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Angi.Com Super Service Award 2022 & 2021

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 18:16:55 GMT

We won again in 2022 & 2021! Thank you for your support!

We won the Angi.com Super Service Award for the 7th & 8th years respectively in 2021 & 2022. This only goes to the top 5% of service providers in each category. We do a bunch of different kinds of foundation repair: Crack Injection in Concrete Walls for Leaks, Stabilization with Carbon Fiber & Epoxy on Concrete & Block Walls, Lally Column Replacements, and Basement Waterproofing using Infill-Crete Penetrating Sealant!

HACKING ATTEMPT

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 23:14:00 GMT

This has nothing to do with Leaky Foundations

Amazon Hacking Scam: I just had someone pretend to be Amazon to get access to my pc. I received a text saying "Your request to process the order #190134 is approved. $563.74 will be charged from your account. Call ** Security on 18667790412 for cancellation.

Looked like it could be legit. When I called, I was told I was talking to Amazon Security. They said someone from Ohio & Pennsylvania had taken control of my account. They asked me to download Anydesk, a remote software, so they could look at my pc to verify security.

This is when it got interesting. I asked them how I could be sure they were, in fact, Amazon. I told them that if they were Amazon, and based on the order number, they should be able to give me the order number for the items I received on Monday. They gave me a search to put in Google: Operations Security 1681927. I put it in, and it went to a job listing for Amazon. They claimed that that showed their Amazon security credentials. I told them it did not satisfy me. I continued to ask them for the order number of my most recent shipment. He transferred me to his "supervisor." He went through the same routine, getting madder & madder. He gave me the same Google search to do, he said the charge would be made in 5 minutes if I didn't download Anydesk & give them access. I continued to ask for my previous order number, which they couldn't provide. I told them I would take whatever actions necessary to block the charge, and they told me I couldn't do anything to prevent it! They finally hung up.

By the way, Amazon orders are in this format: xxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx. 3 digits, 7 digits, 7 more digits, separated by dashes. So they are not sophisticated enough to even imitate Amazon's order number format in the original text. Maybe they'll get better, though.

Hoping your basements are dry and your settling & shrinkage cracks are sealed up by us! Rueter Foundation Repair

8th Year in a Row Recipient of Angie's List Super Service Award

Mon, 17 May 2021 13:48:00 GMT

Goes to Top 5% of Performers

AWARD

Earier this year, we were awarded the Angie's List 2020 Super Service Award, now the 6th year in a row! This is a big deal because the reviews are verified and the awards only go to the top 5% in each category. You also have to sign up as a member of Angi.com to post a review, which helps keep out the fake reviews.

NAME CHANGE

On a side note, Angie's List has changed their name to simply Angi.com.

Cold Joint Ices Building

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 18:33:00 GMT

Urethane Crack Injection Ends Years of Pain

PROBLEM
Imagine this: Every winter, you get massive ice dams down the side of your west-facing commercial building. The ice is so bad, it sometimes rips the through-the-wall intake & exhaust furnace vent pipe off. The ice pours down, in slow motion, along 100 feet. This goes on for 20 years, until one day, you call a crack injection specialist who solves the problem.
BUILDING HISTORY
The building, used for manufacturing, is a re-purposed cold war ATT site. Built in the cold war to provide power boost to land-line phone signals in case of a nuclear attack, it was designed to withstand a nuclear blast and lock up in response to gamma rays before the blast wave could enter the building. This was when signals were carried on copper, before cell towers and microwave signals. There are some 200 of these around the country. Everything was below grade, except for a small cover over the original stairway entrance. The walls are 18" thick concrete, and the roof is made from concrete in a hip-roof style. That roof is buried under ground & on top of it rests a solar field. The current owner bought it over 20 years ago, dug out one side for an entrance, a shipping bay and some windows on the main floor.
On the west side of the building, the earth on top was originally held up by a plywood wall and fence. This was replaced by a concrete wall about 5' tall, set back 3" from the outer edge. The 100 foot horizontal cold joint between the new retaining wall and the side of the building leaked year round, due to the slope of the hip roof. And produced the massive ice dams in the winter as the afternoon sun melted the ice and then it re-froze as the sun went behind the trees.
THE FIX
The owner retained us to stop the water. We came to an agreement, with the owner providing a man-lift. We spent 3 days opening, porting, patching and injecting the joint with CME Foam Injection Urethane. There were many spots where the ports just slipped into the cold joint, and others we had to open up. The agreement includes coming back in the spring for up to 1 day for additional injection if needed. At this point, it looks like there are 2 small spots where a bit of water leaks through.
FEEDBACK
Here are a few of his comments since we injected the leaky joint in October:
December 9: "We’re getting into the ice season when we’d begin to see ice building up on the wall. Glad to say no sign of any yet. Small damp spot or two but very minor I’d say. I’m feeling pretty good about results. You should too. Nice work."
December 21: "Happy to report your work on the wall has been a complete success. Not a hint of ice unlike past years. Very nice job gentlemen."

