DIYbanter - View Single Post - Foundation settling- bolting blocks

Tony[_19_]

hr(bob) wrote:
On Feb 6, 2:29 pm, Tony wrote:
My garage was built about 20 months ago. It was on top of what had been
filled in about 5 years earlier. Big problem was that the excavator had
to dig down 6 feet before reaching the buried tree stumps, plus digging
deeper yet to remove the stump, he had one hell of a hole. It is very
heavy clay and he said he filled it in layers packing it down the best
he could with the excavator. He actually turned the footing a bit to
stay off of most of that giant hole he had to dig and fill in.

OK, withing a few months the block wall cracked at the joints, not bad
some places, but worse where the mason forgot to put the wire between
courses. I fixed the cracks when they were about 1/4" but they came
back, maybe another 1/8". I was starting a plan to get rebar in at
angles and add concrete when I had another idea. I picture a long
"bolt" from one corner to the other. It's not easy to describe how I
would attach the bolt at each end but it would be going into a block
cell at each end that already has rebar and is poured solid. BTW, the
"bolt" would be rebar welded together and then a turnbuckle or two
welded in the middle section. I could easily go through the wall with
the bolt and add a big 1/4" plate on each end as a washer, but I don't
know how well the future stucco would look trying to hide these bolts.
Or I suppose I could use a small tube around the bolts so the stucco
doesn't touch them and I could tighten it in the future if needed.

That's a lot of variables, any ideas?

Ever seen anything like this done? Any pros and cons?

That will try to hold the walls together, but they could still sag at
the midpoints. I would try getting a lot of water under the slab to
promote the settling, lert it alone for a couple of months to let it
dry out, and then see how bad things are. You may be faced with a
huge problem that even bolting together the corners will not be able
to fix. What does the contractor suggest?

I think the sagging is at the corner because the cracks are wider at the
top and pretty much non- existent at the bottom of the wall. They are
6' to 8' from the corner. There is also a window at the cracks and with
the lentil there is a space I would have liked to rebar and fill with
concrete top to bottom but couldn't due to the solid lentil being in the
way. None of the other walls have more than hairline cracks. I am the
contractor. In the last 6 months we have had lot's of rain, extreme
cold and snow and more rain, way above average. It may be done
settling, I don't know. I have a feeling it's something that most would
just mud over and see what happens but I'd like to be sure before
studding and insulating... that will hide the "bolt". I've seen many
retaining walls and exterior house walls with big bolts through them so
it's not that uncommon. If worst comes to worst, I can have some
concrete jacking done, I don't think this is enough to be a serious
problem. For now I have it marked and it hasn't moved 1/32" in over 4
months.