SUPER DRY BASEMENTSTM
(We Wrote The Book On Basement Waterproofing)
Chapter 4
"Cracked, Bowed and Bulging Walls"
Are
Your Basement Walls BULGING,
BOWING
Or CRACKING?
Want
To Weed Out The Gimmicks and Outdated Basement Repair Strategies
Currently Offered Locally?
Local
Basement Expert and National Basement Author Reveals Insider Tips
Secrets and Proprietary Repair Strategies,
Custom Designed To Solve Your Basement Problems!
Hurry,
Act Now!
A
Structural Basement Problem Left UNTREATED
Can
Dramatically
Skyrocket The Price
and ROB YOUR CHECKBOOK BLIND!
CALL
ONE OF OUR EXPERTS IMMEDIATELY To Schedule and Appointment
440-322-6617
READ
ON To Discover How To
Permanently Erase Your Basement Problems!
Our
Innovative Mortar-less Method Has Been Nationally Tested 5X Stronger
When
it comes to treating a bulging cracked or bowing basement wall most
of the basement companies are completely in the dark! They may have a
few different band-aid type
approaches but most are
ignorant of the basic causes which create the underlying conditions
to allow the walls to crack, heave, shift and buckle.
I
am going to let you in on a SECRET.
Most
Basement Wall Problems Are A Result of Bad Framing …
NOT
BAD MASONRY!
That’s
Right, Bad
Framing.
You
see with a concrete block or other stacked masonry unit wall, the
wall derives its strength from the EVENLY DISTRIBUTED weight of the
house applying pressure and pushing directly down on the top of the
walls.
This
even distribution ensures that the heavier the house, the stronger
the lateral load capacity of the wall.
When
the house is applying direct pressure on top of the walls, the evenly
distributed load makes the walls very strong. This is hugely
important. The way that the load transfers onto the wall is via a
board called a sill plate. The sill plate’s job is to transfer
the load of the house directly onto the top of the wall.
When
the sill plate is as wide as the top of the top block the
distribution is even. When the sill plate is smaller or partial
there is an un-even distribution of the load
Resulting
in a wall that is weakened and that will begin to bow bulge and
crack.
A
partial sill plate looks like this.
A
partial sill plate will put all of the pressure on the outside edge
of the block
wall.
This creates a very unstable wall. When other forces and
complicating additional factors or problems are added to the wall, it
can create huge problems!
Other
factors include things like: a nearby tree with branches over the
roof line (means roots pushing on wall) or roof downspouts that
discharge to the base of the wall or a little bit of slight negative
grade towards the house, when coupled with a partial sill plate: the
result is often in total wall
failure. The simple action
in a northern climate of the soil freezing and thawing against the
wall often results in a long horizontal frost line crack developing.
This is extremely aggravated when it is coupled with a partial sill
plate issue.
The
sad truth is that even though many contractors will claim to know how
to do a wall-rebuild or an Underpinning job, almost none of them
would ever even consider correcting the underlying
issue, the
partial sill plate. I
have seen countless numbers of walls that homeowners just like you
paid tens of thousands of
dollars to rebuild just to
watch their money go up like a puff of smoke because the contractor
rebuilt the wall in the
exact same fashion as the
one that failed already
and was being replaced. In fact they will lay brand new blocks right
up to the partial sill plate which caused the problem in the first
place! Can you imagine paying good money for the exact same thing
that broke already?
There
is good news…
The
sill plate problem can be inexpensively remedied when the wall repair
is being performed. This means you can eliminate the underlying cause
rather than just putting a band aid on it like a beam or wall anchor
system.
When
a wall has become destabilized due to uneven load distribution (or
other factors), there is only one way to truly rectify the problem,
which is to remove the earth on the other side of it and straighten
and repair or rebuild it.
The
Truth About Wall Anchors and How To Use Existing Wall Anchors and
Make Them Effective
There
are some companies who install wall anchors in an effort to stabilize
the wall. I have stacks of these wall anchor plates at my shop from
walls I have rebuilt that failed after being anchored. The reason
these walls fail every time
is that the plate on the inside wall is only roughly 12” by
12”.
Since
the mortar joints are often broken on a bulging wall, the plate will
only draw back the blocks it touches. The companies that install
them give you a wrench and tell you to make a ¼ turn every 6
weeks. This draws back virtually nothing. It is just a scam based on
human nature and knowing that the homeowners won’t give up on
the wall ever straightening till long
after the money is spent.
A
way to utilize the wall anchor system is to remove the plate and
jackhammer a pocket into the concrete floor slab. Then in place of
the 12” by 12” plate you substitute a heavy duty 8”
c- channel beam and cement it in place beneath the slab and tie its
uppermost portion into the framing creating three anchor points
catching all the courses.