Leaky Septic Line Surround Adventure

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 21:44:00 GMT

Surprises for Building Geeks in the History of Foundations

I recently stopped this septic line surround from leaking! What I discovered in the process were several firsts for me.

The house was built in 1939 in the Berkshires of Massachusetts and has a poured concrete foundation. Several years ago the new owners performed a partial gut-rehab and returned it to its former glory, with beautiful trim work, tile and stone floors, plaster walls, all the while being fully functional in a modern sense. The saving grace for this majestic home is that it has a poured concrete foundation, rather than block or stone. While I have seen many pre-WWII poured concrete foundations before, up until now, they have all been built with site-built forms, and have a high level of aggregate in them. Site-built forms are made from 2x's - 6's, 8's, 10's, 12's, whatever is handy. Supported by 2x4's, and then the concrete is laid in. So they have horizontal form lines, as the boards are stacked up, rather than vertical form lines of the post WWII era walls. Sometimes you'll see the joists above you with bits of concrete on them. They got re-used in the building of the house right away.

This place has vertical form lines, the first I've seen in a pre-WWII house. It makes me think the place was built by a builder willing to take some risks with some new technology. New at least for the hills of far Western Massachusetts. Most of my work is in Central New England - think the Pioneer Valley of Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties in Mass, along with southern Vermont, southern NH, and Worcester County, MA. The Pioneer Valley has Springfield, MA, a medium sized city, the 3rd largest in Mass, along with some other older cities surrounding it. Holyoke, Chicopee, West Springfield. All of the pre-WWII poured concrete foundations I've seen have used site-built forms and the aforementioned high-level of aggregate. This means they tend to be leakier, and the cracks are harder to define. You can inject one area and it can leak a few inches away because the aggregate does not have enough cement in it to block the incoming water, and the urethane only reaches so far.

At the bottom of the above picture you can see what I pulled out of the surround. It was poorly covered with loose cement and caulk, which I carefully hammer drilled away. Behind it was the septic line pipe, resting on a brick, and the mass of strange fiber glass type material, rags and dirt that were attempting to block water from coming through into the basement. So while they were innovative with the pouring of the foundation walls, they did not yet have proper materials for permanently blocking water coming through. Urethane! Thank you, Mr. Cole, of Emecole fame, who invented this stuff for this purpose, and for the purpose of sealing leaky wall cracks.

After building a cement wall around the pipe, I injected CME Foam Injection Urethane into the surround, and water has not leaked out if it since!

Rueter Foundation Repair & Covid-19

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:43:00 GMT

We're Still Stopping Leaks & Stabilizing Walls!

The subtitle says it all! It appears to me that as people are home more, social distancing, they're seeing more in their home they want to fix, and calling! Though it has been pretty dry, cracks are still leaking & I've been doing a lot of concrete wall stabilization with carbon fiber and epoxy the last couple of months. In particular, outdoor wall stabilization jobs.

Here are my practices to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Many assessments & quotes can be done over the phone or text based on pictures and our conversations. I'm happy to do that and find it works pretty well.

