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January 03, 2006
Trenches, beams, and walls . . . oh my!
We've been debating, since we bought the house, as to the best method for ensuring that the horizontal cracks in the basement walls don't result in structural failure. We've dealt with the source of the bulk of the problem (lack of eavestroughing), and will deal with the surface drainage issue as soon as the ground is thawed.
We were faced with several different options. We could support the house from within, dig out the offending wall, and repour it. Or, we could dig a trench along the offending wall, install weeping tile, and push the wall out (from the inside) so that the top was once more directly over the bottom. We decided that both of these options, while feasible, were entirely too much work. If we were going to dig out and replace one wall, we may as well have replaced them all, and poured a new floor at the same time.
While we're not going to, as Andy put it, "build a mighty beam," we are going to put a beam in place, just inside the existing foundation. This will entail digging more holes in the concrete floor (*sigh*), but we should be able to get away with three 7'-9' jackposts and a tripartite 2"x10" beam. I'll take the appropriate measurements tomorrow, after which we'll consult with William to ensure that we're going to be doing everything properly. Thankfully, this means that we'll have the foundation issues addressed before spring thaw. The wall will still be ugly and cracked, but at least we'll be sure that the house won't fall in around our ears. We'll make sure to take lots of pictures, so that when we sell the house we'll be able to show the nature of the existing wall and the steps that were taken to rectify the problem.
If you look closely at the following pictures, you should be able to see the large horizontal crack that runs about 2-1/2 feet below the window. This is the offending wall that has occasioned the preceeding discussion, and ensuing construction, to remedy any future/potential structural failure.*
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* If you hadn't already guessed, this particular sentence reveals, without a doubt, that my area of specialization is English (not renovating) ;-)
Posted by plainstext at January 3, 2006 05:43 PM
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