Poured basment walls

I just did a home inspection in Michigan, house was 2011. Basement walls were poured. About two ft high and about 5 ft high from one end of the wall to the other were holes about the size of rebar, some were pluged some had foam inside. What are these? what purpose do all the holes serve?breakfeast%20dr%20200

How big were the holes?

Was the house finished?

unfilled stem wall form ties (used to hold the forms together during pour) or drilled holes. Do you have zoomed out pic? did other walls have them?

That’s what I thought too, but that is not it. I blew it up to see and they are a few inches apart and some are plugged.
I thought they were snap ties with cones at first, but those are located 6" from the top and every 12" down after that vertically.

looks like you could stick a piece of rebar in side holes. house is finished.

Is this a better picture? some holes are open and you can see spray foam inside, these holes are all over way to many to count.

all of the basement walls have them

these holes are every 2 inches most are sealed some are open. at 5ft high and 2ft high all walls in basement

Mark Andersen would have a field day with this! :flushed: :rofl: :crazy_face:

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I’ve done a lot of foundations in my career, but those holes have me stomped. I do know they have one good cold joint in that pour and the concrete slump at the time of pour was at least a 6-8" judging from the slope.
What is boggling is that whatever was in those holes had to go through the forms, which don’t make logical sense.
Unless they are inserts for screw in anchors on the other side.
How tall was that foundation?

I really don’t know. Maybe to let water in? :thinking: :wink: :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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What 's on the other side? any pics of that.

I assumed it was earth.

I know, but sometimes a picture tells me more of the bigger picture.

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just grass. nothing to indicate anything was done to anchor wall

just grass, no other indications to indicate anything was done to wall

Those are tie rod holes. It’s what they use to keep forms together when they pour concrete. After the concrete is set, they remove the rods and fill them with cork and patch over them. Some may leak if not plugged correctly. This is common in new construction with poured foundation walls.

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Man, that is a new one on me. :smile:

Sorry, but those are not tie rod holes.
They are bunched together and in the wrong location.
Look where ties are located in using 2’ forms.

And look where they are in using 4’ forms;


At first, I thought they had used snap ties and cones, whaler%20wedge but they are in the wrong place.
Snap ties break inside the concrete, snap_ties
If they used Simons or advantage or western forms they would be flat ties and you would see where they are, as you see above the waterproof membrane here. (upload://nA1HJwOcHy9zEfheOkVVAQKB4sO.jpeg)

Snap tie bleed through,Concrete stains associated with moisture such as foundation leaks.