This is my first time posting, but I am in need of advise.
I had a leak in my house through what I thought was a foundation crack this past summer. Upon tearing down the interior wall I noticed a wall repair that had obviously failed. I had this area excavated in the last few weeks and the foundation was fine. The sill that the sliding door rests on was cracked and had crumbled away in a small area that corresponds with the leak area. That portion of the sill has been removed, ( 18 inches long and about 10 inches deep about 6 inches thick).
I need some solutions to repair the area without having to tear out the sill and repour the entire thing.
I am trying to find a concrete product that will bond with the existing concrete to form a watertite seal. Without an appropriate concrete solution I have been told I will end up with a cold joint that will more than likely leak in the future.
Any help or ideas that you might provide would be appreciated.
Thanks
Mark
Replies
Hi CC, and welcome to Breaktime! :)
I would drill into the existing crete and epoxy rebar to tie the new to the existing. Also, make sure the surface is clean and apply some bonding agent before pouring the new.
More advice and plenty of disagreements are on their way, guaranteed.
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What Ted said. And post some pics, as that will lead to more and better advice. Pics always tell a lot more.
I will post pictures by tommorow.
Mark
What Ted said. Rent yourself a hammer drill, insert short rebar pieces one about two inches from each end and one in the middle, use epoxy too. Once it sets, up use concrete bonding agent, paint it on and follow direction then form and pour your new section. Shouldn't leak at all and will hold just fine. Dig out the bad section but keep undisturbed earth at the bottom of your footing. Don't try to dig and back fill.
Clean it out and pack in nonshrink grout by hand.
Quickcrete, and Sika are brands I know. the Quickcrete may be available at the home center.
The concrete guys have located a product made by SIKA that will eliminate the cold joint. They will insert rebar into the area as suggested before they pour. I have attached two pics of the area in question. If you look at the the foundation you can see the gap that resulted in some water leakage. It appears to have been a cutout in the foundation that was plugged with a concrete block and then parged over. The original poured foundation has held up very well for 40 years.
Thanks for your help and suggestions.
Mark
Man, I gotta get me one of those Rona drills! =D
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Edited 11/23/2008 4:56 pm by Ted W.
That, is not the usual construction method I've seen. Be sure they install some treated lumber between existing wood and new concrete and install moisture barrier.
I have to wonder if there was some kind of a cold-joint/patch there from the original construction that leaked water and perhaps through freeze thaw cycles deteriorated further. I almost wonder if they put some kind of opening there and then said "Oh S@!t! That is where the door goes. We gotta patch that up... It appears to have broken out fairly cleanly at least on the bottom and left side.
That is atypical construction - or at least from what I'm used to. Normally the wooden floor system sits on top of the concrete foundation rather than sitting down in it in a pocket. Anyone know what that is called? I think I've might have seen it once or twice before...
BTW one little trick to patching masonry or concrete is always wet the old surface before applying the new material. Otherwise the old sucks the water out of the new mix and makes for a weak bond exactly where you don't want it.
I suspect that they poured the foundation with a cutout for for a support beam (I think) and then realized it had to go the other way. Then they simply filled the cutout with a block, slapped some mortar into it and then parged over it. I have been in the house for 3 years and just this past summer we had some seepage into the basement. The storm was so bad in August that we had water about 6 inches below the sliding door base. When I ripped the wall apart in the basement you could see the iron marks on the foam insulation. I suspect that it had been leaking for years.
Mark