Concrete block basement wall cracks

Now that my fears about the foundation not being bolted to the house are somewhat allayed, I will move on to my next major concern. That being some stairstep cracks in the corners of the basement walls. The cracks are approx. 1/16 " and don't seem to be getting wider. Also there are numerous hairline cracks all over, mainly on that same wall. Been battling water issues from day one which I'll get into.

This was about the last lot sold in the subdivision and for good reason I've found. Lot gets a lot of run off from higher ground behind it. House was built with no exterior drain tile around the outside footer. However, it was built with an interior drain system leading to sump pump. Has French drain all around interior perimeter of the house under the cement floor. Weep hole in bottom concrete block under the basement floor. Sump pumps a lot of water during heavy rain. Water table is pretty high even though I am up on a hill, just not quite at the top. water table is actually about 8 inches or so below the basement floor, so I set the sump pump accordingly. Not really getting much water in the basement, maybe a little under the sink where there is no thorougseal if it rains for several days straight.

House was not originally graded properly to drain water away from the house. Had a swamp in my back yard so I had it regraded putting swales on each side of the house to drain the water. Put in French drains all around the house which resulted in a big improvement drainage wise. Originally there was no drip edge on the gutters so fixed that. I keep the gutters clean, they run underground and discharge at the road. Originally the window wells would fill up (no drains of course) and spill into the basement, so put a drain in one well tying into the French drain and put a little Wayne sump pump in the other well. Would like to put a drain in this one too. Can't think of much else I can do.

So am wondering what to do about these cracks. Do i call a mason and see if He can fill them? Call a basement contractor ? Am wondering if this wall will fail soon. Maybe should put another support under that girder?

girder

If they are stable, and not growing. I'd chisel out the mortar and repoint the joints. If they aren't stable, you'd need to investigate why, and might possibly need some foundation stabilization work done. Is the wall plumb and are the two sides of the crack even with one another? Lay a long level against the wall spanning the crack horizontally, is there a hump at the crack? Then check it for plumb (vertically level) in several places to make sure it isn't leaning in at all.

Put a 4-foot level over the crack horizontally, yes there is definitely a noticeable hump at the crack. Ran the level horizontally, definitely leaning inward but not really as bad as horizontally.

The cause is hydraulic pressure from water, I believe. Builder cut a lot of corners. Did'nt install an outside drain tile run to daylight. Also not backfilled properly with stone.

Showed this to a masonry /basement contractor yesterday. He has a unique perspective on the houses (big subdivision) in this area in that he was involved in laying concrete for many of these back 35 years ago. He told me there was no outside drain tile put in any of them and many corners were cut during construction. All things I am painfully aware of.

HIs recommendation: The nuclear one, excavate down to the footer the three walls comprising the basement. The house is a trilevel with half of it being higher level with no foundation problems. He would excavate out 2-feet clear down to the footer. Then parge / waterproof the outside walls. Install 4"-inch pvc drainpipe at the base running to daylight, if possible, otherwise run it back inside to the sump and fill entire thing with 2b stone. (No rubber membrane for the wall or burrito wrap for the stone) Then go inside and repoint the joints. Not a cheap date but I didn't think 12k was not too bad for all that. I would be responsible for removing the air conditioning unit that's in the way. He would rough grade and I would have to replant the grass.

I agree with his recommendation. Am thinking it's the only way to save the house. Not sure it's even safe currently. Trying to get a structural engineer to come out and take a look at it. Will get some other contactor bids and probably go ahead with-it next July or August when hopefully we have some dry weather.

Thanks for your input Sparky617

Also the gap I noticed between the sill plate and foundation is probably from the basement wall leaning inward. yikes

New to the forum but not new to this problem. I had a house with a block basement for 40 years, just sol it 2 years ago. The foundation had horizontal cracks mid way up the wall , 3 walls, the only wall that didn’t have cracks was the garage side . I had a contractor come in 40 years ago to cut the floor along the wall and put in a new sump pit and perforated drainage , pour new concrete to finish . Took care of the drainage problem but the wall was tipping in more , 35 years later , I’m getting ready to sell , but the walls needed work. I bought 4 inch i beam and broke the concrete at 8 ft intervals along the 3 walls and put an I beam into the floor up to the floor joists. With a jack pushing the I beam towards the wall then I put a brace under the floor joist to hold the beam under tension to the wall . Hope this could help , total cost was about $2000 with me doing the work. Thought I had pictures but that was 4 yrs ago .

WOW , congrats on doing an awesome job. Thanks for your input. One of the contractors I spoke with mentioned something similar to that. Break the floor at intervals , 4 inch I-beam etc.

Getting different ideas from various basement contractors. The most professional one so far seems to be Total Foundation Solutions. They actually measured how out of plumb the walls are. One wall is leaning in 1 inch another one leans in 3/4 inch. The other 2 are plumb. They suggested using carbon armor strips at intervals to stabilize the foundation walls. They offer a 25 year transferable warrantee that the walls will not move anymore Actually seems too good to be true. Hard to believe this would actually work. They epoxy these thin carbon fiber strips along your wall that are supposed to be stronger than steel and connect to sill and band joist. Anyone have any experience with this? Cost 7 k.
They also said it wasn't really bad enough to excavate.


Carbon Armor

I looked into the carbon fiber straps, would have cost me twice as much as the I beams and a few bags of concrete. What I didn’t like about the carbon strips is the wall where the strips would be glued in place had to be ground with diamond grinding wheels . I didn’t want the dust and I knew that the I beam would be fool proof. No grinding and was relatively easy to do over the course of a few days really ,only about 10-12 hrs .

mark3885 said:

New to the forum but not new to this problem. I had a house with a block basement for 40 years, just sol it 2 years ago. The foundation had horizontal cracks mid way up the wall , 3 walls, the only wall that didn’t have cracks was the garage side . I had a contractor come in 40 years ago to cut the floor along the wall and put in a new sump pit and perforated drainage , pour new concrete to finish . Took care of the drainage problem but the wall was tipping in more , 35 years later , I’m getting ready to sell , but the walls needed work. I bought 4 inch i beam and broke the concrete at 8 ft intervals along the 3 walls and put an I beam into the floor up to the floor joists. With a jack pushing the I beam towards the wall then I put a brace under the floor joist to hold the beam under tension to the wall . Hope this could help , total cost was about $2000 with me doing the work. Thought I had pictures but that was 4 yrs ago .

Click to expand...

Were you able to bring the walls back to plum?

mark3885 said:

I looked into the carbon fiber straps, would have cost me twice as much as the I beams and a few bags of concrete. What I didn’t like about the carbon strips is the wall where the strips would be glued in place had to be ground with diamond grinding wheels . I didn’t want the dust and I knew that the I beam would be fool proof. No grinding and was relatively easy to do over the course of a few days really ,only about 10-12 hrs .

Click to expand...

Was this similar to what you did ?

Pretty much the same as what I did. Anchoring the bottom part of the beam to the floor would be easy , couldn’t do that because my floor was broken out to replace the sump pit and drainage pipe. Leaving only about 2 inches of concrete to anchor into , so I broke it out about an 8 inch square , set the beam and replaced the concrete. At the top I pushed the beam into the wall with a screw jack for tension then ran a 2x8 brace to hold the beam in tension. Mine was diy ,that company has a system that works like mine but a lot more expensive.

Thanks for your input. Like the concept. Gorrila wall braces are a similar set up.

Gorilla Wall Braces – Gorilla Wall Braces by Resch Enterprises Inc — Family-Owned Since 1967