What are these piers?

[Mike Lamb]

This 1972 home has a basement that does not show signs of flooding. There is a small adjacent crawlspace that is about 4 feet above the basement floor with a dirt gravel floor that has two square holes cut in the foundation at opposite sides apparently to let water drain in or out of it.

On one side of this crawlspace about a foot of soil has washed away from beneath the foundation wall. There is an attached garage here so water has been running beneath the garage slab. The foundation has buckled.

Anyway, beneath this washed out foundation are to wood piers about 8 inches thick. They are not rotted to speak of. They would have to be from some previous construction. Any thoughts on these wooden piers?

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[Brandon Whitmore]

This 1972 home has a basement that does not show signs of flooding. There is a small adjacent crawlspace that is about 4 feet above the basement floor with a dirt gravel floor that has two square holes cut in the foundation at opposite sides apparently to let water drain in or out of it.

Perhaps they were planning for future ductwork, or the concrete guys weren't sure what they were installing for a heat source?? That's my guess in regards to the gap @ the garage stem wall.

[Brandon Whitmore]

Are you sure soil washed away, or did it get moist and compact over time? They may have poured on top of soil that wasn't compacted or some wood may have rotted beneath the footings, allowing the soil to drop.

[kurt]

I've got a few thoughts, maybe. Where's it at?

[Mike Lamb]

There is sort of a cavern passageway under the garage slab which is why I say water was flowing. I'd also say the foundation has buckled.

This is in Palos Hills, a SW Chgo suburb, which I am told used to be a flood plain but is no longer.

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[Rob Amaral]

Looks like a pile Mike.... anyway.. 'B-A-D" of course.. ..A pile with the top exposed can rot and get short... thus the horizontal cracks..

[Marc]

Looks like a pile Mike.... anyway.. 'B-A-D" of course.. ..A pile with the top exposed can rot and get short... thus the horizontal cracks..

I'm with Rob...pilings to support the grade beam. For some reason, someone thought it a good idea to install a few or perhaps there's many, before the pour.

Marc

[kurt]

This is in Palos Hills, a SW Chgo suburb, which I am told used to be a flood plain but is no longer.

Old Palos Hills has some strange water stuff. Once a flood plain, always a flood plain, isn't it?

I don't think you can rezone or legislatively make a flood plain not a flood plain

[John Kogel]

We discussed this before, or maybe it was somewhere else. Creosote poles driven into a swamp, capped with concrete, then topped with a house. As they dry out the swamp, the soil drops away.