundation members.