Fairly often you will NOT see cracks on the inside of block basement walls

Specific Inspection Topics Structural Inspections
#1

…but there ARE… exterior cracks and other exterior openings in the block basement walls that are the reasons why water gets INTO the hollow-block walls and is seen inside basements often, only at–along the ‘cold joint’, I-joint’, ‘cover’… YET interior system companies will try and bs homeowners and lie to them and tell them crap such as, ‘No, there are no cracks and you have a hydrostatic pressure problem under the basement floor, clogged drain tiles’ etc.


INSIDE a Grosse Pointe Woods basement, you do not, you will not see the vertical and horizontal cracks on the inside block walls… there are/were many EXTERIOR cracks and other openings in these basement walls

Outside, the area by the gas line…


See the exterior vertical crack? This is where, why… water enters into the hollow-block wall.
NO interior basement system repairs/waterproofs any of these cracks hence they cannot, do not, stop further water from entering into the blocks. Duh umm, gotta STOP water in order to stop/prevent mold, efflorescence.

Horizontal crack just above the footing ( not footer, footing, got dat?). You can also see some EFFLORESCENCE on the outside blocks, bricks and there is efflorescence on quite a few INSIDE blocks

In this area outside, pretty much the same type of exterior cracks… horizontal, vertical, corner cracks and a few deteriorated/open mortar joints…


Raising the grade, aka adding soil, against UNPROTECTED bricks and mortar joints can cause… can cause, can cause loool, some deterioration to some bricks and mortar joints and when they begin to deteriorate, like some here, water can/will begin to enter. SEAL the dang bricks and mortar joints if your going to add some top soil, ok? Got dat?

And this is the other side of the front porch, corner-vertical crack, horizontal, cracked parging etc… water can, does enter the blocks through cracked parging… uh huh

Back to the first hole dug, by gas line… sometimes the gas company or someone else doesn’t seal/put anything on/over the wall, the hole where the old line entered through the basement wall OR, sometimes they apply some cement etc but, NOT enough, too thin. Here, they applied plenty ‘around’ the hole but did not apply enough IN duh hole


If one goes back to the first video posted, inside the basement, again… lol, you will not see a HOLE in the wall where the old line came through the basement wall. You won’t see all the exterior cracks, its just the way block walls, parging etc… cracks and then allows water into the hollow-blocks, pretty often causes some amount of mold or efflorescence on parts on interior foundation wall. NO interior basement system nor sump pump nor Drylok paint repairs/waterproofs these exterior cracks and other exterior openings which ARE where the water FIRST enters into the blocks, yep.

This guy ‘gets-it’… basement waterproofing, unlike the many interior basement system scammers http://www.johnmcewen.ca/waterproof.php

Unbiased opinion, Fairfax county VA… scroll down to… Basement Wall DAMAGE… cause, RESOLUTION
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/publications/marineclay.htm

You have NEVER and highly likely will never hear ANY of what has been posted here on Glen Haeges home improvement radio show or Gary Sullivans home improvement radio show etc… nope. They highly recommend INTERIOR basement system companies… same goes for the Better Dork me Business Bureau who has had at least several owners of interior basement system companies on the Board of Dorkectors for duh BBB… HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

#2

Previous post/videos…
ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm, in video #1, the last 15 seconds or so, did you see ANY vertical corner crack on the inside of the foundation wall? Ummm, no.

5th video, same corner on the outside… first 10 whatever seconds, is there an EXISTING vertical corner crack (defect)… and other cracks in the block foundation wall? Yep, sure is.

So when any home/city inspector, realtor, inside system chump-head tells a homeowner there is NOT any crack in a block or brick basement wall (but the homeowner does leak or have some mold or efflorescence on inside wall), then they are wrong, incompetent, negligent 90% of the time.

Sometimes the water/efflorescence can be from openings etc ABOVE grade etc. That’s what my dumb azz has seen repeatedly for 35+ years of doing this shttball job, got milk?

And so this also means interior basement system companies have lied or mislead/misrepresented 90% or so of all leaky block, brick wall basements, dang skippy. They needed exterior waterproofing in order to stop the water and mold,efflorescence but instead got duped into an interior system that did NOT stop any of that shtt and often PAID MORE for that piece of shtt inside basement system, yeppers. Got nips?

Basement waterproofing on duh rocks/Neil D. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_5ssZNGwNU
‘Your leaky basement on duh rocks, ain’t no surprise, you don’t have to pour any inside system salesperson a drink for them to tell you 29 lies…’

Dave Matthews/ Duh Space Between http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvzWRzTh7jg
‘…duh space between the wicked lies inside terds tell… their fickle, fuddled words confuse you, like hydrostatic pressure TAday, they waste hours talking, bulshtting, the twisted games they’re always playyyiiiing… the space between whats wrong and right is where you’ll find BUBBAMILK waitin’ FER you’

#3

John Bubber, thank you for your thorough replies. And thanks for the link to the EXCELLENT article by John McEwen on Waterproofing. It helps explain why municipalities do not enforce the Ontario Building Code (not to mention the best education I’ve ever received on why basements leak).

