Foundation Wall Mess

[TRAK.Structural]

Went out to do a residential evaluation today and it ended up being a cluster of issues. Lots of stuff going on based on the visuals. Needing some opinions on what items in this list warrant addressing and what can just be monitored. See my sketch for issue numbers corresponding to the list below:

1. 1/8" wide vetical crack, wider at the top. surface water drainage around the back corner looked problematic.
2. 3/8" wide vertical crack, mostly consistent crack width. downhill side of block has displaced vertically down, sill plate above slightly distorted and not in full contact with block.
3. 1/4" wide vertical crack, wider at the top. face of wall on the right side of the crack is offset towards the crawl space from the face on the left side of the crack
4. Hairline vertical crack almost full wall height
5. 0.05" vertical crack, face of wall on the right side is offset towards the crawl space from the face on the left side of the crack
6. 0.035" vertical crack at top of wall, only in top portion of wall, crack is wider at the top.
7. 1/8" vertical crack. Occurs at wall step and directly under floor girder point load
8 and 9. 3/16" stepped cracks, mostly consistent width, framing is slightly distorted and sill plate not in full contact with block.

I'm concerned about the cracks in the wall that separate the garage from the crawl space. The offset in the face of the wall at several locations leads me to believe that the soil supporting the garage slab is the driver and pushing this wall downhill. However I saw no evidence of horizontal/flexural cracks in this wall.

Initially I was thinking that the cracks around the perimeter walls were mostly just shrinkage cracks due to their constant width, but the magnitude of the cracks has me thinking maybe something else is at play. Additionally this displacement has distorted the wood framing above and I haven't wrapped my head around how big of an issue that is.

Any thoughts here?

 

[jerseyshore]

From my very brief look, I'd say that the back, and specifically back left of the house is settling significantly. Probably because of the downhill movement as you mentioned.

Looks like a bit of a weird crawlspace in the back and by your photos it seems like the grade in there slopes as well. Sloping crawlspace grade like that asking for trouble, especially here because it's supposed to be holding up that garage wall.

This seems like a classic helical pile underpinning repair. Access, even from the inside seems pretty easy.

 

[TRAK.Structural]

From my very brief look, I'd say that the back, and specifically back left of the house is settling significantly. Probably because of the downhill movement as you mentioned.

Looks like a bit of a weird crawlspace in the back and by your photos it seems like the grade in there slopes as well. Sloping crawlspace grade like that asking for trouble, especially here because it's supposed to be holding up that garage wall.

This seems like a classic helical pile underpinning repair. Access, even from the inside seems pretty easy.

I definitely think there is some amount of settlement, but I'm also wondering if the back of this house is sliding down the hill as well?? The width of the vertical wall cracks in the side walls has me thinking.

The vertical cracks on the wall separating the garage from the crawl space are still a little confusing for me. I'm not sure on the mechanism, potentially it has to do with sequencing of the original construction. Regardless I think this wall may need some kind of horizontal bracing to keep the retained soil under the garage slab from pushing it down.

 

[SWComposites]

nah, the house couldn't possibly be sliding down the slope. have we seen this one before? looks familiar for some reason.

 

[TRAK.Structural]

nah, the house couldn't possibly be sliding down the slope. have we seen this one before? looks familiar for some reason.

Can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.

Not a repeat post from me.

 

[SWComposites]

sorry forgot the /sarc tag.