Our old victorian farm house circa 1888 has foundation walls put in in
1919. The walls do rest on a concrete footing and there is drainage
tile laying on the footing to the outside of the walls. The common
problem with the red block walls is the cement mortar was never
applied well enough to stop all leaks. Hence, we have a damp basement
that is basically only used for storage.
I have thought about a reasonably priced repair for many years. There
are no breaks in the wall but some areas are sloughing off a little.
Would it be possible to excavate the dirt back from the walls, then
seal with maybe black tar and use some kind of sheet plastic on the
outside before backfilling? I've also thought of pressure treated
wood walls. We happen to be in the midwest. Any ideas about
successful solutions to this problem? One side of the house is a lot
worse than the rest and would be nice to just do part of the house at
a time. I question whether jacking the house up and pouring new
foundation walls would be cost effective as far as ever getting a
return on investment. Thanks for any responses.