We decided to build a simple storage cabinet for seasonal storage in our basement. It will include shelves below a basement window and the cabinet to one side.We have one already and it sits on a lneewall. So before work yesterday I decided to move things out of the way and pull the trim off the drywall basement wall. When I removed the base trim I noticed the drywall behind it looked rotted. I pulled some of it...then some more...then more until I found this. Well not quite this, as this is from last night's work, but every where you see that I've chipped out the mortar joint was a 1/4 to 3/8 crack through the mortar. It not only let air, water but also soil into the house. The wall had a couple 2x2 nailers and foam board behind the drywall. The lower part of the nailers were rotted and you can see there is some mold on the wall. Apparently before I was around the grade next to the window was too high and gutters never maintained. This let water flow to the window area. This morning I cleaned and repaired the mortar joints. Its amazing how much cold air was coming into the basement through the cracks. Next is a good bleaching of the wall, painting with Kilz, installing treated nailers, putting up new pinkboard insulation, install new drywall, tape, texture and paint....then I can build the cabinet!! Next spring I'll install a window well and do even better grading around it. That will also let me inspect and repair the outside of the block wall. I had the Bob Ross painting show on in the background, hoping his "happy trees" attitide would wear off on me. Not sure it worked.
In fairness, I hear plenty of horror stories about new construction. Which to me, would be far more frustrating. It's like shoes. They give you blisters when they are new, and after they are broken in and well worn, laces break and soles wear out.
Nice job schlot hoping you used hydraulic cement for that patch Most of my jobs includes opening the proverbial can of worms.
You're right about some new homes. Sister in law lived in a new home in Omaha. A truly horrible house for the age and price.
Nope...I wanted too, but per papadave previous suggestions I used a combination of spit and duct tape
Nice job on fixing it right as best you can so late in the fall. I always enjoy seeing people do the best then can with what they got. This house (circa 1930 from what I can ascertain), has always been a hurry-up-and-fix-it. The sad thing was, my Uncle was a home building contractor, and yet when his own mother lived here, did everything as cheaply and quickly as he could. EVERYTHING was a quick fix...everything! The worst thing was, and this is rather disgusting; he treated his mother like any customer...he CHARGED her for any and all work.
It's kinda like a mechanic fixing his own car, it all eventually becomes a someday fix, as in some day I'll fix it good but for now it works........
I understand what you mean. She once wanted a 13 x 18 garden shed built and he built it for her, giving her a quite just as if it was any other customer. He is known for being a jerk. I won' t even get started on logging because if he saw a nice pine that he wanted to cut, he would back in and cut it...it did not have to be on his land. He wanted it and just assumed it would fall down before the adjacent landowner would get it before it rotted. And he was not much of a contractor either; I never knew a house he built to NOT have a leaky roof or have the vinyl siding blow off in a good windstorm.
I've known some folks locally that had their basement block walls cave in only to find out that earth movement was not covered by their home insurance. I'n all cases, the blocks were not filled nor was re-bar installed. Retrofitting older block foundations with fill and re-bar has become common here. Given the cracking you're seeing though I'd be more worried about your foundation though. (I realize that the cracks look big because the mortar has been removed) I hope you mean to install your studs inside the foam insulation else you'll likely get condensation (and maybe mold) on the inside of the studs.
Its a valid concern. Older homes often didn't have The cores slugged with concrete and vertical bars installed as they thought the "locked" desugn of the cmu was enough by themselves. My walls are very stable. As you said, my removal of mortar makes it look worse. There is no lateral shifting of the block. It was a result of the poorly directed subgrade drainage next to the wall. The surcharge weight of the soil isn't large do to the design of the wall/lneewall and the grading. More annoying than anything in my case .
In sure everyone is sitting on there edge of their seats asking "How did Schlot's wall turn out???" Well ok, probably not, but I figured I'd finish out this thread just the same. After coating the wall with Drylock, I installed treated 2x4 studs and lagged them to the block. I infilled the stud spaces with 1.5" pink board then added a couple layers of fanfold Styrofoam over the studs. The fan fold was needed to match up to the existing wall thickness since the previous owner built up the wall using 2x2 nailers with full 2" foam boards between them. (I'm thinking someone didn't understand how dimension lumber is sized.) So it was either fur out the 2x4s or use the fanfold. Besides this method gives me a small thermal break and I have a bunch of extra fanfold from when the house was originally sided with vinyl.
Well, yes, we sitting on the edge of seats wondering how the project was going. Is the more to see yet?
Well...i made to consider selling tickets to this thread if it's that popular. No good pictures yet. The wall looks about the same with a little more mud on the jòunts. Will update when it gets a little further along.
