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Foundation differential movement/heavingFrom: scrobson1@earthlink.net
Category: Foundations and Basements
Remote Name: 24.107.79.164
Date: 09 Jun 2003
Time: 04:28 PM
CommentsFor 2 1/2 years now, I have been working with my builder, structural, and soil engineers to determine what is causing my house issues. We are pretty much at a stale mate. About 1 year after my home was built, signs of foundation problems started appearing and continued to worsen to date. Diagonal cracks (some 1/4"+) from doorjams to ceiling, doorjams/framing opening up,mortar in marble floor cracked and widening, kitchen cab. pulling away from walls, ceilings buckling, corners in rooms cracked and tape pulling away, interior and exterior doors not opening & closing properly, basement floor has diagonal crack widening and lifting are some of the problems. Pretty much the entire home is affected and damaged. The 3 engineers that have been here pretty much agreed now that the basement floor is heaving due to a layer of plastic/clay soil 8-10" thick under the foundation (2 borings were done in April). They originally thought that this was due to settlement of columns. The fix is what is in question. A soil engineer (working for the builder) says that a deep bucket positioned by the sewer lateral lines will drain off excessive water and allow the house to stabilize. He then says that at about 6 months from then, they would come in and repair all of the problems in the house. The structural engineer that I hired believes this is unacceptable because after periods of draught and wet-every 3 to 4 years- I will have more cracking and cosmetic problems. He also believes the house should be taken back to it's original state of new & semi-perfect, because that is the way I bought it 3 1/2 years ago. This repair is extensive-tear out the entire basement, remove clay & plastic soils, do more soil tests to deeper areas, pier columns if necessary and then replace soil with rock and start rebuilding (almost my entire basement is finished-pretty nice, too). I have asked the soil engineer for some names of people that his technique has worked for. He cannot give me any. Oh, one more thing. Soil reports done by the same soil engineer 3 years prior to the development of this land reported that the area had clay and plastic soils present, and that any builder should take special precautions (like you mentioned in your article) when putting in foundations and basements. I don't think...I know the builder did not do that in this case. If he did, I wouldn't be having these problems. We are at the point that if I don't do it their way (the builder) then I must pursue legal help in court ( I already have an attorney who has been working throught this with me). Can you give me any help with this? Have you heard of this deep bucket method? Should the house be put back in it's original state? Please help.
Susan in St. Louis
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