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I am seriously thinking about buying a multi-level house that has a cracked and sunken garage floor and gameroom floor. The floors are 24′ x 28′ and 16′ x 28′ and are broken into four or five large sections. The garage floor has settled away from its center by about 2″. The gameroom floor is sloped toward two adjacent outside walls by 1 1/2″. There is evidence of water infiltration where the floors meet the walls.
The house is forty years old and the owner blames it on settling due to undersized rebar and insufficient tamping of excavated material. The house appears to be located on virgin soil and there are no coal mines in this area of Western PA.
Has anyone else had experience with jacking interior floors with grout? Is this a valid approach or am I likely to wish that the floors were jackhammered and repoured? I know that the water infiltration needs remediated by the excavation of the soils around the foundation and the installation of a french drain. However, I’m not too familiar with grouting under slabs. HELP!
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Hi Dave,
ASSUMING that the slabs have settled totally, it's cheaper to simply level the floors with Gypcrete.
If you don't want to go this route, pressure grouting isn't worth a pinch of coon sh*t on a broken slab. You would have to break it out, compact and repour.
Gabe
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Thanks Gabe, I appreciate your frankness! I have seen exterior slabs (mostly driveways) raised with grout. The gypcrete route sounds pretty close to what my dad and I were discussing. I'm pretty sure that the slabs have settled all they are going to settle so it may be worth a shot. The gameroom floor has tile glued down with an asphalt based cement. Do you know if gypcrete will stick to this?
Dave Matheny
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Hi Dave,
It's better to clean the surface that your going to lay the gypcrete onto, otherwise it may cause failure.
Gabe
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Hi Dave:
At the risk of sounding redundant, I just wanted to remind you that you should first address the water infiltration problem.
You said that the water enters at the perimeter of the slab where the floor meets the wall. No mater what else you do, there is always going to be this joint. You mentioned the french drain in conjunction w/ exterior excavation of subsoils. First, if you install the french drain then why excavate; afterall, if you excavate then install a state of the art drain tile at the base of the footing w/ a sump pump. This would save you the french drain installation and give you more protection from the moisture.
Finally, it sounds like you can talk to the current, and hopefully longtime, homeowners of this property. If that is so then I would get a full rundown on what is going on, by first, getting the chronology of events (failures), and then, trying to get the history of the neighborhood from others -- like a real estate agent or someone. The reason for all this is to help ya put together the puzzle that is this problem. Often, and this is the case w/ my home and neighborhood, the problem starts decades after construction when neighboring structures are added nearby and adversely effect the water table and perculation rates of soils. I'd get more information on this one if possible even though it sounds like you already understand that it is a fixerupper and are willing to go the effort for the property.
Good luck, just wanted to add my two cents.
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... and are you certain that the foundation is sound? All kinds of weird stuff starts happening when the water starts getting in.
*Dave:Not to be a pessimist but...You say "The gameroom floor has tile glued down with an asphalt based cement." When you say tile, do you mean ceramic tile or linoleum? If my assumption of the later is correct, based on the age of the house, this floor could very well contain asbestos - which isn't necessarily a problem unless you want to remove (disturb) the tile, or it is deteriorating in place - like might be caused by an unstable subfloor.Somebody told me that the tell tail sign of asbestos tile is a 9" square geometry.Just something to be aware of.
*Our basement has 70's vintage 12" sq. vinyl tiles -- I found a box of extra labeled "The Beauty of Vinyl, Backed by the Durability of Asbestos." Pretty catchy, eh? I'm leaving it where it is, it's bonded great.
*Does anyone know about when they started commonly adding the "durability of Asbestos" to Vinyl floor tiles? I have to rip the deteriorated tiles off a bathroom floor in a house built about 1940. The last time I had anything tested they had a minimum of two samples at $50 each. The sample was from pipe insulation in a house built in 1917, and I found out after forking over the cash that they didn't start using asbestos in pipe insulation until later... (Of course, it always could have been "upgraded" at a later date...)
*The EPA has a pretty decent Web site -- try this link as a starting point. Asbestos was definitely popular in the 40's ... whether it is in the tiles or not is probably impossible to predict. They used asbestos in the tile adhesive too! The only time range I saw was for asbestos insulation.Interesting tidbit -- due to some sort of conflict between the regulation and a court decision, asbestos in vinyl tile and many other materials is NOT banned -- see this PDF file.
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I am seriously thinking about buying a multi-level house that has a cracked and sunken garage floor and gameroom floor. The floors are 24' x 28' and 16' x 28' and are broken into four or five large sections. The garage floor has settled away from its center by about 2". The gameroom floor is sloped toward two adjacent outside walls by 1 1/2". There is evidence of water infiltration where the floors meet the walls.
The house is forty years old and the owner blames it on settling due to undersized rebar and insufficient tamping of excavated material. The house appears to be located on virgin soil and there are no coal mines in this area of Western PA.
Has anyone else had experience with jacking interior floors with grout? Is this a valid approach or am I likely to wish that the floors were jackhammered and repoured? I know that the water infiltration needs remediated by the excavation of the soils around the foundation and the installation of a french drain. However, I'm not too familiar with grouting under slabs. HELP!