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A foundation built on sand?

I had the pleasure to inspect this house a few weeks ago for a fabulous client.

1902 House

It was built in 1902 and has been remodeled several times over the years.

Of the many issue the house had, one of the most interesting was a problem with the mortar between the bricks in the pier foundation. The mortar was turning back into sand.

Mortar turned to sand

Several of the piers had actually failed due to this condition. Have you seen this before?

Tom Sinclair

Abou the House - Home Inspections

Fairhope, Alabama

(251) 990-3169

www.InspectTestAnalyze.com

Posted by Tom Sinclair : About the House - Home Inspections on 04/22/2007 10:36 PM

Comments (5)

old, piers, brick, foundation

This post has been included in Alabama Information Mobile County, AL Information Mobile, AL Information
Post is included in group: Alabama Gulf Coast Inspector

5 Comments on A foundation built on sand?

APR

2007

I'm not an inspector, but it looks like something I saw in LA (Los Angeles, not Lower Alabama). It was caused by using beach sand, not river sand for the mortar.

Must have been a bad mix "way back when."

How about a new perimeter foundation? I assuming the bricks are at the base of the home.

I see this all the time in older homes...

It is especially prevalent here in the Midwest (or really, the north in general).. where we have periods of heavy rain and large and varying temperature extremes..

It can be fixed, but at a fairly high cost, by a licensed and bonded Tuck-Pointer or Brick Mason...

However, tucking pointing is a lot cheaper than replacing the foundation... and the repaired foundation will be much better than th e ones they are pouring in today's new homes... After all, the foundation pictured above is 105 years old....

Look up Brick, Tuckpointing, or concrete contractors in the phone book and get several bids, if possible...

APR

2007

I sell a lot of historic homes with river-rock and brick foundations. Most of them have this problem. Re-pointing is a few thousand dollars each pier should run about $200ish each to repair. Not a disastrous problem, but one that should be addressed BEFORE you enter escrow. It usually doesn't turn out good if it is discovered during a physical inspection. Buyers get frightened.

I always explain to the buyers of these homes that they need to keep up with the pointing on these foundations, every few years. If they are maintained they will not run into big problems. They cannot however be bolted to any insurance companies standards, they will not be able to get earthquake insurance without the bolting at some point. There are a couple of companies that have figured out a way to bolt the foundations but the insurance companies will not accept these solutions at this time.

Several of my sellers have had as many as 5 bids on the work, prices vary wildly so shop smart.

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