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wilsc54 · Feb 8, 2009, 08:14 PM

Hello All,

After tearing down the "finished" walls in the home I've been in for 3.5 yrs I discovered some pretty scary cinderblock walls.

If you look at my attachments you will see them for yourself...

I tore the walls down initially when we discovered that we had seeping water in the basement after heavy rains and thaws up here in Michigan. It started with one wall then escalated into me tearing everything out of the basement when I started to see what I uncovered.

On one wall there are "heaving" cinderblocks between what looks like a filled in window with small brick and the floor joists. Unbelievably, there doesn't seem to be any water coming in from here.

In a corner it looks like mold... but this corner is always dry (believe it or not).

The other pic is just an example of a horizontal crack in the mortar line. There are more of these in the basement.

The water that comes in actually seems to come in where the wall meets the slab floor on one side of the house and the back of the house.

My question is... how bad are these walls and what (if anything) do I need to do with them?

I can send more pics if needed.

Thanks,

Chris

Rivethead · Feb 8, 2009, 09:26 PM

Given the damage - you may want to find a local engineering firm to come out and give you an assessment. It will likely be the best $300 or $400 you'll spend on fixing this.

Curious... what was the wall structure you took down.. type of insulation and did it have a paper or plastic barrier over it - was the wall set off the face of the block an inch or so..

wilsc54 · Feb 9, 2009, 06:17 AM

The wall structure was framed in 2x4 with paneling on lower half and drywall on top half... probably to help hide the moisture.

there were thise sheets of insulation glued to the wall between the studs. No paper or plastic barrier.

The wall was flush against the cinderblock wall.

Is an engineer really necessary here? I was thinking that (at worst) I would have to remove the smaller brick and the 3 blocks that are heaving, and insert cinderblocks.

As I originally said, the water wasn't coming through these bricks, but rather through the base of the wall and slab floor on the other side of the house.

Chris