oreo123 wrote:

I am not involved with this. It happened / is happening next door in a home
over 650k.

Around December it was about 10 degrees. Bulldozers were in, forms installed
and concrete foundation was poured. Less than 24 hours - I think it was like
16 hours the forms were removed. We saw the humidity / steam from 75 feet
away - it was below freezing. Other neighbor thinks that he heard a popping
noise for a couple of days afterwards - could that have been the foundation
cracking??? What is the correct length of time for forms to be left in place
in the northeast in winter - I thought it was like 3 days?

Next around 3 months later the garage floor for 2 cars was poured against
existing foundation. Its maybe 8 feet above cellar floor.

The house foundation floor is above the water table. However there is water
coming through into the cellar where the floor meets the walls almost
everywhere. The grading is sloped away from house, there is maybe 6 inches
of earth, and then its all sand. No one in neighborhood has sump pumps and
these houses are higher than half the other neighbors houses.

Today I met new potential buyers who were allowed to bring things in before
the closing. They asked me about the hardwood floors which I could see
starting to cup. I install hardwood and I noticed it within 10 seconds. The
floors are maybe 3 months old. We got humidity meter out and checked it in
our house where it registered 6 percent. In this new house cellar the floor
joists in first floor measured in the cellar were over 16 percent (off our
scale).

Question 1: is it possible to seal a foundation?

Question 2: potential new homeowner doesn't want the drain with pump in
cellar floor. They want a french drain. What are the odds of this working?

Question 3: had anyone ever had a new foundation done by lifting the house?
And what is a wild guess for the cost to pick up a 3100 sq foot house on 2
levels? Myself if I bought it I would hold back that amount at closing and
if the builder couldn't make it dry for a year than I would want that done.
There is no way that the cellar could ever be finished with the water and
humidity which is a shame because it has ceilings maybe 9 feet high.

TIA.

Oh ya - there is yet another house next door and we looked in that cellar.
Its wet. And its not sold.


Hi,
Demolish and start all over again. Pouring foundation in dead winter is
OK but looks like that house was built really shoddy from bottom up.
Bad news for years to come. I live in Alberta. Looks like you have way
more crooked builders down there. Up here every new house comes with
warranty footed by industry. There was an instances whole house
had to be rebuilt because of poor workmanship. They do basic thing right
at least. And they police themselves.
Tony