No homeowner wants to see cracks in their basement or foundation wall. The good news is that many foundation wall cracks are minor and non-structural. However, when the wall begins to bow inward at the cracking point, it is time to contact a bowing wall repair specialist.
The longer it goes without repairs, the larger the crack will become and the more the wall will bow. The worse the damage, the more costly the inevitable repairs will become.
If your home in Columbia, S.C., has a basement or foundation wall that is beginning to bow inward, contact Tar Heel Foundation Solutions to get a quote on the structural repairs your home needs.
Hydrostatic pressure and expansive soils are the two most common causes of bowing foundation or basement walls.
Each shares two common elements: water and the soil surrounding your home.
With hydrostatic pressure, the water in the soil pushes against the basement wall. The water places a greater amount of pressure on the wall than the soil normally exerts. If the pressure becomes too great, the wall will begin to crack and bow.
A variation in hydrostatic pressure involves the pressure exerted when frost forms on the soil.
While the wall will still need to be repaired, if hydrostatic pressure is to blame, you might also want to look into basic waterproofing options. For instance, are your gutters properly installed and downspout extenders connected? Is the grading properly directing water away from the home’s foundation?
Bowing wall repair methods can stabilize the wall itself, but water pooling near a foundation can cause other problems. You should also address any water issues.
Columbia might not be in the portion of the Carolinas with the largest amount of expansive clay soils, but it is directly adjacent to it.
Expansive soils have a significant shrink-swell cycle. Most soils expand a bit when wet and then shrink back down when dry, but expansive soils have a significantly larger swelling.
Along with problems with upheaval, this swelling can also exert pressure on a basement wall, which can lead to bowing.
There are two general categories of ways to fix bowing walls: interior stabilization and exterior anchoring. At Tar Heel Foundation Solutions, we offer the most effective option in each category.
For a long time, steel I-beams were the go-to material for interior wall stabilization. They were placed along the bowing wall at specific intervals, giving the wall enough strength to withstand the pressure exerted on its exterior.
Now imagine a material that is stronger than steel, installed basically flush with the wall rather than jutting out into the room, and which you can paint over to hide the repairs.
That is what you get with carbon fiber straps.
The carbon fiber straps are placed at regular intervals along the wall, much like the I-beams. They are bonded to the wall with heavy-duty epoxy, attached to the sill plate at the top, and pinned to the foundation floor.
Carbon fiber has plenty of advantages. It is perhaps the lowest impact of all the bowing wall repair methods. There is no heavy machinery, no excavations, and the entire installation takes place inside. The most significant “impact” portion of the installation is probably the drilling and refilling of small holes in the slab floor to anchor the straps.
You get all of the advantages of a major structural repair with a strong, stable wall without any of the headaches that can often come with significant structural repairs.
You can also paint over the carbon fiber straps, which will far more effectively hide the repair from view than most other wall repair options.
As great as carbon fiber is, it is a stabilizing force, not a straightening one. That means that in certain cases where a wall already has significant bowing or shearing, a different solution is needed.
Much like helical piers have become the go-to method for combating foundation settlement problems, helical tiebacks are the exterior anchoring option of choice for bowing wall repair.
Tiebacks are essentially helical piers but with two differences. First, they are installed close to horizontally rather than straight down into the soil like helical piers. Second, they are attached not by brackets but by a wall plate inside the basement.
We screw the tiebacks into the ground outside until the torque readings say the anchoring is strong enough to support the wall against the forces causing it to bow.
One of the downsides of helical tiebacks is also one of their advantages. Often excavation will be necessary along the affected wall. That is a drawback because it will require removing and then replanting any affected landscaping. The advantage is that this excavation allows the tiebacks to straighten the wall rather than simply keep it from bowing more.
At Tar Heel Foundation Solutions, we specialize in structural repairs, such as fixing bowing walls, in Columbia, S.C., and the rest of our service area. Call or contact us to get a wall repair quote.
ECP is "The Very Best" manufacturer of steel foundation repair, waterproofing & anchoring products in the industry.
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