Foundation repair: advice please!

[mannydantyla]

Hi guys, I'm getting ready to renovate my 20x12 garage and I'm starting by repairing the foundation. I'm doing this DIY because I cannot find a contractor who isn't too busy right now. But I feel like this is pretty doable for a guy like myself who has a little construction experience. I have done lots of reading and youtube watching but it always helps to get direct advice!

The problem is pretty obvious: the structure was built onto hollow blocks (clay bricks I think) that were not filled with rebar and cement, were not tied to each other in any way except mortar, and were not tied to the concrete footing either.

But the good news is that there IS a solid concrete footing. Except in one small spot, in one corner, where it is crumbling and will need repaired. I don't know how big the footing is, it seems to be at least 18" deep and I have no idea how wide. If it's wider than 8" then the blocks were not placed in the center. I'm in Kansas and our code for a small garage like this is 12" deep footings that are 12" wide.

Here's the other corner where the footer is crumbling:

You can see there isn't as much below the blocks on that side, that's because it's crumbled away. You can also see that a previous home owner tried to hold the blocks together with two 2x4s and large screws. That did not work! The blocks are totally lose and I can wiggle them by hand.

The blocks are 4x8x12 and there is two courses of them as well as two layers of them. I want to replace them with new 8x8x12 or 8x8x16 blocks. And I will fill them with rebar and concrete.

Here are my questions:

1. Should I lift the wall off of the blocks and replace them all at once? Or could I do it one at a time? The sill plate is actually in good condition
2. If the wall needs to be lifted, what is the best way to do that? The wall is only 12' long and is the gable end so most of the roof weight is going to the other walls.
3. How can I fasten the new blocks to the old footer? Will I need to drill hole for rebar and use epoxy or something?
4. What should I do about the crumbling footer in one corner only?
5. Anything else I should be aware of?

Any* help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

* please don't say I need to tear down the whole thing and replace because that's not happening

 

[stroked93]

Support the building on the inside of the garage temporarily, Tear out the busted corner, dig a footer and replace.

 

[nitroracer20]

What does the inside of the building look like in that corner?

Id start digging to really expose those corners - Beyond depth of footing. Probably an inadequate footing if block is sagging.

Even though its a gable end, post it up, and rebuild footing and block.

You got some digging to do! Where is LFK?

 

[yeldogt]

Is the sill level? --- does it leak?

It looks like in the last picture that the block is now outside the plane of the siding ..


Is that a downspout ?

 

[machsnell]

What is the floor inside? What is bearing on the blocks? Just rough framing? No slab or anything I presume?

Also it seems in the first picture the footing is deep and the second it is shallow. How deep do you have to go?

My blocks for my basement were hollow and wall was bowing inward.

I excavated outside walls and pushed blocks back as much as I felt comfortable with.

I then cut holes in the sides of the blocks and shoved sections of rebar inside and filled w concrete keeping all the blocks in place and then waterproofed the outside walls below grade.

It seems like you would need to raise the building or support so you can get blocks in and work to redo the blocks. At least for sections.

For a footing you can underpin and do in alternating sections


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[mannydantyla]

What does the inside of the building look like in that corner?

Where is LFK?

There is indeed a crack in the slab. And I measured with a level line and that side of the garage is a few inches lower than the front.

I'm not going for perfection, just an improvement over what I have.

I'm in NE Kansas. Our building codes for a small garage like this are 12" deep and 12" wide footers. Large structures need the footers to be 30" deep.

 

[mannydantyla]

Also it seems in the first picture the footing is deep and the second it is shallow. How deep do you have to go?

Oh, I didn't dig as deep in that hole in the 2nd picture. It kept going down but I had seen enough lol

Thanks for the advice from somebody who has done this before!

 

[mannydantyla]

If its only 8" wide then is it really a footing? Is it just a concrete foundation wall with blocks on top?

 

[matt_i]

I would just try to hold it together with steel at this point.

Let's just go with a 12' stick of 1/4" x 2" flat bar, SS304, hot-bend in the center with a 90 degree angle. Radius the corner block to match the bend radius of the metal. Match to existing block work and setup a pattern of epoxied studs that you drill or punch holes.

As far as your footers you could drill those, epoxy rebar studs into them, and then simply pour the hole full of concrete. It would add mass and surface area that would prevent further sinking.

Last I'd use something like Big Stretch to caulk the voids in the block.

A more radically intrusive, more expensive and more time-consuming but more solid repair would be to remove siding, support the building corner via temp headers and columns, remove blocks and footings and replace with new.

 

[Don1357]

There is indeed a crack in the slab. And I measured with a level line and that side of the garage is a few inches lower than the front.

I'm not going for perfection, just an improvement over what I have.

I'm in NE Kansas. Our building codes for a small garage like this are 12" deep and 12" wide footers. Large structures need the footers to be 30" deep.

If it makes you feel better my previous house built in1898 had a dry laid stone foundation. Yup, no concrete or anything, just flat stone laid on top of one another. There was some cement on the front where they put a porch.

One room had a measurable amount of sinking, about two inches, not even enough to notice with the naked eye. As I was chatting with the inspector he suggested I get an engineer to just put some support under the crawl space resting pretty much on the soil. I asked if the dry laid stone could give me troubles later on and he said mostly mice; it was over a hundred years old, most likely than not it has settled as much as it would.

If you foundation is old chances are it has settled as much as it is bound to do (bar sinkholes and such). If your soil PSI is decent just about any sensible approach will do. Don't overthink it by trying to come up with the ultimate plan for foundation repair.

 

[Hank11]

I'd support it inside and fix about 2-3 feet at a time. Jack it up maybe 1/4, break out all the old masonry and build it back new, then move to the next section. Instead of block, I'd form each section and pour it solid. A few feet at a time won't over work you and you could do another section on the other side of the building at the same time.

Before lifting, bolt a 2x10 to each of the studs all the way across the bottom to keep the wall straight when lifted.

I've done this before and when done it looked like nothing happened except the building was nice and straight and level.

The pictures look like your building has seen better days. What about tearing it down and fixing the whole slab and proper footers then build it back?

 

[CraigStu]

Weird I don't see any pics or the usual little boxes either.

 

[mannydantyla]

The pictures look like your building has seen better days. What about tearing it down and fixing the whole slab and proper footers then build it back?

Because I can't find a contractor in my area who will even return my calls. Except for one, but he was a no-call no-show for our scheduled consultation. Contractor must be licensed by my city. Home owner (me) is allowed to do the work but, I think that would just be too much for me. I could do a small foundation but a 20x30 garage with 30" deep footers? I don't think so.

Weird I don't see any pics or the usual little boxes either.

Sorry, I think something was wrong with my server or my hosting provider. But I think the images are working again, if they're not then let me know