Need basement/foundation repair, any recommendations?

[awsomeears]

Badger says you don't need to excavate anything, that you can push the walls in from inside. So WTF?

Exactly what they did to Mikes home, he lives in Oak Creek and well where he lived at one time was Lake so the ground is naturally wet. Looked good for a few years and then just gave way...........

Plus if all you need is beams per Badger Pork and I will do it for 3 grand because its just beams bolted to your floor and joists AKA does nothing if your walls are pretty well gone.

Now putting up beams in the early stages of basement wall bowing can fix it but again that's in the early stage.

I just left a message for my cousin to get back to me, he's been in the building homes trade for awhile and is partner with my uncle who's been doing it for at least 30 years. The should be able to recommend somebody, ill get back to this post with a possible #

[jamest]

See the problem I'm running into here is I've had 8 different contractors come out and give me 5 different stories (and they all bash each other of course). So who do you believe? McCoy, Everdry, All City all basically say you have to excavate the entire thing. Mudjackers says you only have to excavate some, Badger says you don't need to excavate anything, that you can push the walls in from inside. So WTF?

I have called in to the Mr. Fix It show on 620wtmj with questions. Tom provides some great suggestions on the best route to take with your project.

http://www.620wtmj.com/shows/mrfixit

[ND4SPD]

Yeah well, we had a problem with a landscaper that didn't finish the job and just left us hanging... the BBB did jack shit about it.

[Deggy]

Call Dun Rite Contractors. It's my uncle's company that I was working for. Tell him Nick DeGroot, his nephew told you to call. I'm sure he will give you a reasonable price.

414-791-0432 ask for Tom.

[ND4SPD]

Northeast Corner








Northwest Corner

[awsomeears]

I'm not a pro but I can't see why you wouldn't excavate all 4 sides !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those are some healthy cracks that there's no way you can just use beams & Magic to straighten them out, the TON's of pressure on all 4 sides is probably impressive to say the least....

How much was the Quote to dig out on all 4 side and get it done, unless I missed it you haven't posted $$$.

EK construction just lifted a house down the block from me, looked liked one hell of a Job. There located in South Milwaukee.....

[ND4SPD]

The quote was about $47,000 to excavate all four sides. Partial was $36,000.

[Lash]

Damn....thats pretty bad. Looks like you have some drain tile issues as well....you can see the moisture soaking through the block. It's never good when a CMU block cracks down the middle instead of the mortar joint.
Pretty much looks like you may need to start from scratch.
I wouldn't go with anything less than an excavation around the entire house to at least check out the drain tile and backfill along the walls.

[ND4SPD]

Well that settles it, I'm having the engineer come back out. If he says dig, I guess we dig. I'm tired of having one contractor tell me I have to dig the whole thing, and another saying I don't. For all I know the ones that say "dig" may just want the extra green. Although I suppose I could just go out to HD and get a laser level do my own measurements, read up on the WAFRP standards at http://www.wafrp.com/WAFRP_Standards_2008.asp#cond8

[animal]

Holy balls. Seeing those pics makes me feel pretty good about my basement walls. Please keep us posted with what the engineer says.

[Lash]

Think of it this way...

a lot of the time support braces/external wall anchors are just a band aid to cover the real problem. Do it right and fix everything the first time so you or any other future homeowner doesn't have to deal with a mess. You don't want that kind of karma...lol.

[ND4SPD]

Think of it this way...

a lot of the time support braces/external wall anchors are just a band aid to cover the real problem. Do it right and fix everything the first time so you or any other future homeowner doesn't have to deal with a mess. You don't want that kind of karma...lol.

I know, but at this point we only have so much equity to work with as it is. At this point the only estimates we've received that have involved excavation have hit $37k+. We don't have that kind of money. If we wipe out all of the equity in the house we'll be stuck here because thanks to the sub-prime crisis we probably won't be able to buy our next house without ~20% down. Hell we can't even sell the house "as-is" because there's no way a mortgage company will touch this house because they're all still selling them to the government. Even though we've been responsible (the balance of our home equity was put into the house) and "done it right"... the f'ing libs in government are tripping over themselves to give money to people who've massively over-extended themselves... but screw people like us who've been responsible. I'm going to laugh my ass off when the Democrats go down in flames this fall because they deserve every goddamned lost seat. Redistribute this!

[Lash]

Well...



you could always start it on fire.

[ND4SPD]

Yeah... well, I can certainly understand why someone would at this point.

[awsomeears]

How about this...............

I think you already know at this point all the walls need to be redone and excavated around it at a Big Price tag, whats so wrong leaving it like this for the next few years ?

Then if something does happen you know the price tag and deal with it then ?

[ND4SPD]

We are planning on putting the house on the market in a year. Basically we got to this point by doing exactly what you said... wait and see. Had we ponied up and gotten the beams put in 4 years ago... we might have been able to skip the excavation. BUT, that was when my wife and I first got married, had two mortgages (because I still had my condo) and the money just wasn't there. So, we need it done so we can get the house up for sale next March. I want out of this house because it's too damn small for the family (and me), plus, as you can see it's 50 years old and a serious money pit (even more so than any home).

[animal]

I know a guy that did all this himself. Probably not for the faint of heart however. Him and his dad have a landscaping company and they own their own backhoe. Between that and about 80 of those 8' floor jacks he raised the house about 12" on the jacks and did it all himself over the course of a month or two. I assume this is probably not an option for you, but it CAN be done. He told me it was a LOT of 8 hour workdays at work and 12 hour work nights in the basement but he did it just the same. Granted this is probably not a worthwhile suggestion for you either but I thought i'd mention it anyway.

[ND4SPD]

Definitely not an option for me. Don't have the backhoe and don't have the time with two young children.

[awsomeears]

We are planning on putting the house on the market in a year. Basically we got to this point by doing exactly what you said... wait and see. Had we ponied up and gotten the beams put in 4 years ago... we might have been able to skip the excavation. BUT, that was when my wife and I first got married, had two mortgages (because I still had my condo) and the money just wasn't there. So, we need it done so we can get the house up for sale next March. I want out of this house because it's too damn small for the family (and me), plus, as you can see it's 50 years old and a serious money pit (even more so than any home).

No way beams would have prevented those types of cracks, as LASH said its the mortar that gives because its not the actual block. When the block splits your talking major pressure from the outside.

I'm in basements literally everyday and see this all the time, its very rare to see blocks crack.

[ND4SPD]

Well, I guess they don't call this area "clay alley" for nothing.