In the situation where I need to come out for the estimate, or to do the job, I do the following:

I wear a mask when we are around each other.
I social distance to 6' or more.
I wear an N-95 respirator for much of the job anyway!
I work alone, so there is only one person to deal with, not a crew with multiple points of contact.
I work in the basement, using bulkhead access if available, rather than coming through the house.
I may need to use your facilities while I am there! I wash up after I do.
I take payments by bank transfer or check. No need to handle a card.
To the best of my ability, I follow the guidelines of the health authorities in the 4 states I work in: MA, NH, VT, NY.
I wear a mask when I go to stores to purchase supplies & materials.

I have had several customers make special requests that I have been able to accommodate.

Prior Treatments Failed

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 17:00:00 GMT

Uncovering the Mystery of the Leaking Treatment!

I was called in to stop a leak in a concrete wall that had been previously treated. Little did I know how far the previous attempts had gone, and gone awry. Here is the crack as I found it. Several layers of epoxy coating, with large injection ports and urethane having dripped out of them.

I chipped off the plastic ports, the epoxy coating, and dug out the hydraulic cement and tar caulk to find the crack, about 2" below the surface, and about 1/8" wide. Much to my surprise, there was no urethane in the crack itself!

I was able to locate the crack at the bottom of the V, and piped it with copper tubing. This old-school treatment is the best option when someone else has buried the crack under a pile of hydraulic cement and caulk. The tube connects directly to the crack, and I don't have to open up the whole length, because that would just produce a bunch of cement waste!

There was no urethane in the crack itself. The people who attempted to inject the urethane previously had run the ports along one of the side seams of the outer edge of the V of the hydraulic cement patch. No urethane made it into the crack, and I saw no evidence of any in the joint between the hydraulic cement and the V. It looked like the urethane didn't go in at all, but just filled the ports & dripped down the wall. The installer should have known they hadn't used enough urethane to be effective.

Once I got the pipes inserted in 5 different locations, including at the footing-wall joint, I injected about 1.4 sets of CME Injection Urethane. It climbed the ladder between the pipes and I had full continuity.

An interesting note: This foundation was poured before standard plywood forms were available. The method before that was to build the forms on site with 2x's stacked & supported by 2x4's. Once the concrete was set, the forms were taken down & the wood often used in the floor or roof joists of the house. Sometimes you can see the concrete dust on the floor joists immediately overhead!

You can see the horizontal concrete seam lines off to the left of the patch, made from 2x8 & 2x10 boards. Since the 60's everyone has used pre-made forms, which result in vertical seams, usually about 2' apart.

Angie's List 2019 Super Service Award Winner!

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 16:34:00 GMT

5 Years in a Row!

Rueter Foundation Repair and Bob Rueter have won the Angie's List Super Service Award for 2019. Based on verified reviews on Angie's List, the Super Service Award goes to only the top 5% of producers in each category. This marks the 5th consecutive year that Bob Rueter has won the Super Service Award from Angie's List for his Foundation Repair Work.

It's Not Always the Wall Cracks

Wed, 08 May 2019 19:41:00 GMT

Sump Pump Overwhelmed?

I recently inspected this crawl space for water sources. The crawl is divided into three parts under three joined condominiums. All three have water in them, and all 3 have cracks and holes that water could leak in through the foundation.

But I don't think those are the primary sources of the water! Yes, each crack and water line surround showed a bit of staining characteristic of a leaky foundation wall. There is a bit of water coming in there. But the pattern of water on the floor, and the stains from the water suggest something different. The largest area of water is in the middle unit in the middle of the floor, nowhere near the cracks. This is obviously a low spot, since water congregates there. And it's where the sump pump sits. I happen to know this site, as I have stopped leaks in a number of other crawl spaces in this development. But in this case, I think that the sump pump could not keep up, the sump hole over flowed, and the water spread through all three units.

So the first action they should take is to have the sump pump checked, along with the lines leading away from pump. This is not work that I perform. They may eventually have me come in to do those cracks, but the bigger bang for their buck probably comes from replacing the sump pump and cleaning out the water lines that the sump drains int.

Cost Comparison for Foundation Repair

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 19:32:00 GMT

Getting Value for Your Dollar

I injected a half-height stub wall today with a serious leak, on the far edge of my service territory. The water came in the back of the laundry room, spreading under the framed wall and into the under-house garage.