The remaining question is: how do I write up the missing blocks in a report, or do I call them out at all, if the municipality won’t enforce the code requirements?

As an aside: I built a home in the late 1970’s. The 80 year old farmer who did the excavating and backfilling insisted on “waterlock” joints in the blocks between the garage foundation walls (where there was no footing drainage system) to prevent water from migrating into the main house foundation. And he advised on using a layer of tar and then a drainage plane on the outside, and again insisted on backfilling with clean stone, all the way from the topsoil down to the drainage tiles. Before I managed to get the roof gutters installed, when it rainded the sump pump ran almost continuously. But the basement walls stayed dry.

There are a lot of people in this country who know what works and what doesn’t, if we can just get the public service types to listen to them.

Woody Mayne
Mayne Home Inspection Ltd.
www.maynehomeinspection.com

#4

Mr. Mayne,

Yes sir, John McEwen knows what’s going on (and not going on), on…lol, this subject. He sees all the BS and lies from the many interior basement system knuckleheads and sees the building dept’s/municipal ignorance and those 2 combined, plus other incompetent peeps, hurts homeowners/costs them quite a bit of money.

If there are a lot of people who do know/understand then I wish they’d open their jibs and start complaining BIG TIME to their local officials and to the media etc etc.

The farmer was spot-on, need many more like him to help others.
I’m not a big fan of sump pumps although, sure, some will need one (nowhere near as many as interior system buttheads try and tell peeps).

Around these parts (SE Mich), along Lake St Clair and the Detroit River etc, there aren’t that many basements that have sumps and just about all basements that leak/seep around here (other than basement back-ups through floor drains etc) are due to cracks etc in basements walls and-or other exterior openings in homes such as openings/gaps around-under basement windows, doors, cracked/deteriorated bricks and mortar joints.

It’s NOT what these idiot interior basement systems owners/salespeople say, nope.

Not sure what you mean about ‘missing blocks’…??
Do you mean something like this…links/photos of deteriorated blocks
http://picasaweb.google.com/101049034584960315932/Crawlspace#5540665133328086770

http://picasaweb.google.com/101049034584960315932/BasementWaterproofing36#5451204576325231890

John M’s article again… http://www.johnmcewen.ca/waterproof.php
i’ll paraphrase a lil of what John says…
when homes are built they are NOT ‘waterproofed’ and they were backfilled with the same crap soil, 2 mistakes right off duh bat.

He also knows and tries to inform people to… backfill with ALL gravel, not soil

Waterproof membranes must exhibit 3 qualities,
–100% adhesion to the basement wall, permanently STUCK to the wall, NOT just sitting/placed in front of a wall or screwed into a wall like delta membranes are. Some now use delta membranes on the outside but these membranes are NOT stuck-to, not GLUED to the wall hence, they are not a true waterproof membrane alone
–must be able to withstand repeated heads of water etc
–they must be applied to the outside of a foundation wall. Quite a few interior system companies use/place these black dimpled membranes on the INSIDE, loool, where it does nothing other than HIDE or conceal water, mold, efflorescence,cracks, bowed wall etc

‘What ISN’T a waterproof membrane’
-damproofing
-drain clad
-system platon… black plastic mats with bumps on one side (delta etc)

John writes, ‘these products or methods are not intended to stop water, and they don’t. If a contractor were to state, suggest, imply… that this is waterproofing they would certainly be guilty of fundamental MISREPRESENTATION at best. At worst they would guilty of fraud and unfortunately I witness a lot of that’

And then near the end of his article he lets the building dept/codes know they suck.

Need many more people to understand that cracks in basement walls/foundation movement and subsequent leaky basements can occur from several things… including LATERAL SOIL PRESSURE. All I mostly hear/read about is settling (so interior system companies can rip off more homeowners and sell them unneeded piers etc).
U S Army Corps of Engineers, foundation movement, causative factors… pages 1 and 2
http://www.amherst.ny.us/pdf/building/soilsstudy/TOASFS_section3.pdf
In part they write, 'Cracking can also occur when stresses induced by lateral pressure exceed the strength of the concrete or CMU wall…3 types of cracks, vertical crack, step crack and horizontal cracks

Almost all I read or hear is that vertical or step cracks in foundation walls are always due to… SETTLING… and that is nonsense!