Hey Kenton!
I love anything to do with century or historic homes! The more I can learn; the better. I would appreciate any kind of training you might be able to put together; especially with lots of photos.Patrick, it’s been my experience that cracks in brick walls are very often connected in some way with moisture. Either moisture has softened soil beneath a portion of the foundation so that it can no longer support the load of the structure above and it cracks to releive the stress, or…
…moisture in the soil freezes, which causes the soil to expand (we call it “heaving”) and the resulting upward pressure cracks the foundation.
Or erosion undermines the foundation so that it’s no longer suppoprted and can’t support the weight of the structure above.
With either of these, you need to take steps to keep moisture away from the foundation. Or as Marcel says, it may have happened early and may now be stable.
I don’t see any point in paying an engineer who won’t stand behind his report. You’re paying for his expertise. It’s sometimes difficult to pinpoint the cause of a defect and predict what will happen in the future, but if that’s the case, that’s what the engineer’s report should say. If the engineer says it’s fine, he should be ready to back up his report in court. Otherwise, what are you paying him for? It takes no expertise at all to write a report which you then tell your client not to count on.
Also as Marcel mentions, the full height parge coat in the crawlspace is suspicious. If it was installed to hide a crack… the movement causing cracking appears to be continuing, since the page coat is cracked.
I’d be surprised if that parge coat was installed originally. People don’t usually spend money when they don’t have to and parge coats are usually installed either to protect material which weathers easily (not usually a problem in the crawlspace), to stabilize surface deterioration of old brick (is this covering concrete block foundation?) or to hide an ugly condition.
Hi Ken,
That makes a lot of sense thank you for the help. The picture that your worried about is not a crawl space, it is actually under the back porch, you can see it in the picture of the back of the house. I attached another picture of it.The home does have a basement and the walls are fine, but the floor seems to have a crack (note picture). The basement walls are cinder block, so the house maybe cinder block behind the brick, is that possible? Also, I attached the cement deck in the back. Notice the erosion under the deck and the rotten wood steps that need replacing. When it rains here, it can really down pour. It doesn’t really freeze in this part of the country, but I am sure once in awhile it may.
The best view to see what maybe under the parge, is the picture of the bricks above the header of the basement door. The bricks seem a little old. I was told the house was built in 1983, but I have a feeling that it maybe a little older.
About the structure engineer. I agree with you that he should of stood behind his word. I was blind-sided right before signing that he wanted me to sign off on his statement. I was so close to getting the house and all the money spent,(house insp, engineer,etc) that I just went through with it. I am hoping that these walls won’t just fall apart on me. Any recommendations?
Just do your best to keep exterior runoff away form the foundation. It looks like the basement floor and lower sections of some basement walls are discolored. Makes me wonder if there’s a high water table. If that’s the case you might investigate installation of a sump pump in a pit.
Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it very much. All in all, does it look like the house settled early? I have been here a couple of months and the cracks so far have not expanded. I am going to install gutters and was wondering if gravel around the foundation of the house would help?
Early is when all homes settle to some degree. Those which are well builit and the soil properly compacted settle very little. Settling can be caused by poor compaction at the time of original costruction. If that’s the cause and the soil is basically stable, chances are good that settling won’t continue.
If the soil is not stable, but is of a composition which reacts to changes in moisture content, then it’s even more important to keep moisture away from the foundation to avoid changes in soil moisture content.
A soils test should have provided information about the structural properties of the soil. Normal house settling does not crack foundations or brick veneer. At least that’s not normal anywhere I know of. Ask your engineer what caused the “normal” settling.
Gravel around the foundation will provide a quicker route for moisture to reach soil beneath the foundation, so no, that’s not good. Better to re-grade to slope soil away from teh foundation for at least 6 feet.
Patrick,
Kenton is right. If you plan on supplementing to the grade that is existing to shed water away from your foundation, use a clayish material with a top layer of loam and reseed.
The clayish soil will help cap the soil backfill that is existing and prevent anymore water permeage that you are having now which could cause a problem.
I don’t believe we discussed whether or not you had perimeter foundation drains so it is assummed you don’t.
All other suggestions like adding gutters would definitely help the situation also.
Hopes this helps a little.
Marcel :)
Patrick,
It sounds like you live on a lot that slopes down from the street to a lake.
My advice would be search landscape drainage and look at some web sites. If you have a lot of water coming down the hill you may benifit from a drainage system that would devert the water around or away before it reaches the house. When you have an idea of what your options are have a local contractor come out and make recommendations. He may see something we don’t see in the photos. Some drainage systems can be fairly inexpensive if you do the digging/ trenching yourself. From what I see the the gutters are a must. The downspouts could drain into pipes underground that discharge further down the hill.So get as much water away from the house as you can and your repairs to the house should have a better chance of success. Reread all the advice you’ve gotten here so far it’s all good.
Good Luck and if you end up needing a large trench dug check with a local rental center and see what it would cost to rent a trencher. If you have hard soil they are well worth the $$.
Thank you everyone for your expertise and help. I will take all your advice seriously