Of
course the wall anchor system fails to address the underlying cause
of the whole issue, as well as failing to do anything to address
water or mold issues it is simply a band-aid for a much more serious
problem.
Internal
Piers or Pilasters and Why They Don’t
Work
Some
masons will tell you that they can straighten
the wall and will use
internal pilasters of re-bar and cement every so many feet down the
wall. First of all, it is just about impossible to actually fish and
thread a piece of re-bar all the way down to the first course of
block. This is especially true if the blocks are three cores which
are absolutely impossible to get more than two foot sections. The
city of Medina has a code in new construction that all masonry walls
be double rodded with wire ties and grouted every 24” on
center. I have re-built many walls in the city that were both bowed
and shifted off their foundation. In all cases, BAD FRAMING was to
blame! If you hope to stabilize a straightened wall, you need to
correct the framing and / or re-enforce with beams.
The
rebar you see sticking out of the pier was put in at point of
construction, yet this wall in medina still failed
Why
Rebuilding A Bowed Wall The Mason’s
Way
Can
make It Much
Weaker than
Before!
When
an average, ordinary mason or contractor re-builds a wall they
inevitably actually end up making a new but weaker
wall. That is because when an ordinary wall re-build or under pinning
is done, the new wall has a gap left at the top. That gap is
typically shimmed and then tuck pointed. This changes the load on the
wall from direct pressure to a point load system.
Since
the wall derives its strength from even load distribution… it
results in a much weaker wall!
That
means you’re just throwing away your money. It also leads to
long term plaster cracking and wall
failure.
Our
Unique Super Bond mortar-less wall System is uniquely suited to wall
rebuilds. In fact, we can even remove our jacks as soon as the last
block is set in place!
Did
You Know That the Pyramids Were Actually Built Without ANY Mortar At
ALL
and have been speculated to be over
10,000 Years old!
Over
12 years ago I stumbled onto one of the greatest basement wall
rebuilding secrets,
literally by accident. I discovered how to “glue”
concrete blocks together without using any
mortar between the blocks. The technique was developed in ancient
Roman architecture some of which stands to this day. In fact there
are 2000 year old Roman roads being driven on in Europe even still
today!
Owens
Corning Fiberglass spent millions of dollars testing and proving this
ancient Roman technique and getting it put into nearly every major
building code authority in the late 1960’s. They did tests
proving that a mortared block wall is up to five times weaker than a
surface bonded wall. Or, to put it another way,
our walls are five
times stronger than
ordinary mortared walls, which means you and your family can sleep
safe through the night knowing that they’re as strong as a
fortress!
I
began working with the process twelve years ago and have perfected
structural repair strategies that employ the amazing benefits of the
use of this revolutionary process
The
biggest single difference is the immediate ability to apply pressure
to the wall prior to completing the process. This comes from the fact
that there is no mortar to squish out from between the blocks.
Ordinary masons must build the new wall and leave a gap between the
sill plate and the top of the block. They then beat shims in every
couple of feet and lastly tuck point the gap. This is a horribly
ineffective mess and does several things which guarantee the new wall
will fail like the old
one.
Why
Dry Stacked and Surface Bonded Walls Are 5 X Stronger
The
concept is very simple. Ordinary mortared walls are weak and have
mortar trowelled in between them to
level the courses. Many
mistakenly believe mortar to be glue. This however is simply not
true. A mortar joint is
called a cold joint. A cold joint is a very weak porosity only, bond.
Everyone knows that when new concrete is applied over old it doesn’t
bond, it doesn’t adhere, and it doesn’t stick.
Actually,
anyone who has ever seen a bowing basement wall will note the walls
can be cracked all over but still don’t give in. That is
because the downward pressure of the house exceeds the pressure
exerted from the soil.
The
concept behind a surface bonded super-wall is simple.
Just
imagine a wall made up of 8 a,b,c wooden kids blocks.
Stack
them up in your minds eye. Now just imagine that you apply pressure
evenly from the top.
The
more pressure you add the stronger the blocks get.
Next,
imagine
putting your hand on the top but only covering half
of it.
See
the blocks go shooting across the room.
You
See Even load distribution is EVERYTHING.
Now
Imagine those same abc wooden kids blocks were stacked up, but with
duct tape going up both sides of the blocks.
Now,
add imaginary pressure- that’s right; incredibly
strong! By applying a
surface bond you are in effect turning the whole stack into a bond
beam. Amazing!
