Our foundation repair experts were recently at a home in Lincoln, IL where the team needed to replace a foundation wall that was severely damaged by several factors. In the below video, you can see in the before pictures they had a large deck and a front porch that was really allowing a lot of water to settle up against the foundation. Additionally, the home had some overgrown shrubbery and landscaping that, over the years, was holding a lot of water up against the house.
These things, in combination with floodwater getting up against the concrete blocks, caused too much damage where the team couldn’t repair it anymore. The damage was too far to be a quick fix. In a lot of cases, we are able to install helical wall anchors, carbon fiber crack repair, or other different products to be able to save a foundation wall, instead of going to the extreme of having to replace it.
However, rest assured that when we run into this situation, we are very comfortable doing this type of work. Replacing a foundation is usually our last resort if we can’t fix the wall itself with one of our great products.
Our team worked on the section of the original basement wall that was built in the early 1900s to 1920s. It was built as a full brick foundation with a few rows of concrete blocks on top. Over the years, the sectional wall was held up much better and was deemed that it didn’t need to be replaced. After our initial look, we decided it was then necessary to build a new load-bearing wall. In the video, you can see the transition onto our new wall with our blocks laced together at the top smoothly finished up against the old brick wall, giving us a seamless transition for the rest of these walls to be replaced and again – take care of this homeowners foundation.
The new foundation wall is now sitting on a great concrete footing that we installed. Before we finished and poured the floor back, we installed the Hydraway Drain System. This captures all of the water that was below the footing and below the floor, as well as catch any water that could potentially come through the concrete blocks. The system will catch the water, transport it to the sump pump system, and make sure that the customer has a dry basement that they can use for years to come.
Outside of the newly completed foundation wall, we apply our fiber tar membrane to the outside of the wall to act as a water barrier and also protect the wall when we backfill again. The inside foundation has the Hydraway Drainage System installed, guaranteeing the basement to stay dry.
Then, we clean up all of the construction debris, take it away from the home, and then we backfill. Everything is cleaned up, the yard is regraded,, adding back any dirt that we need to, and we leave the homeowner ready to put a front porch back on or a deck.
Most importantly, our foundation wall replacement left them with the peace of mind that they now have a great foundation that they can rest on at night without worry.
Kevin W did a great job!
Davenport, IA, USA