They had a local handyman give them a quote and he described the job as Vee-ing the crack out and then filling it with hydraulic cement. When the price he quoted seemed too high, with no guarantee of success, much less permanence, they looked further and found me. I explained that I inject the crack completely with urethane resin, and that it comes with a life time guarantee. That is a good foundation repair.

So why did they pick me over the local guy? THE COST WAS THE SAME! The local handyman wanted the same price for the job that was only a surface patch, with no guarantee, as I was offering WITH a guarantee.

Now I'm not saying I'm going to match every handyman's price on a foundation repair. What I am saying is that you can get the job done right, and it is well worth it!

Angie's List Super Service Award

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 17:28:00 GMT

4 Year's Running in the top 5%

I recently found out that I have won the Angie's List Super Service Award for the 4th year in a row. This award is based on reviews on their website, which I have no control over! The award is not a participation award, not an award for anyone who claims they stopped a leak or stabilized a wall!

It goes only to the top 5% of contractors on their website for the service area they serve. I'm really happy that so many people have left great reviews over the years, and that I continue to successfully stop leaks and stabilize walls. It is very satisfying to do something well and be recognized for it.

Here is the official press release:

Rueter Foundation Repair Earns 2018 Angie’s List Super Service Award Award reflects company’s consistently high level of customer service Brattleboro, VT 30 January 2019 – Rueter Foundation Repair is proud to announce that it has earned the home service industry’s coveted Angie’s List Super Service Award (SSA). This award honors service professionals who have maintained exceptional service ratings and reviews on Angie’s List in 2018. “Service pros that receive our Angie’s List Super Service Award represent the best in our network, who are consistently making great customer service their mission,” said Angie’s List Founder Angie Hicks. “These pros have provided exceptional service to our members and absolutely deserve recognition for the exemplary customer service they exhibited in the past year.” Angie’s List Super Service Award 2018 winners have met strict eligibility requirements, which include maintaining an “A” rating in overall grade, recent grade and review period grade. The SSA winners must be in good standing with Angie’s List and undergo additional screening. “We are very happy to have received this award once again. Our customers have been consistently happy with our work, which is what it is all about,” says Bob Rueter, owner. Rueter Foundation Repair has been listed on Angie’s List since 2014. This is the 4th year Rueter Foundation Repair has received this honor. Service company ratings are updated continually on Angie’s List as new, verified consumer reviews are submitted. Companies are graded on an A through F scale in multiple fields ranging from price to professionalism to punctuality. For over two decades Angie’s List has been a trusted name for connecting consumers to top-rated service professionals. Angie’s List provides unique tools and support designed to improve the local service experience for both consumers and service professionals. Rueter Foundation Repair stops leaks & stabilizes walls. They use up-to-date technology to provide lasting solutions for concrete and concrete block walls, including urethane injection and carbon fiber locks and straps. They provide a Lifetime Guarantee on their work. Contact: Bob Rueter, Owner Bob@RueterFoundationRepair.com 802.579.9309 413.345.6800 603.263.3691

Form Ties, Snap Ties, Tie Rods

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 14:34:00 GMT

Adventures in Home Construction

Form ties, snap ties, tie rods are all names for the same thing, pictured above. Little metal rectangles, usually close to the form seams. Sometimes they stick out 1-2", because the contractor didn't snap them off. Sometimes they are totally hidden by the original concrete pour, or covered over with a patch. They were put there to hold the forms the correct width apart during the original pour. They do not indicate that there is structural reinforcement in the foundation. And they can leak! Water present on the outside finds a little gap down these babies, and flows into the basement and runs down the wall, often leaving a rust stain.

I once discovered a very strange form tie. I was at a house in Alstead, NH, where there was a wall full of leaks. At first I thought the water was coming through these 2 very small and short cracks, but that could not explain the flooding, and there was little staining coming from them. But there was staining below a whole row of form tie holes. Upon closer inspection, I found that there was dirt and ants coming out of them. They were virtually emptty, except for the dirt. As I pulled out the dirt, I discovered cork. The builder had used cork for the form ties, which broke down over time and ended up creating 1/2" channels for water, dirt and ants to flow into the house.