In
real life, the first course is laid traditionally in a bed of mortar
to level the first course and the rest of the blocks are stacked on
top in staggered courses just like traditional masonry, called a
“running bond.” Once the walls have been completed up to
the last course, our superior process comes into play. At the top
course we cut the top blocks a 1/16 of an inch over the gap between
the sill plate and the next course. We then take a bottle jack and
lift just enough pressure to get the block in, in this fashion. This
is something that could not be done with mortar. We: move, cut,
lift, set. We: move, cut, lift, set.
We
finish the last course, and by the time we are done… voila!
Now the house is again resting its weight and transferring it
directly from the sill to the footer. Of course we always correct any
sill plate or FRAMING issues before
we begin the repair. Now once the entire wall has been rebuilt, we
then trowel a skim coat like stucco all over the outside and the
inside of the wall. This slurry has tens of thousands of “cat
hair” fibers, which used to be made of fiber glass but today
are made of nylon.
This
process of mixing a fiber matrix into a cement mixture goes all
the way back to Egypt where
they mixed straw with mud before making bricks of them. In more
recent times, cement plasterers of the twentieth century used horse
hair in plaster
to strengthen it. Today’s nylon fibers are the modern
space age equivalent.
And when they are mixed into to a high strength waterproofed surface
bonding cement, which has chemical bonding adhesive mixed in that
make it chemically “glue” to the wall - the end result is
a super-bonded high- strength bond-beam. This makes it incredibly
tuff and gives you a
real guarantee of piece of mind knowing your new wall is now 5X
stronger against lateral or sideways loads.
Bowed
Walls Can Be Straightened and Saved TOO!
It
is not always necessary to Re-build the wall. If the blocks are
mostly intact they can be saved in many cases. The process involves
first excavating
the exterior wall all the way to the footer base. Then we grind out
any joints in the interior that are broken. Then, a series of planks
are set up against the bulging walls. Using our own proprietary
techniques, we slowly force the walls back into place.
We
have successfully repaired the most incredibly bowed walls you’ve
ever imagined. And we make them stronger than new!
The
way we do this is by repairing the FRAMING issues that contributed to
the failure and then by reinforcing the walls either using beams or
carbon fiber strips.
Traditional
beams are cemented in place below the floor slab and tied into the
wooden framing at the top thereby securing all the courses and
keeping the wall in place.
More
recent technological advances have brought the carbon fiber wall
reinforcing systems into being these eliminate the loss of space
created by beams and are more for cosmetic effect. The wall is ground
with diamonds and strips of high strength carbon fibers are “glued”
to the wall with resin. This technology is being used in modern
aviation and stealth technologies.
Both
do the exact same thing… strengthen the wall in place.
Buy
now if you have a structural problem, I am sure you can see why you
need to turn to the experts.
Call
440-322-6617 and arrange a consultation… Immediately.
We
are the only experts with every single weapon in our arsenal and tool
in our bag, which can solve your all of your problems in the best way
possible. All of our projects are custom designed with your homes
needs and your needs
combined.
We
have tested, innovated, and improved every
type of foundation system available
so you can’t be ripped off by one of the “our-system–fits-
all -problems” contractors out there.
How
Do I Know If My Basement Is Actually Waterproofed?
Chances
are if we didn’t do it… It probably isn’t.
…You
See, Tar Has Never
Been
Rated as Waterproof!!
Did
you know that in the building codes, there are actually two separate
definitions for damp-proofing (tar)
and waterproofing?
Damp-proofing,
by definition, means “something that helps
to slow the penetration of
water into the substrate”. HHMMM “helps
to slow” sounds quite
different
than the definition of waterproofing: “something that
prevents
the penetration of
water”,
and not only prevents water, it further
must pass a bending test where the membrane must be able to be bent
around a cylinder.
This
requirement eliminates all crystalline and cement based sealants.
Water
proof sealants are almost all exclusively used and installed
COMMERCIALLY…
(that’s
because they are more expensive). The extra costs are what stop the
average
contractor from offering you, the homeowner, a product that is
effective and will last and “stand
the test of time”.
We
have developed a true SUPER
DRY™ MULTI-STEP EXTERIOR WATERPROOFING SYSTEM which
uses a cement-based fiber re-enforced wall resurfacing system and NO
LESS than TWO
waterproof
rated sealants. This is by no means the cheapest of methods,
however, and it may or may
not be the BEST system to
put into place. Which system you should use depends entirely on the
specific nature of YOUR problem. There are NO miracle systems than
can solve ALL basement problems. The thing I can guarantee is if our
outside waterproof system is installed, it will actively drain water
away from the foundation, and
the water leak will be a thing of the past,
not only that, but our sealants will outlast
the wood on your house
GUARANTEED!
Call
440-322-6617 to schedule your Free consultation or Book an
Appointment Now.
|