I am planning to add a 14′ x 31′ addition to the rear of an existing home. The old house is two stories and the addition will be one story. The existing foundation is fieldstone. The new foundation will be concrete block. I am looking for suggestions on how to join the old and new. I currently plan to install an expansion joint between the old and new foundation walls to allow independent movement. I thought I might ask around for any other suggestions. Thanks.
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Well I guess it depends on each site....but I wouldn't use expansion joints because they won't seal very well. I've seen expansion foam used to join a new insulated concrete foundation to an old field stone foundation and it worked great. The reason why I recommend ICFs (insulated concrete forms) is because you can take a drywall knife and scribe the foam to fit the irregularities of the field stone foundation, then clean up the rest with foam before filling the forms with concrete. This method surprisingly easy to do and the ICFs work just as well as blocks because they stack up like legos.
-Justin