foundations: Getting your home started on the right footing
- 08/03/14 08:17 AM
Poured-concrete foundations--how difficult can they be? One takes a bunch of boards and plywood and nails them together to make a form system and then pours in some concrete. How difficult can that be? To be honest however, getting the foundation right is very important to getting the whole house done right. Perhaps this could be known as getting your home started on the right footing. There are so many things that have to be considered before you nail all those boards together. 1. Excavating to the necessary depth and down to undisturbed soils is criitical. Both of these can … (32 comments)
foundations: Do I invite the wolf in—or try to keep him out?
- 09/15/13 10:33 PM
Everyone knows the story of the three pigs. From that story, we learned that we should all build our houses out of brick if we are to keep the wolfs at bay. Our houses have to deal with all kinds of wolfs. There are water-wolves, earthquake-wolves, tornado-wolves, wind-wolves and the dreaded lightening-wolves. No matter what we build our houses out of, they all need to be maintained or the wolf WILL get in. In a recent house I inspected, that was 111 years old (built in 1902), I discovered, much to my buyers chagrin, that the wolf was having his … (62 comments)
foundations: Concrete-Eating Bee INVASION!
- 06/20/09 10:21 AM
Well-----not really----but it sure looks like something has been eating it. When concrete is poured into the foundation forms it does not just flow in like water and fill up the forms to the top. If it is not vibrated properly it may leave voids called “honeycombing.” It is not related to bees at all. The exposed aggregate leaves a honeycomb look and hence the name. This first picture is of honeycombing in a footing.
The individual heavier aggregate is left exposed with very little cement, sand and smaller aggregate that would normally surround the … (43 comments)
foundations: HOUSE COMMITS SUICIDE!
- 04/01/09 04:06 AM
Headline in today’s paper: “HOUSE COMMITS SUICIDE!” Apparently the house just could not take it any longer and decided that enough is enough. I mean really, what is a house to do, when no one ever cared enough about it for the last hundred years to put a proper foundation under it and has allowed a river of mud to attempt to carry it down the hillside. It is actually somewhat amazing that the house put up with such difficult life circumstances for as long as it did before deciding to go over the edge. It … (31 comments)
foundations: Stumped!
- 03/25/09 07:18 AM
I am not often stumped by things I find at an inspection. It was particularly distressing to be stumped on a house that was only 432 sq ft! I mean how difficult could it be? This cute little structure started out as a fishing cabin in 1921-----and now the structure leaves everyone fishing for answers----lots of answers----to lots of questions. Aside from needing an all new foundation (because there was none in some areas), new floor structure (due to Anobiid Beetle damage) and a new roof (due to water damage to the roof structures); the home would … (27 comments)
foundations: Foundation Cross-ties----Water in the Crawl Space
- 01/20/08 12:47 AM
There are many ways that water finds its way into crawl spaces. One of those ways is through the old form "cross-ties" installed when the foundation was originally "mono-poured" (the footing and the wall are all poured at the same time). This method of construction requires that wood boards be placed across the footing boards and then the wall forms are built on top of these cross-ties. After the concrete is poured the forms are taken off and the cross-ties remain. Over time they rot away. This rotting/missing wood is a great way for wood destroying organisms and water to … (0 comments)
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