Forum Archive: Foundation

Hello, we are looking to reinforce the support beam in our cellar and are looking for advice. At first we wanted to replace the wood beam with steel so we can get rid of all the extra supporting poles and clear some space, but a few have recommended to leave the wood beam there and reinforce rather than replace. Is that the consensus?

Also, our exterior contractor who is redoing our stoop and laying new concrete in our cellar suggested that he could make the foundation holes for the new support poles and we could use our iron worker to do the steel beam. The iron guy seemed a bit wary of the electrical and plumbing pipes in the way, but then said he could do it for $3200. We weren’t thrilled with his lack of confidence. Do we need a structural engineer to take a look at this? And do we need permits if we are only reinforcing?

If anyone has done this and can share their knowledge, we’d love to hear from you. Thanks!

So, we have rats in our cellar and they are getting into the house. We had an exterminator and a contractor out to take a look, and our basement walls look like Swiss cheese. I haven’t yet received an estimate on patching all the holes, but I bet it’s going to be pricey.

Does anyone know if we can just get some concrete and patch the holes between the party walls ourselves? How about regrouting the rubble stone walls? And what would we use for that?

Thank you.

The brickwork in our basement has been deteriorating for years — clearly from water seeping in. So far, we’ve gotten two very different opinions about what needs to be done. One focuses on outside work: digging down 3-4 feet around the building to repair and waterproof the foundation wall. The other estimate focuses on replacing and sealing the basement windows to keep water out & then simply applying thoro-seal where the outside wall meets the ground.
Has anyone dealt with this problem and is able to share remedy as well as company used?

We’re getting some seepage through our foundation.

It’s not a large area, but we want to nip it in the bud.

Can anyone recommend a good reliable waterproofing company?

Thanks.

The house next to us is flooding ours- not sure of the cause yet. Burst pipe possibly. (it’s unoccupied).
we have 2 subpumps going- what else do we do? Anyone have a suggestion for a cleanup service or any other thoughts?

does anyone have any experience with pouring a concrete foundation (for a brownstone extension) in winter (around early january)? is this absolutely a bad idea, or is it ok?
thanks!

I have a standard brownstone cellar surrounded by an irregular stone foundation held together with mortar. The prior owner painted the walls with white paint so the basement looked very solid when we purchased. Over the past 5 years, the paint has started to peel off and loose sand has been coming out of the resulting holes in the paint between the stone blocks. It looks like maybe the mortar is breaking down into sand and slipping out of the wall. Should I be concerned? What should I do to fix? Any advice greatly appreciated.

Any advice for dealing with repeated flooding of our brownstone basement because of water problems next door? Three times since this neighbor bought the house next door, we have had significant (inches) of water come through from this neighbor’s brownstone into our basement. Tonight I detected a smell at the top of our basement stairs (even with door closed) and when I investigated (going into my basement) I found again there had been water only on that neighbor’s side of our basement, clearly coming through the wall from his house. This has happened twice before, and after the second time we installed a pump in our basement adjacent to the wall we share with him. I’m sure that pump saved us from even more water damage this time around, but one pump was not really enough to handle water coming in up and down most of the length of wall. We went next door to talk to him and learned his flood was actually several days ago (he never bothered to tell us). We have our dehumidifier on now and that should help things dry out, but in general, what can one do about water coming from a neighbor who seems not to be able to stop flooding his own basement (and therefore ours too).Is there a way to waterproof our shared wall (at least on our side)? I’m still fairly new to brownstone home ownership and I have no idea if there is anything we can do on our side to protect our property. This time he claimed the inches of water somehow came up from underground (he says there was no pipe leak). Maybe he has faulty drainage from his back garden, who knows. Previously he flooded us (twice) when he forgot to empty out and shut off the garden faucet for the winter. Both times the resulting inches of water on his side caused a smaller number of inches of water in our basement too, which took weeks to dry out properly. Any advice much appreciated. Is there a way to waterproof the walls to keep water out when neighbors have repeated floods? This is our third flood and I’m guessing it won’t be the last coming from this neighbor’s property.

Like a recent post, I have an issue, with the non-code support posts in the basement under the main beam. The house is solid brick, 1922, 20 ft wide and is not noticeably sagging. But the pre-purchase inspector did say this arrangement of non-code posts should be rectified.

My GC (who, for better or worse is a family member) says both that there’s no reason to fix it, and that if you were to fix it in the future, which would of course involve digging up the basement floor to pour cement footings, that this would in fact not jeopardize any newly finished elements, such as tile floors/walls or skim coated plaster. The inspector meanwhile had said, do this first, so if there’s any movement as a result, you don’t crack the new plaster, window seals, etc.

So I guess my question is, does this seem reasonable? Specifically, any comments about leaving it as is, since it’s not ailing, and also whether doing the proper support method in the future would in fact not risk cracking things upstairs?

I m a bit worried that GC is just not interested in that particular project, and wants to prioritize other things (e.g. finishing baths and kitchens) that are underway.