Dead Man Does Repair

Imploding Basement Foundations are generally but not limited poor water control. The foundations that are most vulnerable are the ones that are built with CMUs (cinder block). Consequently these foundations require good water control to maintain their structural integrity.

Here is an example of foundation questions I receive:

Question:
Recently we inherited an early 1900’s house when my Grandmother passed away. We were looking for a house, so we decided to not sell my Grandmothers house, but keep it and live there.
The work that the house needs is mostly things that we can do ourselves, except for one thing. The basement wall on the up hill side is caving in. We know that this is a big job, and probably costly.
Can you give us some idea of who to call and what kind of work is involved?
Can you tell us how much of the house they will have to tear down to fix this problem?


Answer:
The first thing to do is call some foundation/basement repair companies, to get estimates. The cost is based on the method that has to be used. If the wall is bowed in only a couple of inches then, it can be repaired with soil anchors (Dead Man).
The soil anchor method is done with minimum disturbance to the house and the landscaping.
Here is the procedure for the soil anchor method:
* The installers will find good hard ground, around ten feet or so from the out side of the wall.
* Then they will dig a hole about two feet square, every six or eight feet.
* Then an earth anchor is placed in the holes; these anchors are a steel plate about two-foot square.
* From theses holes they dig a narrow trench to the house for a steel anchor rod to go in.
* Where the trenches meet the house, a hole is drilled through the basement wall
* The steel rod is attached to the earth anchor.
* Then the steel anchor is placed in the trench and through the anchor holes in the basement wall.
* Where the rod comes through the basement wall, a metal plate is attached to the end of the rod, (these plates are about 16 inches square).
* The steel wall plates are tightened until the wall is back to its original position.
When the walls are extremely bowed, they use a dig-out method. With a small backhoe the dirt is removed from the outside walls, this removes the soil pressure. Then the soil anchor method is used to pull the walls back in place. This method is more expensive and makes a little more mess, but works very good.

It is very important to keep gutters and downspouts in good working order, and maintain the soil level around house so water will run away from the foundation. Water around foundation will cause the hydrostatic pressure that implodes foundations.

A professional home inspector will recognize and explain poor water control issues your home may have.