A couple of months later I was at my SEON Building Science Group and a fellow from the same area northeast of Keene mentioned these. Apparently, a builder in the 70's and 80's in the Alstead area had used cork on 20 some odd houses.
Last year I ran across them again at a condo in Keene, NH.

I can stop water coming through and around form ties with urethane injection. It creates a complete block of the hole or wraps the tie in hydrophobic urethane foam, stopping the water permanently.

Where is the Water Coming From?

Thu, 03 Jan 2019 15:21:00 GMT

Finished Basements

I received a call from a woman the other day looking for help figuring out where the water was coming from. She had a 30 year old home with a poured concrete basement and puddles of water forming near the back wall. The basement was finished with both walls and carpet, making it difficult to tell where the water was coming from. She had had several people in who told her they thought is was coming up from the floor or the floor-wall joint. She wanted another opinion.

What I asked her to do was to look at the outside of the basement walls above grade. Foundation wall cracks almost always go all the way to the top, and they can be seen on the outside. If they don't go through to the outside, there will be no path for water to come in, and no leak. She texted me several photos and it was clear from these that there were no wall cracks. And we got lucky.

The lucky part is that there were no window wells on this wall. Usually, the corner of the window well is at or below grade, and it can be difficult to tell if there is a crack coming off the corner. Sometimes you can still see it, or you can dig down a bit and find the crack or no crack. But most of the time you can't do this. Window wells account for a larger than average number of cracks, given the proportion of linear footage they occupy around the perimeter of the foundation. They represent weak spots in the foundation wall, and so when shrinkage and settling occur, the wall cracks there first, relieving any stress elsewhere along the wall.

Given that there were no wall cracks, I concluded that the highest likelihood was that the water was coming up from the floor or the floor wall joint, and she should open up those areas first. If this happens a lot, she may need a sump pump and/or interior perimeter drainage to manage the water leak. That can be difficult in a finished basement, but it is far worse to leave the water inside the house unmanaged, allowing mold to form and materials to rot. I referred her on to an interior drainage guy, Michael Albert with Premier Basement Waterproofing .

High Water Tables

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 19:38:00 GMT

Causes and Corrections

Some homes are sitting in swimming pools. Or more accurately wetlands, swamps, bogs, over underground streams, etc. These can all result in a high water table. The water table is the level below which the rock, soil and sediment are saturated with water.

I was at a house recently where the people complained of flooding in their basement. I couldn't find any cracks in the walls, particularly their full foundation bulkhead. They showed me a drainage system that had been put in by a previous owner. I suspect the pipes in this system were clogged; they had been unable to find the outlet. I also suspected a high water table. The full foundation bulkhead had water toward the outer edge; a 2" pool in fact. It looked like a previous owner had raised the floor of the interior edge of the bulkhead with 2-3" of concrete to serve as a dam against the water that was coming in around the perimeter of the floor-wall joint in the bulkhead foundation. There was also caulking or paint around the bottom of this outer catchment area. Someone had gone to a bunch of trouble to try to keep the water that came in through the bulkhead floor out of the main part of the basement.

When I see these things, I try to come up with a story about how it all happened. They all point to a high water table and successive steps at trying to manage it: Paint the floor-wall joint with "sealant". Mash concrete into the floor-wall joint. Put a concrete dam at the interior edge of the space. Add a drainage system.... None of these worked, and they were still getting water into the main part of their basement. I advised them to have someone clean out the drainage system piping.

Another sign of a high water table is efflorescence. This is a white powder that can appear on your basement wall or floor. Sometimes it is around tie rods, sometimes along floor cracks, sometimes it is a continuous line around the basement. There is no limit to it's height; it could be 1" up or 6' up the wall. This efflorescence is the result of water moving through the concrete foundation. When it evaporates on the inside of the building, it leaves behind this mineral dust.

The efflorescence is coming through because of a fairly constant presence of water on the outside of the building. This may be due to a high water table, poor drainage or clay soil holding the water against the foundation.

