Poured or block for load bearing?

[PCustoms]

My (current) garage is a drive out basement.

I need to build a stem wall and re-frame the overhead door. The end of the stem wall supports the main beam of the house.

Should I pour this wall, or is block OK?

I've never done block, but is appealing as it should minimize the demo required to an existing wall.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

What is the current construction?

 

[GMCGarage]

My (current) garage is a drive out basement.

I need to build a stem wall and re-frame the overhead door. The end of the stem wall supports the main beam of the house.

Should I pour this wall, or is block OK?

I've never done block, but is appealing as it should minimize the demo required to an existing wall.

Something supporting a portion of your house can be either, but I would get it engineered. Block will work for sure, but will need more reinforcing than concrete.

 

[DTE]

I do not know just what you are building but 12 inch block grouted solid with concrete is what most what I would consider. You might get by with 8's.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'm guessing there's a footer already there ?

I'd probably use block of matching width of what is already used for the foundation. Drill holes for rebar and core fill the block.

 

[firebirdparts]

Block is the norm. Everybody uses them for that. In a basement you tend to see 8"

 

[PCustoms]

What is the current construction?

Drive out basement, construction was an 18' opening in the concrete, with ~2' 2x4 wall sitting on the slab. Doubled up 2x4 supports the beam currently, and I framed in one door before winter a few years back.

The original wood needs to be replaced, time to do it right.

 

[nadogail]

You are too far away for me to look at your problem, Pictures would help.

 

[PCustoms]

You are too far away for me to look at your problem, Pictures would help.

I have a 2x4 ftamed wall holding up a triple 2x12 beam. The sill is rotting.

Should I pour a wall or are blocks ok?

 

[PCustoms]

Bumping this thread, apparently I've been thinking about this for 5 years....

Ripping out the rotting framing around the overhead door and the small 12-18" 2x4 wall that holds the center beam of the house next weekend.

Need to replace it with about 11' stem wall 16-24" tall.

I like the idea of block as I can eliminate forms and 25 bags of quickcrete. But I've never worked with block.

I assume once it's core filled it will be plenty strong? (Again, currently beam is only held up with doubled 2x4).

How do I dowel it to the current poured wall, just drill and lay rebar on top of block course?

 

[sz0k30]

There are probably as many houses built on block walls as poured walls.

 

[Firebrick43]

You could dry stack the cmu after leveling the first course with mortar to a string and then use surface bonding cement inside and out that has fiberglass in it to make a wall stronger than one that is fully mortared.

For even more strength you can put a layer of fiberglass stucco lathe into the initial layer and cover it with a second coat of SBC.

It will give a stucco look to it and can be colored as well

Also have you considered ICF? I assume there is heat, at least above the garage?

I personally would rather do either of the two above or foam and mix bags of concrete than try to grout cells of cmu by hand.

 

[PCustoms]

You could dry stack the cmu after leveling the first course with mortar to a string and then use surface bonding cement inside and out that has fiberglass in it to make a wall stronger than one that is fully mortared.

For even more strength you can put a layer of fiberglass stucco lathe into the initial layer and cover it with a second coat of SBC.

It will give a stucco look to it and can be colored as well

Also have you considered ICF? I assume there is heat, at least above the garage?

I'm only doing 2-3 courses, and would just use type A. No reason to look into the surface bond materials.



I had not considered ICF, but that would work.

I personally would rather do either of the two above or foam and mix bags of concrete than try to grout cells of cmu by hand.

What am I overlooking here, to me filling the cores is the easiest part...

 

[Firebrick43]

I'm only doing 2-3 courses, and would just use type A. No reason to look into the surface bond materials.



I had not considered ICF, but that would work.



What am I overlooking here, to me filling the cores is the easiest part...

I was thinking higher. Getting it to flow thru 8’ is a pain

2 or 3 courses would be bad

Ii guess I didn’t read enough

 

[PCustoms]

I was thinking higher. Getting it to flow thru 8’ is a pain

2 or 3 courses would be bad

Ii guess I didn’t read enough

Yeah 8' wall by hand would be a non-starter.

Just need this short stem wall to get some framing up out of the dirt.

 

[PCustoms]

To close this out, we poured it

I epoxied 1/2" rebar vertically and 2 rows horizontally.

Built 2 18"x12' forms with 2x4 16" OC (used scrap from the framed wall) and OSB skins. Inside form got tapconned to the floor and existing wall, outside form got staked in place. Both forms screwed together.

With 2 people alternating and mixing 2 bags at a time it went pretty fast, would not have been been able to set blocks that quick and would have still had to come back to core fill

 

[NUTTSGT]

We want finished pictures !

 

[PCustoms]

We want finished pictures !

Not done yet!



Thankfully the rot didn't extend too far up, and there was a seam in the OSB just under the siding, so I slipped a 15" wide strip most of the way across. Key for now is it's all flush and I could trim it out.

The upper left window is the one I put a rock through last month. Pricing it out made more sense to replace the whole thing, so I have 2 new windows due end of the month

Debating if I want to frame an eyebrow over the door. I hadn't considered it until I was looking at pictures wide trim around garage doors (there was some poorly installed siding that dropped down closer to the door that looked off). If I do that it resolves the last but of bad OSB (upper left corner, deck wasn't flashed properly) and gives me a better spot for some lights.

I may have been talked into residing the front when I do the windows, that is TBD. This is how projects snowball and take 3-4x as long...

 

[PCustoms]

Worth adding that everything in contact with concrete was wrapped in 12" of waterproof membrane. No chance of anything wicking into the zip...

 

[NUTTSGT]

I see you used ZIP, I like the stuff.

 

[PCustoms]

I see you used ZIP, I like the stuff.

$31 a sheet, not sure what plain OSB was right now.

Saves time in adding tyvek, and gives me 6 months to figure out siding.