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I’m in my third year of building my house and am planning on building the bedroom addition beginning this spring. The foundation for the addition is concrete block and was layed 2 years ago (I did 2 additions to the main structure and had them both dug at the same time, and then poured the footers and layed the block at the same time since I only wanted to bring in the concrete truck once. The delay is because I am doing most of the work myself and it is taking a while). Therefore, the second foundation has been sitting exposed through 2 winters.
The main structure (16 X 20 feet)is not on a block foundation, but rests on beams which are sitting on 12 concrete piers. The foundation wall for the addition begins about 12 inches from the stud wall of the main structure and parallel to the 20 foot side, and is 16 feet in length. There is a sill plate on the block wall. There are a couple of major cracks going through all 4 courses to the footer in two places which appeared this winter. Plus, the foundation wall closest to the house is leaning (away from main house). I realize now I should have put some joists to hold the wall, hindsight being 20/20. I’d say the lean is about 4 inches.
I’m guessing the dirt between the existing house and the addition foundation caused the lean, especially because of the water run-off from the roof above at that point. For those of you wondering, I did not put a gutter there because the shed roof for the addition will make a gutter unnecessary and I thought I’d get to it by now.
My questions are: 1) will the floor joists secure the lean enough or should I reinforce the wall? I do plan on pouring concrete in the blocks in the cracked places. Fortunately, the floor joists will be running perpendicular to the leaning wall. 2)If I need to reinforce the block wall that’s leaning, how do I do it? 3) Has anyone else built their own house and gotten to the screaming point when they wonder if it will ever be finished (I do this about every 3 months!!).
Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
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The damage would have been done by a combo of freeze/ thaw , and lack of lateral support that the floor joists would have provided... rip out the leaning section and do it again.. .you might get away with placing rebar vertically on either side of the cracks and filing adjacent cores with a sloppy concrete mix and tamping it in with rebar. You should check with your bldg inspector on whether this is acceptable.. .with only a 4 course height it probably is.
Screaming is a basic component of owner build projects.. .many descend to divorce. Some individuals are cut out for it, but most couples are not.
-pm
*yeh, rip em out and relay em, the cracks sound like water getting into the block work and freeze/thaw splitting it, maybe your grouting the block cavities will work for the crack..but relay the out of plumb sections...and get a rain cap on anything that has to go thru a winter...