Another sign of high water tables is the presence of a sump pump! Installing a sump pump is the first thing many plumbers do when a customer complains of water in their basement. The sump pump hole penetrates the slab, and the pump is adjusted so that it starts pumping water out before the water table hits the underside of the slab. If a sump pump is present, you can open it up to see how close the water table is to the underside of the slab. There may be other reasons that sump pumps get installed, but this is one of them.

In general, high water tables need to be treated with an interior drainage system and good quality sump pump. The interior drainage system routes water that comes in from below to the pump so it doesn't flood the basement. Check out my friends at Premier Basement Waterproofing in Lunenberg, MA for this treatment.

For more general information on water tables, check out this article from National Geographic's encyclopedia: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/water-table/

It Can't Be Done (aka "We don't know how to stop that leak.")

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 22:11:00 GMT

Water Leaks that Another Company Ran Away From

A couple of months ago, I got a call from a guy in southwestern Vermont for two water leaks, one, a septic line surround, and another through a foundation crack in the wall at the bottom of the stairs. They had done a Google search, and found another company, who came and looked at the two areas. This not-to-be named company told them these leaks could not be treated by any means whatsoever. What they really meant is that they had no idea how to address them.

The customer sent me some pictures and we talked on the phone. I assured them I could stop the foundation leaks. They hired me to do the job and when I went out to do the job, found 2 ordinary leaks that were easily treated. A few weeks after the treatment, the guy emailed me and said the treatments had held up well during the heavy rains we had had in central New England. You can see pictures of both types of leaks elsewhere on the website. And give me a call!

Quote for the day: Cupcakes are Muffins that believed in Miracles!

My Wall is Actively Leaking!

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 18:00:00 GMT

Better Than a Finger in the Dike!

Remember the story about the little boy who stopped a leak in a dike in Holland by sticking his finger in it? You can't do that with concrete! A crack is continuous, and water may come through at one spot, but may also come in at multiple locations.

I recently did a job during a heavy downpour. When I arrived, the water was seeping through the crack. They had tried patching it with a clear silicone caulk, which had failed. Surface treatments don't work! Here is a video of the leak as I found it on my arrival: https://youtu.be/IZVOf2Bvk-8

Our process requires opening up the crack & inserting pipes so we can inject the urethane resin. As it rained harder & harder, the water came shooting out my pipes! One of the cool things about urethane is that it requires water to be present in order to react & form its final product, hydrophobic urethane foam. As I injected from below - you can see the gun in the video toward the bottom - the resin reacted with the water & climbed the crack, coming out 2 pipes up. The pipe in the middle had been capped before we started shooting the video. Here is that cool video: https://youtu.be/dD9-aMP1UiM

After the injection is complete, we cut off the pipes, smooth out the hydraulic cement, and cover it with a rubber caulk. The bubbles in the video are not water, but air from pressing the caulk in. Here is the final product: https://youtu.be/qL41HhWL1tI

The dikes in the Netherlands are earthen. Urethane injection wouldn't work on those! Good thing that kid was there!

Stone & Brick Foundations

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 13:41:00 GMT

What Kind of Foundation do I Have?

WE DON'T WORK ON STONE & BRICK FOUNDATIONS! THIS IS AN EDUCATIONAL POST, NOT A SOLICITATION FOR BUSINESS. ;-)

Stone Foundations are the oldest around. They date back hundreds of years in the US, and longer than that elsewhere.

In Central New England, they often look like the picture above, with brick above grade and stone below. The foundation above has mortar in between the stone, which helps reduce cold air from pouring into the basement due to the stack effect. Over on the right side, a large area has been covered with cement. This may be to reduce air flow or to solidify an otherwise weak area. Brick on top became more common after the civil war, and continued through the early 20th century, when block foundations started being more common. Earlier stone foundations often have no mortar between them, and the stone goes all the way up to the sill plate. These early all-stone foundations often have a very small above grade height, since the stone relies on the earth on one side for support.

There are also all-brick foundation walls, which often bow in. Treatment of bowed brick walls requires an engineering assessment to determine the quality of the brick and the required amount of strapping.

