Foundation cracks

[Paddy]

Last year I had noticed a corner of my house had settled a bit, 1/2". It opened the classic stair step patern of the concrete blocks. I got around to it this year and tuck pointed the gap from both inside and out after chipping out the original morter. This was early in the Summer. Two weeks ago, I noticed it was back!

A friend is also a contractor and he gave it a look. He blamed it on the very dry conditions we have had here in S. Indiana. "The clay has shrank in that corner", he said. I see that as a posability since there is an offset attached garage with in 5' of that corner. This would keep the foundation at a different moisture level compared to the corner. I have sence re-tucked pointed so a photo is not an option.

My first thought is to: make sure the tuck point job is good from both sides, again. Knock a few holes in the block at the top so I can pour a few cores with concrete. I might even be able the slightly bend a pc of 1/2" or 3/8" rebar and pound it in. Seams this would tie the sections together by adding compressive and tensile strength.

I'm not so concerned myself but we plan on selling the house some day and I would like to solve the problem.

Any experince with this issue??

Patrick T.

 

[DocHeb]

Tuck-pointing, filling cores, and rebar will not hold against a multi-multi-ton object trying to follow its foundation. Helical peirs installed on that corner's footings might win that battle against gravity - I don't think this is a do-it-yourself job if you want any repair that is more than cosmetic.

 

[Egon]

It may be worth the cost to engage a geotechnical engineer for a preliminary report. It may also include a structural engineer.

After this you can pick an option to follow.

A fella I know had a very similar situation. He now has his house jacked up while the basement walls and floor are being redone.

 

[jfh28]

How old is the house?

Jack

 

[Paddy]

I have looked at the corner in a different light and a few more details. I had built a 30x40' home 20+ years ago. Five years ago I built an attached garage, 26x40'. So one side of the garage lines up with the existing home's wall but the other side is inset 4'. The poured walls of the new garage were pined to the block walls and set 5' deeper. I think what is happening is the new garage is so deep and stabil it has a different expansion rate compared to the old part of the house. The footer depth of the house (corner in question) is 2.5' and the footer depth for the garage is 8'. now these are tied together and are conected. like a major step footer for any one who has built on a steep hill. I think the garage is down in very stabil soil, 8' deep. and the older part of the house is in..let's say soil more influnced outside conditions. had the two building not been conected, I might just be looking at flashing movement. The issue has only appeared since the addition.

Patrick T.

 

[Soundguy]

Depending on how bad it is.. you may have to bore under that end, and jack, and pump full of concrete to stabilize that corner of the foundation.

good luck

Soundguy

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm a contractor and do allot of repairs on homes. It's sorta how I make a living. I never get involved in foundation problems and don't know a single company or method that I'd recomend. I've heard of people spending $30,000 and not have it fixed by a big name, nationwide company. It can be done, but it's a money pit that has no gurantee of succeeding.

Here's what happens. You call in a company and they tell you they can fix it. Every single company you call will tell you they can fix it. It's how they make there money. Each has a different aproach, or angle, but the basics are the same. They will try to get some sort of support for your foundation that goes down deeper then your foundation already does. Piers, cables or beams. There are all sorts of options.

Sometimes it works, but most of the time, it just minimizes the problem. If you're lucky, it's not as bad as before and you hardly notice it anymore. But it's rare, if not impossible to stop a house from moving. Every house moves to some degree.

The big selling point is the warrantee. They all gurantee their work, but half of the people I've talked to say the people who did the work are no longer in business. I can't prove this, but I think allot of them stay in business a few years, do as much work as possible, then close up and start up another new business all over again. The bigger companies may or may not show up when you call to complain when the house moves again. The warrantee's are not total and the fine print will usually let them get away with having to give your money back. Either way, it's a battle with them that you will never win.

If you can live with it, save your money.

Eddie

 

[RobJ]

Down her we have that problem a lot. With a lot of rain the foundation companies go out of business or their price comes way down...$200 a pier. Dry for a few years and they are busy. A lot can be solved my keeping the moisture around the foundation stable. This means a watering system.

Good Luck,
Rob

 

[KrumpsBrother]

paddy,

Run some soaker hoses around your foundation and soak the clay soil once a week during summer. The cracks in my house that show up in the dry summer disappear after a good soaking.

KB

 

[dieselalles]

KB, I lived in North Texas for 20 years where there's a lot of clay in the soil. The rule of thumb was always to keep your grass green around your foundation to prevent any foundation problems. That worked for me.

And I've seen dry spells in Texas where unirrigated land would produce cracks large enough to swallow a Volkswagen. Well, ok, a bit of a Texas tall tale. But they certainly were big enough to break a leg.

And this is the first time in 25 years that I've seen Texas sized cracks in Tennessee.

 

[VABlue]

I agree with everyone else - keep the soil around the house a little moist. But not saturated! I was just reseaching shrink/swell soils, which my house is built on. My county has special foundation design criteria because of it. Google "shrink swell soil" and you'll get a link for Spotsylvania County in Virginia. You might also find some different info on foundation repairs in this type of soil.

 

[metalsmith]

Deal with the problem in stages. Get estimates from different companies ( not the cosmetic type contractors) and/or engineers to help determine the actual cause and soil type you are dealing with. If its regular ole clay the last thing you want is to add water which will compound the side load by 10 fold. There are several forces and reactions on foundations. One being the expansion and contraction of the house on the top of the foundation wall pushing, pulling and flexing the top if it can not slide on the plate. Another is the side load of the earth surrounding it, view that as a heavy force leaning on a tree, the wall will bend if its not strong enough and darn few regular foundations are these days. Another is soil stability beneath the footers, be it soft soil, seasonal conditions like quicksand, or as a slow land slide on the side of hills. One other to consider in this type of case is if the garage gets below freezing temp inside, if so you now have the house footer and supporting soil subject to freezing and heaving. I致e used all types of methods for foundation work , from death men anchors to floating the whole house unit above a quicksand pocket, but no one method works for all foundations. The only tuck pointing compounds strong enough to resist cracking are epoxies and then the wall just cracks along side the patch if you don奏 fix the actual cause. In a few rare cases one can use a polyurethane joint compound but those are strictly for watertight cosmetics. So do your homework first and figure out the reason for the shift. Check straightness of walls, comparisons of elevations of wall tops, outside drainage, soil type and how it reacts etc and get advice. With that info you can then decide on a method that fixes it for a few years or once and for all.