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Here’s the scenario:
9′ tall 8″ block foundation wall two feet above grade and seven feet below grade is caving in. No reinforcement was used in construction of wall (approx. ten years ago). Wall is parallel to floor joists. Center steel floor beam rests in pocket in the center of the wall. From 48″ up all block except for those anchored to sill and butting against the beam have pushed in about 1-1/4″. Since drainage and grading are good, likely culprit is lousy bond due to over-aggressive back filling. This guy cut every corner in the book. How can he put it back in good shape. He wants me to dig it out with my backhoe and wonders what is the best way to tackle it from there.
Thanks.
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F.H.B #117 has an excellent article on this.
*Humm.. 9' is pretty tall for 8" block. 7' of unbalanced fill - that's quite a bit. Probably would have been OK if it had some rebar and solid grout fill. What is the length of the wall section? Probably need a pilaster about every 10'. The whole deal is going to be a pain in the a&&.
*b WBA LiferWho wants to repair it, the homeowner or a GC ? This is dangerous work. Anyway... put 4x4 shoring under the beam with plenty of diagonal bracing. Attach to a plate secured to the floor. If the joist spans are long - 16 feet or so.. then shore the rim joist at its midspan to help carry the exterior wall. Keep this 4x4 in from the block wall some to help the mason lay the new one. Put lots of bracing on these shores in case of collapse. Then put bracing on the block walls to prevent collapse during the dig. Use a 2x8 plate vertically on the wall diagonally braced high and low to a plate securely fastened to the floor. Do this every 8-10 feet. Dig the hole and tear out the old wall by hand using the backhoe only to clear the debris. If you must rebuild with 8", use rebar 1/2"(#4) every 32" min in the cores, drilled into the footer full length top to bottom. Then fill the cores with pea gravel concrete.If this house has brick on the exterior, forget everything I said and call in qualified help.Bestoluck