If you have water coming in through a stone or brick wall, there are several treatment options, none of which are performed by Rueter Foundation Repair. Exterior drainage at the surface, often referred to as a Curtain Drain, involves a trench along the outside of the wall at the surface. The trench, about 1.5' deep, is lined with plastic, and a perforated pipe is laid in, covered in landscaping cloth, and covered with 3/4 stone. This pipe has to drain downhill a bit and to daylight or a drywell away from the home. This work is performed by an excavator or a landscaping company. In Western Mass, try Jon Giedrowicz at Always Reliable Excavating .

Interior perimeter drainage also involves a trench, this one dug in the concrete or dirt floor next to the foundation wall. Again, a pipe is laid in near the bottom of the footing and directed downhill inside, and connected to a sump pump. This treatment can be used for two primary purposes, managing water coming through the porous, leaky wall, or managing water coming up from a high water table. The sump kicks on to pump out water, ideally before the water starts to leak onto the basement floor. You can contact Michael Albert at Premier Basement Waterproofing for this sort of work.

With thanks to Lester Humphries for letting me photograph is foundation!

Bowed Concrete/Cinder Block Wall Stabilization Repair

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 18:15:00 GMT

Rhino Carbon Fiber Straps Epoxied to Wall!

This 45' Concrete Block Wall was bowed in about 1.5" between the 2nd full row & the 3rd. The grey line you see running horizontally is high compression hydraulic cement used to fill the long horizontal crack. The Rhino Carbon Fiber Straps are anchored at the top to the sill & at the bottom into the slab right next to the wall.

The paint has to be removed so the epoxy adheres to the concrete block. In the center of the picture you can see an 8' strap spanning 3 vertical straps. The middle location there had some sill and joist rot. Outside is a front stoop, and water has been coming in there for a long time. I didn't want to block or hide the rot, and I wanted someone to be able to repair that section of sill after I left. The horizontal strap transfers the load at that point over to the attached vertical straps on each end of it.

The observant may notice the oil tank is pulled away from the wall so I could work!

This treatment comes with a Lifetime Guarantee from Rueter Foundation Repair, accompanied by a lifetime warranty on the materials from Rhino Carbon Fiber .

Contact Bob to schedule a visit for your bowed block wall. I'm doing two more of these walls at one house Thursday & Friday!

Block Foundations

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 01:49:00 GMT

More of What Kind of Foundation do I Have?

This is a cinder block foundation built in the 50's. Most block foundations were done from the 30's through the 60's. They are characterized by these alternating blocks with mortar. Very much like brick, but on a larger scale. Very durable and stable when done right. Cinder block tends to be rough; Concrete block is smoother.

Block walls are often painted a bright white. This is often Drylock, which is an attempt to stop water seepage through the block. I only hear about the ones that fail; I don't know if that treatment can stop water permanently. When painted on the inside, my experience has been that it lasts 5-10 years. The spots where the water is coming through bubble & peel, and then need to be re-treated.

By the 60's poured concrete was becoming more dominant in central New England with improved forms and availability of people who knew how to do it. Block walls are seldom found in homes these days due to cost for the labor. They are much more common, however, in retail and industrial applications. If you look at the unfinished side of a modern grocery store or big box store, they are often painted concrete block. I believe this is because you can more easily go to extended heights than with poured concrete. Can anyone chime in on this? Why are they still used in larger commercial applications?

I cannot stop a leak in a block wall! I have tried a couple of times to no avail. To manage water around a block wall, you need either exterior drainage at the surface or the footing, or both, or interior perimeter drainage. With the latter, a trench is dug around the inside of the basement in the concrete slab, and a pipe is laid in by the footing. That pipe drains to a sump pump which pumps the excess water out & down hill.

What I can do, is stabilize it so it will not bow any further. We use carbon fiber straps epoxied to the wall, anchored at the sill plate and the slab or footing. This one was treated in September. It has less than 2" of bow. They attempted to install pilasters, next to my 4' level, and those opened up as well. We used Rhino Carbon Fiber Straps & Anchoring system for this wall.

