Dry Stacked Concrete Block Foundation

1

So we just inspected a house structure with a dry stacked concrete block foundation. The house is located in northern New Hampshire.

In 10 years and 4000+ inspections I have never come across this scenario.

Needless to say, the foundation exhibited evidence of settlement and movement. And there were indications of settlement all throughout the home.

The house was built in 2009, so it’s not that old.

We of course recommend further evaluation by a foundation or masonry contractor.

There was an attempt to seal the interior of the foundation with a fiberglass concrete parge coat, but the exterior was not treated.

A section of the foundation had sunk down from the sill plate, allowing us to look into the blocks - the blocks were empty - i.e. no fill or rebar.

Thoughts?

2

I think your concerns are justified. I personally don’t like unfilled and unreinforced block walls, which are weak. Take away the mortar and the house can not be anchored to the ground, unless they used another method. Lateral stability could also be an issue.

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3

Its possible the material on the wall is Quickwall, attached is the spec sheet. Just for informational purposes

data_sheet-quikwall.pdf (1.9 MB)

4

So! You do 400 inspection a year? That is over 33 inspection a month… Humm!

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6

What jerk flagged my post!

7

I cut my teeth with foreclosure inspections. My former business partner and I inspected 3-4 foreclosures a day for almost 3 years all throughout New England. And although they were shut downs, we were still inspecting the structure, roof, electrical systems as we could. And we were being paid to inspect. So I count those 2000 or so inspections to this day.

  • You can get anywhere in the 6 New England states in about 8 hours.
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