Need some Concrete Advise

[dlcwent]

Help me out guys. What would you do to fix a serious problem like this. A guy asked me about this situation he's faced with. His house was built on a foundation of cinder blocks 6"x12". Whoever built it did not fill the blocks with cement. They seemed to be spaced evenly so it wasn't obvious to him until one of them broke. Jack the house and start over? Drilling and Filling? Any ideas?

 

[ahab]

I've never heard of filling all concrete blocks with cement on a normal basement wall.

Only time concrete blocks were filled:
Regularly spaced intervals along the wall
corners
around openings
under garage door opening
top course of blocks

I worked masonry for a 3 summers in the midwest. Most of the basements I worked on were 8x16 block. I'd give a local mason a call and ask what was normal there.

 

[finn]

Same here. Never seen them filled, except maybe near openings

 

[Chaznsc]

I've only seen them filled if the rebar extends from the found auto into the cells. Even then, it's not every cell.

 

[Fixnfly]

I always thought filling the blocks was a way to get rid of excess cement instead of dumping it somewhere. Good idea.

 

[Garage Dog]

Help me out guys. What would you do to fix a serious problem like this. A guy asked me about this situation he's faced with. His house was built on a foundation of cinder blocks 6"x12". Whoever built it did not fill the blocks with cement. They seemed to be spaced evenly so it wasn't obvious to him until one of them broke. Jack the house and start over? Drilling and Filling? Any ideas?

dlcwent,

Broken block is obviously a problem, but finding one cell or even one block that is not filled means nothing at all depending on where it is in the wall. How does this guy know that none of the cells are filled if "one of them broke".

Masons will commonly reinforce block walls by adding vertical rebar and grouting those vertical cells (think of the grouted cells creating a vertical column with rebar inside) with a given spacing along a wall as well as in corners. Masons also add horizontal bond beams and horizontal lintel beams in places for reinforcement that are grouted as well when building a block wall.

The point being that it would be very, very uncommon to see all block cells in a foundation wall "filled" or grouted.

Tell the guy to Google "Concrete Masonry Unit" or "CMU wall design" and it will show him variations on how cinder block walls are built and reinforced. Lots of different ways they can be built depending on conditions. But at least he would have an idea of how they are built before having a mason out to take a look.

There is no way we could even guess at what corrective steps need to be taken with the information given. Have the guy call a couple local experienced masons to take a look and suggest corrective actions.

Good Luck

 

[TractorJeff]

Yep!
Built lots of concrete/cinder block walls when I was younger and hard up for work!
Only re-enforce them at the points already listed.

 

[dlcwent]

Thanks for the replies. I didn't know what to say. When I was a teen I used to work doing pads and patios. But worked with a guy building his own house and he did fill all the blocks. So I thought this was a common practice. I'll inform him.Thanks