Foundation Wall Rebuild, Groton, MA

Monday, April 25th, 2022 by Travis Kellogg

Challenge

A homeowner in Groton, Massachusetts reached out to Erickson Foundation Solutions with a problem with their foundation. This homeowner purchased their home two years ago as a fixer-upper. The home has foundation issues that need to be addressed. The homeowner knows that this home isn't their forever home and wants to make the home sellable when the time is right.

In the front corner of the 63-year-old home, there is an addition that was installed nearly 20 years ago. The block foundation under the addition has cracked in a couple of places and has made it obvious that the foundation needs to be repaired.

Design Specialist Chris Greenwood greeted the homeowners at their front door and inspected the entire home. Chris performed an interior and exterior inspection of the foundation. Chris is looking for cracks and signs of settlement or moisture entering. During Chris' inspection of the home, he found that the foundation of the addition has settled more than 6" and had some cracks in the foundation wall. Chris showed the homeowner a video explaining the forces that are causing their foundation to settle and crack. At the end of the video, Chris recommended a solution to the homeowner.

Solution

Chris recommended to the homeowner that replacing the old block foundation wall would be necessary if they wanted the addition to stopping sinking. Chris explained that if the homeowner didn't fix the problem now, the severity of the settlement and the cost of the project will increase. The homeowner thinks that this repair is very important to the resale of this home.

Chris explained that an EFS crew would replace the old block foundation with an entirely new block foundation with a new footing.

The EFS crew first started by installing temporary support posts to the foundation wall to hold the wall when they removed the foundation wall. Next comes the demolition of the existing foundation wall. The crew uses a combination of jackhammers, sledgehammers, and an excavator to chip and pull pieces off of the foundation. Once the wall is completely gone, the crew chips away from the old footing and calls a concrete truck. The concrete truck will help the crew pour a new footing for the foundation. The footing is poured and the crew has to wait to have the concrete cure before the crew can begin installing the wall on top. Once the footing cures after a day or so, the crew begins laying the block foundation wall.

Crew Lead and Masonry Specialist Nick Carelli lays the starters with his team. The starters are the most important blocks on the entire wall. If you misplace a starter block by a small margin you can affect the stability of the wall. So Nick and his team are very diligent in placing their starter blocks in the perfect spots. After the starter and the corner blocks are installed, the rest of the blocks go in really quickly.