My wife and recently purchased a home built in 1913 and we're putting an addition on. After digging the footers for the addition, the contractor discovered that the foundation of the existing house, below the surface, is either crumbling or made of crushed stone. I'm afraid it's the former. The contractor is now spooked and said that we may need an entirely "new foundation." We have a structural engineer coming out to look at it, but does not anyone out there have any ideas what this is?
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- Help -- Do I need a new foundation?
One possibility is poor quality concrete in the original construction. Freeze/thaw or chemical reaction with the soil broke down the concrete.
How deep are the footers?
Do you have a basement or crawlspace? If so, what does the foundation look like from inside?
We have a basement, not a crawl space. From the inside, some of the walls have cracks that look like settlement cracks, but otherwise they look ok. They have a concrete cap, but so did the bad wall. The footers I'd say are about 4-5 feet deep.
The structural engineer has recommended jacking up the house and putting in a new foundation and maybe adding some steel beams/posts. I'd say, in total, the basement comprises about 1000 square feet. Assuming that we use blocks for the new foundation and put in a new slab floor, any idea what we're talking about in terms of costs?