Older Concrete Walls

Wed, 08 Aug 2018 23:16:00 GMT

Part of the "What kind or foundation do I have?" Series

Concrete walls have been poured since the early 1900's. Before pre-made forms were developed and became common after WWII, forms were built on-site using 2x lumber. Vertical posts made of 2x4's were lined with wider 2x6's, 2x8's & 2x10's. These resulted in the horizontal seams you see in the picture above. Many of these walls tend to have more stone in them than current walls, often resulting in spots where the concrete mixture did not reach the outside of the wall. Sometimes these also provide paths for water to get in. The wall above does not suffer from this condition. It is the only one I have seen where a single width of 2x was used for the horizontal boards. Most have varying widths with no particular rhyme or reason to the order.

You may notice a couple of other things in the above picture. The footing at the bottom is only about 1" wider than the wall on each side. These days, it is usually 2" on each side: an 8" wall goes on top of a 12" footing. At the top of the picture is a cut-out that I made for the lowest staple on this wall. The crack became rather large at the top, over 1/2", so this wall was epoxied and received carbon fiber staples to stabilize it.

What kind of Foundation do I have?

Fri, 20 Jul 2018 16:58:00 GMT

How to Tell If You Have a Poured Concrete Foundation

About Poured Concrete Foundations

This is a modern poured concrete foundation. When the foundation is built, first the footings are poured, and then after those have set, the walls. You seldom ever see the footings, unless the backfill has not been put in yet, or has washed away. On the inside, the slab rests on top of the footing.

The vertical lines are slightly proud of the wall, and are seams between the forms. The forms are large plywood or other material latched together on the outside and sit on the new footings. The little knobs are tie rods, also known as snap ties. I received a correction from a friend of mine, Architect Brien Tal-Baker of Simple City Studios regarding my original explanation of these snap ties. "These ties hold the formwork (like plywood) at a consistent distance and to keep them from blowing out during the pour. The reinforcing bar that runs horizontally (left to right in your post) are actually the ones that are used to strengthen the concrete in tension."

Brien also weighed in on some other aspects of the foundation construction process: "Sometimes there are vertical reinforcing bars and sometimes not, and it's most common in tall walls or grouted masonry walls (like a concrete block wall). These are generally not what sticks out of the top of the wall for attaching the sill plate, however. Instead, a j-shaped anchor bolt with a threaded end is placed in the concrete after it is poured but before it cures. A nut is threaded on after the sill plate is in place to hold it down. This is entirely separate from the concrete strengthening system."

The crack you see in the center of the picture is a settling or shrinkage crack. I can't tell by looking which is which! These are quite common, and mostly happen in the first couple of years after pouring & building. They are only a problem if there are a lot of them, they are getting wider than a 1/8", or they are letting water, critters or sand in. Then they need to be treated.

About cracks: This is my favorite story. I was at the Western Mass Home Show in Springfield, MA this spring, and a guy came up to me and started talking concrete. He had worked in the field his whole life. He says, "You know, there are 2 types of concrete!" I thought, "I better look like I know what he's talking about!" He says, "Concrete that has cracked, and concrete that hasn't cracked yet!" We both laughed, and I felt relieved that he wasn't going to give me a hard time for not knowing something important! Now I tell that story all the time.

Now you know! If I ask you what type of foundation you have, this is one of the possible answers!

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Home Foundation Repair Blog

Fri, 20 Jul 2018 16:35:00 GMT

Things I'll be Covering!

I have finally decided to take the plunge and add a blog to my site. I always wanted an easy way to share information with visitors and I'm super excited to start this journey. Keep coming back to my site and check for updates right here on the blog.

I'm not going to try to be cute or flashy, and I'm not trying to be all things to all people. I'm not trying to be the go-to place for all things home.

What I am going to do is to share my knowledge and experience so you can make a good decision about the things that effect your home's foundation and basement. Water, pests, stability, forces beyond our control!

I'll also be sharing my network of people I refer to. I only do a slice of foundation repair, and there are a lot of people who do a lot of other things well. If you read this, you may figure out who can help you without calling me!