When an anxious buyer had to forgo the normal home inspection prior to purchase, the young couple did what was necessary and made an offer, which was accepted. The attractive, 40+ year-old frame colonial had recently been rehabbed and sold two years prior, so the first and second floors were in good shape. The basement however was not so. The 12″ concrete block foundation had ruptured at the top, corner and center support.
This means that they were not dealing with the usual 8″ – 10″ cinder block foundation that’s found in most mid-century homes, which get a bow at the middle and pushes inwards 1″ – 2″. These kinds of horizontal cracks can cause significant damage to the home, as well as unsafe settling of the floors upstairs.
The professional correction was to retrofit the hollow block wall with concrete mortar and steel rods “pinned” from top to bottom, then filled and patched from the inside. This two-day, permanent correction stopped any additional cracks and settlement of the basement wall, which allowed the young couple to quickly pack up and move, as they needed to do after accepting a new position in the area. This allowed renting the property to a young family with no concerns about mold or more wall damage.
Part of the reason for the demise of the home was that it had been a rental property for some time. The homeowners wanted to be sure of not having just a “pretty looking” home, that would then fail due to poor previous maintenance, resulting in a total foundation collapse. If the wall bracing procedure wasn’t done, the home would have needed the foundation to be lifted and leveled. Next, the progression would include an exterior dig, so that the foundation drain/rubber wall barrier would stop Hydro-Static pressure to the walls.
With proper long-term maintenance, as well as new porous/self-cleaning gutter guards and the completion of positive grading away from the walls, the belly of the wall would stay flat.
For homes that have older/narrow cinder blocks, a combination of steel/concrete wall pins and the new technology of carbon fiber internal wall bracing is recommended. The strapping of no-flex/high-strength fiber can be done for both horizontal and vertical cracking, to ensure secure, permanent wall bracing. This treatment would then be covered with waterproofing sealing/stucco for both concrete and block foundations.
Problem found, fixed and forgotten to allow the young homeowners a safe/usable basement den.
