I believe you said you have a block foundation as opposed to a cast in
place concrete wall. Jargon in the trade would call yours a block or
CMU (Concrete/cementitious Masonry Units) as opposed to CIP concrete
wall.

I am not in a position to tell you what will work, especially as I have
not seen it. I can offer some ideas to consider. I gather that the top
of the wall is still accessible. Did the footing break and go down
leaving a wider crack at the top than at the bottom? or did the wall get
pushed in causing a bigger crack at the top? If it was pushed in, has
it been pushed back out? If the footing has been broken, I would
suggest tearing the corner down, reinforce the footing, and relay the
corner. If the wall moved slightly from backfilling pressure, I would
excavate the corner to push the wall back into line. I must say it
sounds unusual to me for the wall to fail close to the corner, rather
than out at mid wall. I would take a hammer drill with a very small
bit (1/4") and test vertical cells to verify which ones are filled. You
will need to test at least high, medium, low in every vertical line of
cells near the failure. If there are any with voids in the filling of
the cells, I would make sure to have them at least grout injected,
preferably vibrated full of 3/8ths chip mix real concrete. I think the
dowels that are being proposed should maybe be longer to get from the
good corner well past the break into a portion of the side wall that did
not move or fail. I would expect the pins to be epoxied. I agree that
a poured floor holding the tops of the walls will strengthen the
situation substantially.

The damp proofing will need to be reapplied. I would ask for some form
of guaranty based on continued failure, crack increasing, etc for a set
term, perhaps 2 years, with a healthy clause about excavation and
remedy. It sounds as if your builder wants to work with you. I think
both of you should split the cost of having a structural engineer assess
and recommend the repair method for each other's protection and
continued ability to work together.


####################
Keep the whole world singing. . .
Dan G
(remove the 7)


"Freezeman" wrote in message
om...
Dan,

The crack is in a corner of the concrete wall along the side and about
8 inches from the rear wall. He is suggesting drilling about 6 holes
from the rear wall through the corner and into the side all. The holes
are 16inches deep and 5/8inches in diameter. Then some type of anchors
are driven into the holes with a steel plate up against the rear wall.
Will something like this do anything to support the structure? That
was my reason for posting was to get suggestions about a possible fix.
The builder also thinks that the rebar used in the vertical wall that
is extending about 2feet above the wall will help tie the wall the
slab when it is bent over and the slab is poured. Any ideas?

Robert




"Dan G" wrote in message
.. .
A vertical crack in a masonry wall sounds more serious than a crack
in
a concrete wall Is the wall bowed in at the top? It sounds like
too
much pressure during the backfilling operation either from equipment
or
from excess moisture in the soil.

The big issues IMHO are structural integrity and water/damp proof of
the
wall. Epoxy injection won't do much for the CMU wall the way it
would
with a concrete wall. What remedies does your builder suggest?


####################
Keep the whole world singing. . .
Dan G
(remove the 7)