Basement floor bulging and cracking. Advice?

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dja4260

dja4260

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Greenville, SC
Two known spots in my basement are bulging and cracking. The house was built in 1950. The foundation has two known cracks in the walls. The basement is dry, no sub-pump. I spray painted the cracks to make it easier to see. There is a high spot (circled in red) and the cracks travel away. Almost like the movie "Tremors".......

Thoughts?


 
Hello, I'm guessing your house is on soft (water logged perhaps?) soil and the weight of the house is going down through the walls of the foundation.
The floor may have been poured too thinly as well.

I help a friend maintain and Winterize an old, old house with a mud floor. The floor is constantly soaking wet.
My friend says the land's water is going its natural way and that the house is slowly settling into the earth.
Any solid floor would have to be well engineered to allow the water to continue on it's way or it'd leak into the basement.

It's criminal how weakly houses are built in this country. Kira
 
Take that long level hanging on the wall, put one end on top of the peak and at the other, shim it up with anything handy until it is level. Measure the height of that end, tell us that measurement and how long your level is.
 
I'm not so sure the house is sinking. You would have many warning signs on the main level ie cracking walls etc.
Cracks in the basement floor are commonly caused by water that is sitting under the floor. Water can seep under the footings and rest under your floor.
Installing a sump pump may remedy the situation as water will travel to the lowest spot. Although that would be a pricey job. It is very common to have cracks in the basement floor.
 
For a definitive answer you'll need an expert in basements and foundations. However, it looks to me to be water/frost heave, especially with the cracks radiating out from it. It also looks like you've removed tile flooring-the heaving was significant enough to damage the flooring, right?

My guess is that water is getting under the slab-loss of heat and lots of water can cause basement slabs to crack and heave. Since there is no sump pump you may want to consider installing one to take the water pressure (if indeed that's the cause) off the bottom of the slab. You'll also want to check the drainage around the house and make sure the grade is sloping away.

Keep in mind that your best bet is to contact an expert who can look at more than just a single picture and will correctly assess the situation.
 
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit


... your best bet is to contact an expert who can look at more than just a single picture and will correctly assess the situation.



+1!
 
I've brought in two foundation repair businesses for estimates to repair wall cracks. They both stated that the walls were very common and to only have two after all these years is excellent. The floor is most likely hydro-static pressure. Since basement has never gotten water, neither felt a sub pump would do much. They would saw cut the floor, and re-pour.

I can do that myself. The more opinions the better.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
For a definitive answer you'll need an expert in basements and foundations. However, it looks to me to be water/frost heave, especially with the cracks radiating out from it. It also looks like you've removed tile flooring-the heaving was significant enough to damage the flooring, right?

My guess is that water is getting under the slab-loss of heat and lots of water can cause basement slabs to crack and heave. Since there is no sump pump you may want to consider installing one to take the water pressure (if indeed that's the cause) off the bottom of the slab. You'll also want to check the drainage around the house and make sure the grade is sloping away.

Keep in mind that your best bet is to contact an expert who can look at more than just a single picture and will correctly assess the situation.



The tiles are 30 years old. They popped up with no effort so I removed them all. The rest of the basement has two layers of tile and wallpaper.
 
When you have water seep under the footings that has not been drained away by the weeping tile, it does create hydro static pressure. This causes your floor to crack and heave. It is not a frost issue as the ground under the home will not freeze. The fact that two experts have told you that a sump pump was not required, amazes me.

To properly address this issue, it can be fixed from inside the home. You would need to jack hammer out a one foot swath all around the footings from inside the home. Dig out about 18" under the floor. Install weeping tile leading to a newly installed sump pump. Water travels to the lowest spot which is now your new weeping tile, which flows into the sump barrel and then pumped elsewhere.

Cutting away the broken concrete and re-pouring is a band aid fix.
 
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Did this happen recently? You must find the cause and fix it before filling in the cracks...otherwise you'll end up with more cracks.
 
Originally Posted By: Warstud
Did this happen recently? You must find the cause and fix it before filling in the cracks...otherwise you'll end up with more cracks.


I purchased the house in Oct. I think these cracks have been here for 20+ years.
 
A; guy told me once that it is common for old houses to settle around the perimeter but the middle is kept dryer so it doesn't settle.

I don't know for sure if that's your problem as all the other posts have good possibilities as well.

On the positive side, a house your age probably won't continue to settle at the same rate it has, so maybe redoing the floor will last a long time (unless there is some other problem that continues to get worse, bad drainage, tree roots, etc.

The bad part about old basements is that concrete eventually disenigrates with contant contact with soil as moisture wicks up through and leaves 'salts'. So if you pour a new floor be sure to put a poly sheet under it.
 
Did you notice these cracks before you bought your house ?

Can the water table rise / falling over the years cause the cracks?
 
Originally Posted By: dernp
When you have water seep under the footings that has not been drained away by the weeping tile, it does create hydro static pressure. This causes your floor to crack and heave. It is not a frost issue as the ground under the home will not freeze. The fact that two experts have told you that a sump pump was not required, amazes me.

To properly address this issue, it can be fixed from inside the home. You would need to jack hammer out a one foot swath all around the footings from inside the home. Dig out about 18" under the floor. Install weeping tile leading to a newly installed sump pump. Water travels to the lowest spot which is now your new weeping tile, which flows into the sump barrel and then pumped elsewhere.

Cutting away the broken concrete and re-pouring is a band aid fix.
It seems to me from watchings Holmes on Homes that weeping tile is "OEM" in Canada but not often used in the USA. I doubt the house has it, although I agree with the Canadian idea that all houses should unless built in the desert.
 
One thing I've noticed over the years is that the older homes usually have better 1st growth lumber and way better craftsmanship than the new stuff. The big difference to me is the higher knowledge today of the load carrying capability of the various soils and attention to the groundwater issues and the advent of the backhoe to deal better with excavation and other site issues. Years ago, I think footings were often undersized and homes were built in 'wet' soils that either shouldn't have been built on or the drain tile systems of today were needed. I've seen homes built that were very slowly settling and with this the basement floor didn't keep up. Hope this isn't the case for you. Even with decent soil penetrometer data, I built with oversize footings with poured walls adding the drain tile for 'just in case'.
In your situation, I'd want to saw cut out that section and verify roots/soils/water. Good luck
 
Some good advice already given. Looks like water settling under the slab inside the foundation to me also and a sump w/pump install will probably be the way to go. Best advice, and coming from someone who can say a thing or two about what not to do, is contact an expert. This isn't a job for part timers, remodelers etc.
 
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