On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 7:36 PM, Rudy R Christian<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Your problem is typical for that type and age of foundation. It's being
> caused by one of two things; failed footer drains or lack of them. Footer
> drains go on the OUTSIDE of the foundation by the way.

The second guy agrees that the footing drains have failed.  He
proposes to install new footing drains on the INSIDE, with weep holes
through the wall.

> The first step is to determine the type of drainage systems your house uses
> or should be. Footer drains either have to go to "daylight" which means they
> run downhill slightly until they can be opened to a location on your
> property that is lower than your footer drains.

I don't think there is any such place.  If there is, it would be
pouring into the backyard of the people behind us.

> The other method (inferior)
> is to run them through the footer to a sump pump inside the house which then
> lifts the water to a suitable drain pipe.

The city is trying to insist that footer drains not be connected to
the storm sewer, and they are going into houses in the neighborhood to
install sump pumps at city expense.  However, they have not contacted
us, and it may be that we are just outside the target area.

> Next step is figure out where the water from your gutters is supposed to go.
> It should go to splash pans around the house (pretty ineffective), or into
> storm drain pipes which the go to daylight or the city storm sewer system.

The gutters dump out onto concrete channels leading away from the
house.  We have improved this with plastic extender pipes which carry
the water farther away from the house.  These made a difference: the
basement at the downspout end of the house rarely gets water any more.

> Once you know what you've got, you hire somebody with a mini-excavator and
> set about repairing the walls one at a time along with the drains. I'm not
> much for CMU foundations but at least you can take them apart and rebuild
> them. Without seeing the situation I would hate to WAG the cost, but that's
> the right way and the least invasive way.

So not necessarily hoisting the house up, in other words, but a
complete new foundation nonetheless.

(Our friends with the 2.5 story early 20th century house rejected that
plan, preferring to lift the whole house up and reconstruct the entire
basement at once.  Of course, their basement was in far worse shape
than ours: if you touched the basement wall, it would crumble away
under your fingers.)

Here's a few more details about the situation.

The house is too small for us.  We'd like to sell.  With house prices
down locally, this would be an ideal time to buy a nicer house.

Our house is the classic starter home, probably in the bottom 5% of
house values on the west side of Ann Arbor.  Maybe the bottom 2%.

The pluses are that it's almost on the highest topographic point in
the city (though the ground in the immediate vicinity has a subtle
slope at best), and that it is in one of the most sought-after
elementary school attendance areas.  The big minus is that it's
located on a busy four-lane crosstown street, a former state highway.
It's also in a row of nine similar houses, and thought most are
reasonably well maintained, the one right next door, occupied by a
hermit, is extremely run down.

We bought the house in 1999 for $127,000.  At the market peak it was
valued at about $200,000, or perhaps slightly more.  Now it's down to
perhaps $160,000.  We owe about $90,000 on it, so we have about
$70,000 in equity.

The realtor looked at our basement and told us the house is unsellable
with the basement cracks, and that we have to do something about it.
The previously mentioned $160k value is obviously meaningless until
then.

Fixing this in any way will cost money, time, and hassle.  My thought
was, if we're stuck here, we could make lemonade.  Hoist up the house,
dig a deeper basement with a foundation for a rear wing, maybe even
add a second story.  There would probably be a  great view of the
downtown skyline, two miles away, thought I haven't climbed up there
to verify it.

Wife objects to these ideas, because she doesn't like living on the
major street.  Further, she argues that money put into making the
house adequate for us would be wasted, because "we'd never get our
money out of it."  I argue that we're 53, and if we make the place
nice enough, we could live the rest of our lives here.  But I have to
agree that we don't have money for grandiose plans.

On the other hand, given the likely expense of fixing the basement,
she's been reconciling herself to the idea of staying here, and
building a large screened porch in the back.

But she is even more thrilled at the concept of a basement repair
costing significantly less than $50,000, raising hopes that we could
actually sell the house and buy a better one.

                                                                Larry

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
Washtenaw County Clerk & Register of Deeds, http://ewashtenaw.org
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor, MI 48106

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