Masons, construction, engineers, visual help
 

Selling my house.

Down in the basement cleaning up and I look at one of the walls.

This is about a foot or so below grade.

Second row of blocks from the top.

Something to worry about?

Need to fix?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1191533149.jpg

Being that it is at the top of the wall, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Caulk it and paint it before the home inspector get a look at it. (I'm so bad)

To my unproffesional eye that looks like hydrostolic(?) pressure from soil compaction on the outside, and it looks new and not too bad.
A little weeping tile and grading around the perimeter should do the trick, or credit the buyer in the sale price.

I saw a whole wall of a cinder-block foundation pushed in almost a foot once while looking at a house. The cheese-heads had tried spackling and painting(with latex no less) the ugly thing so it would go away.
Little did they know that known and undisclosed damage can come back to bite them in the butt with warentee deeds.

It will cost you about 10 bucks to do it right, if you do it yourself. Go down and buy a bag of pre mix mortar at Home Depot or Lowes. Chip that old mortar out of there, and clean it up. Get an empty 5 gallon bucket it doesn't even have to be that big. Put some motar in the bottom and add water as you stir. Some people will tell you to put the mortar in sloppy/wet, some people will tell you to do it somewhat dry. Both work. If you don't want to buy and specific tools you can force it in there with a screwdriver small spoon whatever. You need to use a sponge to get the dust off of the joint before doing that step though. Then you work it in and can use you finger to meet the contour they used on the other joints. Let it dry for a couple of hours then using a chunk of wet carpet to go over the area you may have gotten motar on the blocks. Very very simple job.

Brick work is my hobby. I have all the tools but you don't need them for that job.

I'm going to take a guess and guess excessive hydrostatic pressure on the wall causing a localized stress failure. If there's rebar in the CMU foundation (as there SHOULD be, but given how lousy residential construction practices are sometimes, I make this assumption carefully. . .) then the rebar should help hold things together on the tension side of the wall. Concrete is notoriously weak in tension but very strong in compression, which is why steel is typically added to concrete to increase its ability to resist failure in bending under load. Anyway, my point is that you probably don't have to worry about a structural failure with a crack like that, but you could have issues with moisture infiltration depending on (again) what kind of construction practices were used. If there's a moisture barrier on the outside of the CMU (as there should be), you should be fine. If there's not, or if it has failed/ruptured/torn you'll see evidence of staining and moisture infiltration around the crack. I don't see that in the photo so you're probably okay.

I'd say grouting is only going to fail again in the same way. You're probably better using some sort of epoxy or elastomeric filler that has some "stretch" to it. Just my $0.02 though - one of the concrete experts on here can probably advise a bit better.

Like I said, motar mix.

Little history.

Foundation is only 11 years old.

When we bought it new the grading was poor.

We live in an area with soil that drains poorly.

This is the back wall of the house.

The wall has a foam type barrier on the outside between it and the soil but the wall would still get damp during heavy downpours.

Eventually we installed a brick and concrete patio and naturally the wet wall problem went away. The patio obviously keeps the areas soil from getting saturated.

I don't know if there is rebar in there or not. It's a utility basement so I only go down there once or twice a year so I have no idea how long the cracks have been there.

I ran a straightedge into the gaps and for the most part it only goes back an inch.

Scott

Combination of a little hydrostatic pressure and perhaps some settlement. Look uo "Sikaflex" products online. We commonly use their products for a variety of purposes. I would suggest you fix it before you have it inspected as it will raise more questions which cost "consultant":rolleyes:money to resolve. Paint to match, you're outta there!

So my next question. Do these suggestions fix it or hide it?

I'm interested in fixing it.

I'm a big believer in karma.

Scott

I wouldn't attempt to hide it if you are concerned about karma. Disclose it and let the buyers be your guide. This issue may take their mind off some others, as is usually the case. It's always good to have a point of compromise if it isn't some major deal. This doesn't look like a "major" deal.

I'm not negotiating anymore with this buyer.

His max was a bit light but in this market with winter coming we decided to take the money and run but the deal was house is as is.

By that we meant we were not going to even start to discuss little nitpicky s**t like a light switch that did not work etc...

I know it's killing him because he comes from a culture that haggles. We were at the house the 1st time he came by and I overheard him asking if the patio furniture was staying. Broker tells me later they asked about furniture in every room. Not that they wanted to buy it, they wanted to know if it was part of the house. We actually had a major issue over a leather couch that my kids, dogs and cats have trashed. The guy got pissed that I would not give it to him.

He was by this weekend to sign the binder. Broker met him, we were out. We are on the way home and the broker calls in a panic, the hot water tank has sprung a leak. I rush home, turns out the relief valve on top got stuck open.
Those things don't just go like that. Usually they fail when you open them.

Oddly it was fine when they went down there and did not start until they were down there. Boiler guy comes and fixes it and asks who touched it. hmmmm

Also the heat on the second floor that night. The temperature on the second floor got up to 80 even though my wife got up twice in the middle of the night and turned the thermostat down. Next day I popped the cover off and the calibration was way off.

Way to coincidental, never have these issues and the guy is in my house for an hour and s**t starts going wrong?

I view this as something that I would take care of anyway if I was staying in the house so I'm interested in doing it as right as possible.

I live in a part of the country that moves. The earth that is. Our house is shaped like a H. I swear it thinks the verticle are wings because the houses wings move up and down at will. I am constantly putting motar in cracks and replaceing bricks that crack. No big deal. This year was a major brick replacement year. Over 200 so far. If you use mortar it could last from 2-3 months to a year. If the guy is a jerk do the mortar repair I swear a one armed blind monkey could do it. It looks perfect. If it lasts 2-3 months ok, if it lasts longer all the better why do you really care?

Reading that, I think this is a tough deal. What you want to do at this point is make sure you're beyond any post sale liability. A bullet proof "as-is" contact of sale is a must. This buyer is maybe thinking the "sale" is only the beginning. It's not if you disclose and then produce an "as-is" contract. Your buyer's culture will have to settle for our laws.
After that, move out of state. ;)