Repairing Bowing Brick Basement Wall

[jerseyshore]

Came across a brick basement side wall 7' tall, 45' long, with a bow about 2.5" in the middle; improving to about 1/2"-1" as you approach the front & back corners. I've repaired a million block basement walls over the years, but brick is obviously a lot tougher to repair. I've used walers/ vertical beams spaced 4'+/- on other brick wall repairs, but none that have bowed this much.

Replacing the wall is my first choice, but access is going to be difficult at this house and with the shoring that will be required they're probably looking at a 6 figure replacement project for just the 1 side wall. The only reason I would even consider a repair for this is that in the 15+ years since the walls were last parged (by previous owner), there are only small cracks showing, so it doesn't appear that much movement has occurred since then.

If I came up with a repair plan I'd probably put the vertical beams pretty close together in the worst location(2'o/c or so) grouted tight to the wall. I also like to put a CF strap in the center running horizontally to help it spanning in that direction.

Wondering if anyone here has experience with repairing brick walls in this condition or if this is even remotely doable. Want to make sure I look at all the repair options closely before providing my recommendation.

 

[GeorgeTheCivilEngineer]

Would a ground anchor and pattress plate system be possible?

UK link I'm afraid:

https://www.anchorsystems.co.uk/products/sock-anchors/

 

[RPGs]

That's a significant bow but the vertical steel braces at 2'-0" o.c. should work fine. I've used them on walls worse than that. Grout the space between the steel braces and the bowing wall. I don't think you need the carbon strap if you have steel at 2'-0" o.c., but it wont hurt anything. I'm assuming there's a slab at the base and a floor platform above that you'll be bracing the top/bottom of the steel against?

I've seen people use shotcrete with a layer of WWF on bowing/deteriorated brick foundation walls, but I've personally never tried it. The steel braces end up being more economical, as shotcrete contractors are rare in my area.

 

[XR250]

For really f'ed up ones that could not be replaced, I have shown a new masonry wall or formed concrete wall constructed in front of it. (the basement side)

 

[SinStrucEng]

I have used vertical steel braces (plate sections in that case) at 2' spacing before, as RPGreen suggested. I don't think that a strap would be necessary but I presume it's a relatively minor cost so I would present it as an option.

 

[jerseyshore]

I've used the straps before just to keep that middle crack closed and help with any horizontal bending. You guys are right that at 2ft o/c it's not really necessary, but the cost isn't much and with brick I stay on the conservative side.

This wall is perpendicular to the floor joists so I'll typical add blocking at the top screwed into the adjacent joists. At the base, I do have a SOG, but I like to anchor the vertical braces to the footing toe if possible. Depending on the size of the footing, we may need to pour some additional concrete.

I don't love a wall in front of a wall unless I absolutely have to. And steel braces would still come out cheaper here.

What makes a replacement challenging here is that against this wall is a crawlspace addition for half of the length. In order to shore that to remove the old basement wall we'd have to use helicals and put that part up on stilts to demo/ excavate.

Appreciate it.

 

[XR250]

If you really want cheap, you can construct a 2x8 wall stud in front of it. Easy to anchor to the slab and framing. Is pretty darn effective. Have to shim each stud to the wall though. Honestly, we did an entire basement this way with 2x10's as they were finishing it and it gave them something to insulate and hang drywall from. We just used nailed 2x6 blocks at third points on each stud to shim it to the wall.

 

[jerseyshore]

Honestly the 2x3 stud wall they have there now, is probably doing a good amount of work to keep that wall upright. It appears that the previous owner parged the wall, furred it and finished it, presumably to hide this problem. It's the only finished area in the whole basement.

The reason this wall is so bad is the driveway is right up against it about 30 inches down from the top. 70 years of surcharge load and poor drainage have pushed it close to its max.