I found this site when I searched Google for "leaning garage" but the original thread seems to have been deleted. Here's the details on my problem:

My grandmother's 50-yr-old detached garage is starting to tilt, just visible to the eye. The foundation of garage is concrete, over which epoxy was coated at some point. The foundation is cracked, pretty much straight down the middle, and I notice that the right and left sides of garage are beginning to "sink down"... the ground outside appears graded into, not away from, sides of garage. A contractor informed me that improper water drainage around garage (no gutters, poor grading) and the resulting water pooling, freezing, and expanding/contracting under foundation is cause of problem. The cost to tear down and rebuild/replace garage is unaffordable to my elderly grandmother at this stage in her life. Problem is her home is included in her living trust and now bank that manages trust is aggressively pursuing demo of garage, with no plan to replace, because they fear liability if it should collapse. It seems to me that there should be SOME WAY to reinforce this garage as-is... by using exterior anchoring, interior bracing, etc, but as of right now, the contractor (who works for bank's real estate division) is saying that there is "no saving" the existing garage. Any and all input is appreciated regarding this.

 

Welcome to the forums!

I'm sure there is a way to brace up and straighten up the walls. Personally I'd have to be there and study it a bit to figure out how but there are a bunch of guys here that are smarter than me ..... so keep checking back and see what they come up with.

 

Not an engineer but when I notice my detached garage on a concrete slab was starting to lean I drilled holes on either side of the end that was leaning away, ran a chain through just below the cable so it crossed all the interior studs then hooked a come-along between the chain and base of a large tree. Slowly brought it back to plumb and put diagonal braces on the inside. Any studs that were rotten at the base I sistered with new treated 2X4s. Any place that seemed to be sagging I made the sisters a bit longer and hammered then in place to be sure they took the load.

This won't address slab issues but should keep it from falling down.

 

It appears the garage could have been built with just a slab-on-grade, with no footings or stemwalls to get below the frost line. It was also built too low, with little chance of getting positive drainage away from it to the surrounding ground. I tend to agree that there might not be any more practical options than remove-and-replace, but you would do well to get a second opinion from someone in the foundation repair business. If a lot of similar garages were built and still in existence in the area, a foundation specialty firm may have figured out a cost-effective way to make corrections.

 

Since you stated that a living trust was involved, it quickly gets to who controls what and who can over ride who.

Without knowing how much is available to support granny, her life expectancy etc. it may be time for someone to sit down with the bank's trust officer and perhaps an attorney.

 

Wow, if I had only known there was such a wellspring of helpful info so easily available! Thank you, thank you, thank you. With regard to other similar garages in neighborhood - this is a factor that has been bugging me. There ARE countless similar garages built all around here, few if any appear to be more modern than the original 1950's ones. I don't recall any having to be rebuilt and all are built using same method of construction. I personally have gone to neighbors and inquired about their garages and inspected them. Its common to see the concrete slabs cracked and a little "tilt" to the slabs, one way or another. It isn't as common to see that tilt affect the walls and structure.

So here's where I'm currently at with this: a local contractor strongly suggested I get a structural engineer out here to assess the garage and give opinion as to whether or not anything can or should be done to reinforce or try to save existing slab/structure. I personally liked the idea given by one commenter to get a foundation specialist to take a look, but this contractor says "no", it should be a structural engineer. I would appreciate your feedback regarding this, because I guess I don't comprehend how an engineer is going to be an expert in the "nuts and bolts" of how to shore up/rack up/secure this thing. And where do I find such a creature? I can't say I've ever seen "structural engineer" listed in the local paper's Services section.

 

I'd probably poor concrete under the slab to help stabilize it. dig down about 16inches a foot out from the front and rear of the slab and a foot under the slab. I'd do only one end at a time to minimize instability. Then I'd dig down for footings as required by local frost line. Pour a six inch thick reinforced slab. They make a heavy duty concrete block that has no voids. I'd push them under the slab and fill any remaining space with a small aggregate concrete mix. You could just poor concrete all way way up but that would be a bit trickier.

This is only gut engineering so wait for Bridgeman to correct me.

 

Structural engineers are listed in the Yellow Pages of every telephone book. But I don't think you need an engineer just yet. I cannot tell from the pictures if the garage is actually leaning, with respect to the slab, or if the entire slab has tilted. It it is only the latter then a slab jacking company may be able to simply pump grout under the low side and bring everything back close to level.

I'd definitely call some foundation companies and slab jacking companies.

 

There's a good chance that the other garages in the area were built slightly differently than your grandmother's. Meaning their slabs might have been cast with more steel reinforcement, and using thicker slabs or even thickened perimeters, forming integral footings. Something as simple as large-scale, insufficient subgrade compaction during your grandmother's garage construction could also be the cause of her problems. Hard to tell without looking at it in person.

To find a local engineer, you need to do a google internet search under the heading of "foundation engineer," or "structural engineer," or "concrete repair engineer". Make sure to include the name(s) of the nearest large city to the garage's location. That should give you a few sources to start with. Make a point of asking (during your phone interview with them) how much experience they have with concrete foundation evaluations, and if they've ever used a pachometer, and also ask if they've ever retrofitted/stabilized failing residential foundations. When I was doing free-lance concrete inspections, I always made a point of doing a brief overview visit/review at no charge to the client, but you may have trouble finding anyone like that where you are.

The real beauty of having foundation repair specialists brought into the picture would be that they will undoubtedly have experience with problems such as yours, as well as knowing what works for effectively correcting similar deficiencies. They will try to sell their services to you (some more diligently than others), so you need to be prepared to patiently listen to their pitch, take good notes, and then tell them you are still shopping around for the right contractor before happily sending them on their way. Most firms that I've dealt with do not charge for performing evaluations and giving firm-cost quotes for their corrective work.

 

I wanted to let all of you wonderful people who took time to give me opinion on garage know that -

Per tips posted here and tips given by local contractors, too, I contacted structural engineer AND mud-jacking/slab-jacking company. The engineer told me that the garage itself is structurally sound and could benefit from mud-jacking. And the mud-jacking contractor came out and nailed the problem right on the nose: he said that the brick/block/patio tile I piled up on south side of garage about a year ago has caused sinking on that side. Eureka! Of course! That's why the garage only "moved" in past year! The M-J contractor also said that everything else - cracked slab, sinkage - is totally normal for the age and style of garage and that the garage has many years of life left.

So now the task in front of me is to go back to bank that manages trust and tell them that their contractor is a doofus (I won't use that word, of course, although I'd like to after all the extra work and stress he's caused me) and please don't tear down the garage.

So here's my helpful tip back to all of you: DON'T put your property in a trust! My grandmother meant well but keeping up this house and trying to get anything accomplished right has been a nightmare. There has to be another vehicle out there that will give one peace of mind for the future that's better than deed-in-trust.

Thanks and Happy Holidays!