As far as I can tell, these piers (pier and curtain wall construction) do nothing. One entire side of the house was like this. Seems that the wall, not the piers, is doing all the work.
Comments or advice on how to report? House is < 10 years old.
What's the point of these piers?
looks like the blocks heald the house up while the masons did nicey nice with the bricks, and just kept them as added suport. i like a base thicker than a brick to hold up my house too. was there anything else ie; piers, lalycolumns, or what not???
Elsewhere there were central piers under beams. The other walls had similar piers supporting band sills/rim joists. The supports at this wall seemed not quite right to me.
i see your point, the sill plate isn’t even on the blocks ( i missed that the first time). i still think it’s just support, maybe for the brick not the house, so it doesn’t deflect? like a backbone of sorts.
Are they some kind of reinforcing pilasters for the wall?
That is what I was wondering…is there a high grade or back fill on the other side of that wall?
Yes, they look like pilasters that help hold back horizontal forces from the exterior.
I vote for pilasters.
I usually vote for people or I vote in NACHI polls.
Since neither of them are present here, Miss Margarita and I will go along with pilasters.
I believe Mr. Clark was the first with the right answer
I too believe they are “support pilasters”.
I’ve not seen them used in brick foundations but I do use the same technique, (with poured foundation walls),on homes I build that have particularly long walls.They work quite well in preventing possible cracks from backfill pressure.
Sorta like a “deadman” on the retaining walls I have built in the past…
Exactly.
“Deadmen” is what we call them around here too.
Exactly what they are; Pilasters, and usually they are reinforced with some re-bar to help the wall in later stability.
I could be related to the flying buttresses of Ancient Rome Architecture. Downsized over the years and inverted from outside to inside. ha. ha.
Marcel 
</IMG></IMG>
Pilaster definition: “a rectangular column that usually projects about a third of its width from the wall to which it is attached.” I suppose this type of column is commonly called a pilaster, but these definitely do not project 1/3 from the wall. The crawl space wall is one course of brick thick–the column projects about 85% from the wall.
Most of the time, similar “pilasters” that I see actually support the load of the structure. This is not common in the Carolinas and I’m thinking it doesn’t do a thing.
There is no soil on the outside of the wall that would require the use of a “backbone”. The entire crawl space is above grade.
[quote=jfunderburk]
The crawl space wall is one course of brick thick–the column projects about 85% from the wall.
I think if my house was resting on a foundation that was 1 course of brick I would want the extra lateral support that these columns would give.
It appears to be a pilaster that is being used as a type of buttress to help prevent the wall from buckling/bowing vertically.
I don’t know why they didn’t just use a thicker wall, or if just the pilasters are adequate to prevent buckling/bowing, but I sure wouldn’t want my entire house to sit on one course of brick at least a few feet high without some stabilization … :shock:
JMO & 2-nickels
Pilasters are used to support a beam and to transfer load to the footing. These are most likely abutments to support the lateral pressure on the brick wall.
soooo what does a builder do while waiting for the electrician to show up?
Well I for one study the IRC code book.Low and behold it has an illustration of this exact technique on page 75. (2003)
Pier and curtain wall foundation
The single course brick wall is a curtain wall and obviously rests on a footing.This wall can be a max. of 4’ tall.
The piers are to be spaced no more than 6’ O.C. apart and bonded to the curtain wall.
A treated sill plate rests on top and doubled rim joists on top of that.
There are very specific ways in which the whole structure is anchored, strapped,and connected.
See. That silly ol’ code book is good for something besides paper airplanes;-)
I believe the issue comes down to this:
Does the rim joist have two members?
It may be hard to tell for sure…