mjr6550

Great Stuff...I put that ---- on everything!

You are fighting physics. Move the cold air from the basement to upstairs and more cold air will want to take its place. Isolating the basement would be the best approach. Plexiglass walls and door?

The only thing about the estimate that surprised me is that he did not add the line... "if you sign today we will give you a big discount". Often followed by something like "we just had a big job cancel and have a crew standing by". Many water-proofing companies through out very high prices and hope for a sucker. Look into a sealed crawl space system. There are some companies in you area that can do a good drainage system (if needed) and a sealed crawl space for far less than that quote. One company has a crawl space dehumidifier that will fit into relatively small openings. I also just helped to install a ducted dehumidifier at our church (its the second one I helped install). This last one was an April Aire if I recall. It can be installed remote from the crawl space. Interior drainage systems are very common in this area. It is usually much more expensive to do an exterior system.

I love to see those old construction details.

Is this new construction? Is so I would be concerned. I agree with hiring a good forensic inspector. You need to see behind the walls to find out what is going on. An experienced inspector can often get a good idea where to open up or get a peak behind walls, sometimes with little or no damage.

My guess is shrinkage cracking. As a full brick shrinks if it is bonded well enough to another brick it causes that brick to fail in tension.

Insulation. New Englanders are frugal.

I would love to ask the owner a question. "Suppose the breaker does not trip sometime when it should have?"

Everything you need to know, thanks to Google. https://byjasco.com/sites/default/files ... panish.pdf

Watts or Bradford While also has a video online showing a water heater explosion. they are pretty impressive. I have read several account of water heaters launching through the roof and ending up a 100 feet or more from the house-also shifted the house on the foundation and blew out all the windows. I have read a few accounts of boiler explosions also. Worse than a bomb blast.

From the photos of the paint chips it looks like it adhered to the shingles, but some cedar came with the paint. If the cedar was heavily weathered it should have been scraped, sanded, or power washed (which damages the shingles if not careful). I think you have to get rid of the UV damaged surface and then you should use a pigmented stain. A paint film on old cedar is probably asking for failure.

I think the soupier (is that a word?), the better. I am not familiar with it. If you have a idea what it is called let me know. One problem may be that if a contractor can't get it tomorrow at wherever he does business, he is not interested in trying it.

With the exception of the barrier on the wall, retrofitting interior drainage systems has been the norm here for 50+ years. Generally don't seem to see too many problems. Excavating at the exterior with basements is typically cost prohibitive.

No. The voids were irregular at most areas, so a pencil vibrator would probably not fit. I though about banging on the stone with a rubber mallet, but figured that the stones would dampen out any vibration. I did try pushing wire, rebar, and a long spike into the voids. It helped to clear some blockages. When the grout seemed a bit thick or stopped flowing we poured some water down the hose. That did help. After the grout was poured there was about a 4 to 6 inch void at the top of the wall. The contractor packed stiff mud into those voids. I deemed the job a success, but I know there is room for improvement.

I don't think it would make a significant difference. Also, I am hoping the grout has some bonding action, which should be better than gypsum.

It looks like the very top section of scaffolding was not needed for the lintel work. I suppose they could have used that to access the roof. Whether that got them to where the slate was repaired, I can't say.

They look like injection ports to me. Many have a flat disk that gets epoxied to the wall and then injected into the round tube. Other than for structural repairs, urethane injections has become much more popular than epoxy. The spacing certainly looks like they filled the form ties. I do occasionally see leaks there.

I was not concerned about stone popping loose during the cleaning process. The mortar at the exterior was in relatively good condition. I was more concerned about the force developed during the grouting process. But since the grout was poured in one bucket at a time we could monitor the wall as we worked. While we poured a lot of grout in the wall after the contractor removed the old mortar to repoint I was able to look into the wall at several areas. I would say that I think we did a good job grouting the top 2 feet or so of the wall I could still see voids below there. In the future I would make sure the contractor did more work cleaning the voids, and would probably limit the lifts to 2 feet.

A $5000 deposit on a $7000 job? Am I missing something?

Usually where I see this the outer portion above grade rotates out, so below grade is not much of a concern. In other cases, such as the last photos I posted, the foundation wall is entirely below grade and in that case the interior is bulging inward. There can be a slight increase in width from top to bottom, but generally they are pretty much the same width (usually 18-20 inches). The stone construction varies depending on the area. In my area there is a lot of shale, so stones can be big and flat. That makes a better foundation wall because the bearing can be more uniform and stones can tie the foundation wall together. In the city there is a lot of mica schist. There can be many small irregular stones with a lot of mortar fill. Also, they sometimes set bigger stones on edge, which is not good for stability or weathering. Some mica schist crumbles with age. Good stone foundation walls, even with nothing but sand/lime mortar, can last hundreds of years, if built correctly and reparged on the inside periodically. Most of the bad walls are getting close to 100 years old, but age is taking its toll.

Different building and older (1860's). Probably seeing the same condition here, but I would not try grout with this one. Click to Enlarge 108.58 KB Click to Enlarge 78.75 KB Click to Enlarge 47.44 KB Click to Enlarge 48.21 KB

About 2 parts sand; 1 part portland cement;1/2 part lime. Here is today's progress. Click to Enlarge 58.56 KB Click to Enlarge 64.82 KB Click to Enlarge 66.15 KB

I have read of cases where shotcrete was installed over welded wire fabric as interior reinforcing for stone walls. It would not have been an use in this situation. If you were thinking of pumping into the walls, I would not use any method that applied pressure to the walls. They could easily blow apart.

By typical mortar standards, it may not be considered high, but its a lot higher than the sand/lime mortar that was used. Its main purpose is to provide some lateral stability to the stones and hopefully bond the wall together. The mix was quite high in lime to keep the water in the mix and help it flow.

Recently I have come across a few stone foundation walls that are failing because of improper construction and deterioration of mortar. These are often early 20th Century walls constructed with sand/lime mortar. they are typically constructed essentially like a two-wythe wall with some larger stone bonding the inner and outer wythes. Often they do not have many larger stones and as the rubble fill and mortar deteriorated they can separate. When they support brick walls the brick bears on the outer part of the wall and sometimes significant lateral displacement of bowing/bulging occurs. I evaluated one a little while ago and was hired to design a repair. One part of the repair involved dealing with the voids that developed inside of the foundation wall. I found a masonry contractor who was willing to try something new. I had him create some openings at the top of the foundation wall and a few near grade level. We then cleaned out a lot of the loose mortar. At some openings it flowed out like sand (well, it was sand). He then poured a grout mix into the wall cavities/voids. He did a section about 10 feet wide by 4-5 feet high (above grade level). I don't have the number on the amount of material used, but it was probably about 25 to 30 buckets. The next step will involve pointing the stone and then installing tie rods with steel plates at the exterior and connected to floor joists at a spacing of about 4 feet on center. The photos show gaps where a basement window frame was removed, debris removed from inside of the wall, various voids, and grout installation. Click to Enlarge 54.99 KB Click to Enlarge 126.09 KB Click to Enlarge 46.55 KB Click to Enlarge 53.4 KB Click to Enlarge 54.98 KB Click to Enlarge 55.81 KB Click to Enlarge 64.29 KB Click to Enlarge 84.48 KB Click to Enlarge 57.01 KB Click to Enlarge 52.55 KB