The house I own was built in 1945 & is of the masonery construction type with a rubble foundation. One corner of the structure has settled severely.
1] Piering, the only solution I have been offered by those whom I have requested estimates; is an expensive solution.
a} Is piering a good solution for masonery structures with this problem?
b} Are there any other solutions as, or more; reliable than piering?
2] Stress cracks are present in the plaster & lathe walls. Most of the cracks are superficial, however, the cracks in the corners are quite severe, almost an inch in width. It appears as though the back wall of the building is separating from the side walls. NOTE: the exterior of the walls show minimal signs of the problem, although there has been some minor tuck pointing repairs.
3] The floor joists have warped with time causing the floor to slope diagonally from corner to corner. The slope is approximate 4 to 6 inches.
Suggestions to any of these problems?
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As the homeowner,I would want to know if the
house has done all the settling it's going to do or is it going to continue.Do you know if this is recent or maybe it settled right after it was built?Your question is a good one which may be beyond anyone here,but at any rate,I'd seek the opinion of a respected engineering firm in your area.As for interior repairs, I'd tackle that after resolving the first issue.Good Luck.
house has done all the settling it's going to do or is it going to continue.Do you know if this is recent or maybe it settled right after it was built?Your question is a good one which may be beyond anyone here,but at any rate,I'd seek the opinion of a respected engineering firm in your area.As for interior repairs, I'd tackle that after resolving the first issue.Good Luck.
When my 2-story brick chimney began to pull away from the house I had it fixed by a company that attached a device to the footing, jacked it back into place, using permanent metal posts for support that are hydraulically driven into the ground. It's lifetime guaranteed. I believe the name of the company is Ramjac and I believe they're nationwide. You might try checking with them. (It cost me $2400.)
You may have your problem resolved by now but I live in an 80 year old house and it has a large rock fireplace and the hearth was starting to fall downward into the basement. It's a long story about the odd original construction of our house but we got a big wooden beam and bought 2 metal house jacks. We jacked the fireplace back up and we'll leave the jacks in place under the beam forever. They're in the basement so it won't matter. Our basement is 7 feet below the hearth, it's more like a root cellar but it does have a rock floor which gave us something really solid to place the jacks on. To fix the cracks in your plaster get a product called Krack-Kote, it's excellent and when you're through you won't be able to tell you'd ever had cracks in your walls. It has a mesh type tape that you use with it and your walls will never crack in that spot again. I did our whole house with it years ago and and it still looks perfect. Good luck --
