Jeff wrote:
Hi,

Half of our basement was dug down about 6 inches more than 30 years
ago. I just pulled down some wall panelling in the dug-out section, and

discovered that there is about a 4 inch gap between the bottom of the
foundation wall and the basement floor. I can clearly see earth fills
this gap.

Here are a couple of photos of the gap:

http://jjlloyd.googlepages.com/basement

The house was built in the 1920s, and the foundation is poured
concrete. The basement floor is poured concrete. The earth is very
sandy, and we do not have a problem with water via the gap. There are
no cracks in the foundation wall, nor are there cracks in the exterior
brick of the house to suggest bad settling. I have only uncovered a
small section of the walls so far.

I've had a couple of contractors in who suggest an expensive "proper"
addition of footings. Another contractor suggested the earth be dug out

several inches past the exterior of the foundation wall, and
back-filled with concrete to make a sort of 1/2 footing. Or I was
considering just filling in a few inches of concrete on the inside to
prevent the earth from spilling inwards. But I don't believe that will
add any structural support.

Do I really need expensive several-feet deep footings with weeping
tile, etc., to replace the earth that hasn't moved much in all this
time?

Any opinions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

There are two ways of looking at this. First and properly, you're
pretty well screwed. It should be immediately fixed and fixed properly
-- and it's be unbelievably expensive.

The second way of looking at is is that it hasn't moved in the last 80
years so it ain't going anywhere .. esp. since you don't have water or
frost at that level.

Personally, I thing the biggest problem you would have is something
undercutting the wall and having it look support. I am not an
engineer, so please disregard my advice and I do not intend to tell you
what to do, merely what I would do if I owned the house.

I would put a 2x12 about a foot out from the wall. I would then drill
holes 6" out from the wall and drive rebar a foot two down, say every 2
feet. Then put a couple of piece of rebar running parallel to the
wall, connecting the pieces I drove into the ground. Then I would fill
the area between the wall and the 2X12 with concrete. That (and the
rebar) might keep the concrete wall from being undercut.

wall
|
|
|~~~~~ | top of new concrete
| |
| | new wall
| |
dirt } | |
} | |
floor ------|------
|
rebar |
|

But consult someone smarter than me before you do anything like this.
I don't want to be responsible for your house falling down.