Anybody ever have to deal with a bowed basement wall?
I am seriously intrested in a house that has alot of serious problems and one of them happens to be a bowed wall in the basement. I know why it happend and how to avoid it in the future, but it looks like I might have to repair it before I can get my loan approved. (Cowards...)
I would not bother with the house at all except for the fact that I can get it for half the price of every house around it.
(This place is a mess!)
I'm thinking about just using house jacks, then pulling the soil from the outside, then pushing the wall back in with hydralic jacks.
Whadda ya think?
Anyone have any other tips on how to fix it myself?
Thanks in advance!

Mike (The cheapskate)

 

What is the wall made of ?

 

Sorry,
It's a concrete block wall. 2 courses are bowed in the center of the wall for almost the full length. There is gap about a half inch between the blocks.
It's 1 story ranch.
The idiots let the downspouts drain straight down to the foundation.

 

I assume you mean cinder blocks.


This sounds like a project for Eric (Torque 1st)

I'm the guy who likes to pour 4000 psi concrete walls from scratch

 

Yeah, cinder blocks.

 

Get in touch with a professional that has the equipment to ease the wall back out and then secure it. I had a broken poured concrete wall fixed a number of years ago. They pushed the wall back out and then used 4x4" steel posts about every 4' to keep it from bowing again.

 

I have a cinder block foundation. My house was built in 1998. So we bought it brand new. The whole wall along one side started to bow out after two years. It took me a year just to get the builder to come back out and fix it. This is what they did:

They jacked the house up about an inch to take pressure off the wall. (they braced the wall first) Then they pushed the wal back in place with some other kind of jack. Then they excavated the whole length of the wall on the outside down to the foundation. Then they coated the wall from top to bottom with water proofing sealant. after that was cured they poured another 6 inch thick concrete wall with rebarb up to about 3/4 of the way up the original wall. Things is solid now. That wall hasn't moved an millimeter. They then repointed the cinder blocks on the inside. Like the saying goes. "Not enough time to do it right the first time, but always enough time to do it a second time".

 

Well after having done this myself as a proffesional I can say that those options will work. Dont try this yourself if you dont have the knowledge or skill required. You are messing with a foundation, it holds everything else together.
We have in the past raised the house enough to take pressure off the excavated but instead of putting in another wall we have used ground anchors that go out about 10 feet from the wall and suport it in that way. No matter what have a few contractors come out and give you bids. I dont know what code is where you are and it rules everything.
Gud luck on the house!
Aaron

 

No matter what you do, excavate the dirt from the outside before you start trying to push it out! I have seen a friend's basement with poured walls that a "professional" destroyed. They started pushing at the tops and broke the base, now he's looking at digging it all out and attempting to pour a new wall. He had the work done in preparation to selling it, nobody will loan money on the house in its current condition.

 

From what I'm hearing it looks like maybe I should just pass on the house altogether.
I was also thinking of just leaving the wall the way it is and simply building another one right against and in front of it then placing rebar in the new wall and filling those areas at about every 6 feet.

 

Having worked for a masonry contractor I can also add some helpful information. If you your wall is bowed to the point where the mortar joints are cracked, the wall has lost it's integrity and would fail again unless some other measures are taken. Yes, you can push it back with jacks and yes you must excavate the soil before doing so. Putting a wall on inside of the existing as you said in your last post would not be a good idea. For one your basement slab is probably 4 inches thick.....not enough to support a wall. Also, the condition that caused the failure would still remain, the old wall may continue to bow and put pressure against the new wall. If you do decide to pour a new wall on the outside , pour a footing first , twice as wide as it is thick ( 8" by 16" for example ). place vertical rebar in the footing so it will stick up into the new wall. If you have heavy clay, consider backfilling with a aggregate material ( pea stone ). Some code also require tile around the perimeter of the footings that empties into a crock.

 

Any hous with foundational problems will be priced much lower than comparable homes. Get some bids and use the highest one as a bargaining tool. You may have to talk the contractor in to escrowing his money until the job is finished and you can get financing approved. Corordinating the lending institutionn contractor(s), and seller may take a little doing but may be worth it. I would also have the general construction of the house checked out and when it was built. Tract houses that are built by developers are tend to be throwed together with a lot of cut corners. I would personally stay away from a home that was in a development unless it was a custom built home. The wall may just be the tip of the iceburg.

 

just fill the whole basement with cement about 600 yards should cover it. shuldnt cost that much.

 

600 yds at ~90 bucks a yard .. yeah should be cheap

seriously though support the floor joists and escavate the outside and re-lay the blocks, pushing them back will only temporarily fix the problem. you also want to check the footer because that may have sunk or moved if the wall is bowing. re-laying the wall will probably be cheaper anyway then trying to rig somethin up

 

Welp,
It's a 2500 sq ft custom home built in 1968 and really is a seriously cool ranch. Makes the Brady Bunch house look like a dump. Sunk in living room, vaulted entry with 2 front doors, 2 fireplaces, 30x 30 garage, florida room, family room, 3 bedrooms, on an acre in a fabulous area. I really want this place. The house is a bankrupcy type thing and is being sold as is. I had a full inspection done and know all of it's problems.
Bottom line is it's worth the trouble. If I knew how to post pictures I could show you the bow. I have a really good pic of it. It's really not a huge bow, but it did crack the mortor along the wall for the full length of the bow.
At this point I am thinking about jacking the house, pulling the soil from the foundation, pushing the bow back in, and then filling in some of the blocks with rebar and mortor.
Good idea?