OK, so the customer shows me a concrete porch deck, with stucco-d walls on three sides — U-shaped wall configuration. He’s built the thing himself, or at least done the walls himself.
The walls are concrete block (the usual hollow ones)on top of a concrete footer, with stucco applied directly to the block, but only above grade. Below the porch deck concrete slab (surrounded by block walls) is filled with crusher-run.
The floor slopes to the dead end of the U-shaped walls.
The walls had no method of allowing the water to go anywhere. So the HO used a rotohammer to drill a couple of 1″ holes through the walls, at slab height.
I’m thinking that those holes (which are now plugged with bugs and leaves anyway) allowed the water to drain into the cavities in the blocks, leaving standing water there till it seeped out through the block, or through the footer.
How wrong might I be….
And how bad is this for his foundation?
I won’t be laughing at the lies when I’m gone,
And I can’t question how or when or why when I’m gone;
I can’t live proud enough to die when I’m gone,
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here. (Phil Ochs)
Replies
I think this is a clear case of him "fixing" it and making it worse.
If the slab drains the wrong way he pour it wrong.
Why is it your concern?
Will Rogers
>>"Why is it your concern? <<It's not, except that as part of a larger list of tasks that I'm bidding on, he wants those holes cleaned out, or re-drilled. I told him of my concern, and that I would not be drilling.
I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone,
And I can't question how or when or why when I'm gone;
I can't live proud enough to die when I'm gone,
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here. (Phil Ochs)
You could just clean them out. You could use a drill but just to clean them.
I didn't mean to be hard with my first post.
I've done things like that. But not with a slab.
"There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."Will Rogers
What type of climate? Could the water freeze and ruin the bottom course?
MikeInsert initially amusing but ultimately annoying catch phrase here.
<<"Could the water freeze and ruin the bottom course?">>Excellent point!It's in the Raleigh area, so deep freezing is not a concern. Although there is a raised garden bed on the outside of the dead-end wall, and if that were to change in the future, I guess there could be some concern.
I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone,
And I can't question how or when or why when I'm gone;
I can't live proud enough to die when I'm gone,
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here. (Phil Ochs)
It's good that it's backfilled with rock. When soil is used as backfill in such situations frost heaving tends to push out the wall even in relatively mild climates.But that's more reason to have some weep holes at the bottom of the wall.
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. --Jimmy Carter
that was my thought . no freezing no concern.
Clean the holes out, then epoxy in place a piece of pipe in each hole, so that the water drains all the way to the outside. (You only need the epoxy on the inside surface, as a sealer.) And maybe open some weep holes at ground level on the outside, to drain the cores.
And maybe consider getting the slab mud-jacked to correct the slant, only that would risk blowing out the block walls.