Best Way To Fix A Foundation

Miller257

Im buynig my first house, a little 3 bedroom ranch right near a lake. it was built in the 50s, and needs some updating.

one problem is one side of the foundation. there is a hill behind the house, and all the water runs down to the house, and there is no draining. the foundation has some horizontal cracks with about 7/8 deflection. what would the best way to fix this be? My father had suggested excavating that side of the house, installing rebar and filling the cores with concrete. installing drain tile on the top and side of the footing, cutting in a crock and sump pump, back fill with gravel and call it a day. haha. how does this sound to you guys. i'd like to fix it right, i'd be willing to do a temp fix for the time being, but eventually do it right. what would be the best way to seal the basement wall against leaks once its excavated.

cleveman

Sounds like you know enough to remove the cause of the problem before you fix the problem.

Around here there are firms which specialize in fixing walls such as yours. They drill through the wall and drill on out to a deadman which they have installed in the yard. They run a ready rod out to the deadman and secure it, then they put a baw (big ass washer) on the ready rod inside the basement and put a nut on that. Then they backfill the deadman and start tightening the nut in the basement.

The straightening of the wall is best done during dry periods when there isn't as much pressure on the wall, I suppose.

It sounds like with 7/8" bow in your wall, it's not much to worry about. If you are dying to fix it and waterproof as you indicated, then you'll want to excavate the whole wall, straighten it, then probably either re-plaster and then waterproof, or put some membrane over what you have there (plastered with mortar, then tar). Of course you need tile down by the footing and some aggregate at least 1 foot above the tile. You may consider filling the entire trench with rock if you want some good drainage. And you may as well put some 2" polystyrene on the wall while you have it open. This will insulate it nicely and keep rocks, etc away from your waterproofing membrane or coating.

Put a swale in the ground to keep the hill from draining towards you. If this is not possible, you can trench parallel to your wall and put some tile in the trench and backfill with rock. This will take the water away to the sides.

Hope this answers some of your questions. Good luck.

robert77

underpining is the only solution to any subsidence.
if there is no drainage for the water then a storm drain is required and allow it to run into a newly dug soakaway