I have competing subs telling me different things based on their own sales pitches. One says we can resolve (slightly) leaning walls with anchors, the other says anchors will not solve any problems and what I need to do is lift the house slight, repour the walls and bring the house back down once the walls have cured. The latter seems like overkill to me, but I want a reasonable, long-term solution. I’d be curious to hear from pros with experience with this.
Thank you in advance for your insights.
Replies
What's the main issue?
What's the main issue you're trying to fix? How old? How out of level? What kind of walls are there now?
The main issue is lean
The house was built in 1950. It's a one story, sided (not brick) ranch. The basement walls are poured concrete.
There are epoxied cracks from a previous owner, who also installed a sump pump system. The central steel i-beam had punctured to the exterior (which was patched at the same time as the epoxy work). We had seriously heavy rains in December. The tenant reported some slight water leakage in the basement and expressed concerns about growing wall cracks at doors and windows upstairs.
The subs who have seen the walls say they are leaning on 3 sides and while in no way an immediate concern, need to be addressed. I'm afraid I don't know exactly how out of plumb they are.
...dont know how out of plumb...
time for an on-site visit with someone knowedgeable
In tribute to DN, preferably someone with a PE license.
Anchors work in many cases, but there are cases where some sort of (usually partial) rebuild makes more sense. (And there are several different options for the anchors.) It simply depends on the cost/benefit analysis.