Posted on 06/07/2016 4:27:57 PM PDT by Theoria
Sandra Miller was at work in January when her daughter called from their home here on Oakridge Drive with alarming news. The house was making loud noises, as if someone had jumped off the counter and landed with a bang. For seconds afterward, the house shook.
A while later, it happened again, and again. Over the next several hours, terrifying bangs rattled the house. The next morning, Ms. Miller called Bill Neal, a structural engineer, who delivered the same stunning news to her that he has now told hundreds of homeowners: The concrete foundation was crumbling and, as a result, her house was gradually collapsing.
Across nearly 20 towns in northeastern Connecticut, a slow-motion disaster is unfolding, as local officials and homeowners wrestle with an extraordinary phenomenon. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of home foundations that have been poured since the 1980s are cracking, with fissures so large you can slip a hand inside.
“This is such an emotional roller coaster,” said Tim Heim, a homeowner who started the group Connecticut Coalition Against Crumbling Basements. “You can’t eat, you can’t sleep. When you’re told your home is now worthless and your biggest investment is now worthless, it’s devastating.”
The scope of the problem is so vast that state officials have begun an investigation, and they recently announced that the crumbling foundations had been traced to a quarry business and a related concrete maker, which have agreed to stop selling their products for residential use. The stone aggregate used in the concrete mixture has high levels of pyrrhotite, an iron sulfide mineral that can react with oxygen and water to cause swelling and cracking. Over the past 30 years, the quarry has provided concrete for as many as 20,000 houses.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
No. Have you?
You can jack the house and re-pour. There are companies who specialize in it. Cost is $30,000 and up, depending on complexity.
Average house has 80,000 lbs of building materials in it, so a foundation is sort of important.
Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House. The perfect Movie about building a House in CT., circa 1948. LOL
Just damn. Luckily, my Konnecticut foundation was poured in 1956, back when concrete was concrete.
Jack the house up and poor a new slab with some piers under it. Jack up the contractors and the government building inspectors too.
Jack up the houses, start fixing the foundations. Rebar, concrete...if people can move a house, they can put in a new foundation.
And the runways at Detroit Metro were failing prematurely because the EPA would not let them add coal ash anymore as additive to prevent the cracking and swelling.
So, is this a factor here as well? Is road grade concrete that much different than foundations?
Houses built where the earth moves is not an uncommon problem.
Trump bought up a golf course near Los Angeles that was sliding into the ocean. I am sure he got it cheap.
He hired engineers to figure out how to stop the sliding (probably before he made an offer).
They installed the necessary drainage and anchoring system to prevent the hydrolic buildup that was part of the solution, and anchored to bedrock.
The property is now one of the most valuable in the area (being on the coast).
I have to take the fifth on that question. I will say if you’re running a commercial build you would probably learn with a quickness how things can cost 10 times more or better in Chicago. Keywords unions, inspectors, code, ada, theft, traffic. Also I would probably want to familiarize myself with the go no go parts of the city.On Chicago’s south side is the only big hardware store my friend has ever seen with armed guards. A lot of them. Also a shoot out, yeah he saw that. Not at the hardware store.
The house I was born in had been jacked up to allow an addition including a basement. It was done about 1950-1956.
He was a blaster for anthracite coal mines, and the land was basically shale. My father, the new SIL, helped remove the material wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow.
Maybe it was half a cellar. Been a while since the last time I was there. Long since sold.
No idea if anything got cracked in the process.
Would homeowner insurance cover something like this?
If any had a crack before sale, fault is easy to assign.
Those who purchased after the problem was well-known also probably have recourse.
Certainly the concrete supplier and potentially those who poured it are not likely to face any jeopardy after 30 years.
But it's likely there were some home sellers and inspectors who are at risk.
And, of course, the banks holding the mortgages. They're screwed.
There are a lot of things illegal but that doesn’t stop them .... especially if they get your money up front and it’s your job to try and get it back!
I wasn’t clear .. I meant hard to find fault with the original quarry and concrete maker who did the job 30 years ago... yes, if anyone recently sold a house (or inspected a house) that had the kind of damage described here without notice to the buyer, I believe they’d have a cause of action.
Just hard to imagine your house crumbling under you, but it DID happen to a friend, here in VA. Shoddy work by a crook. At least it was a vacation home, not their primary homestead. I *think* it was resolved in the courts. But that’s quite different from having your house crumble after 30 years!
I should add, I grew up in a pre-Civil War house ... never had that kind of problem and the place is still standing.
Fugeddaboutit!
Most likely was the sand, rather than the aggregate used in the concrete. Sand taken from saltwater prone areas tends to be high in calcites. When mixed with cement and water, it tends to form CaCO3 over the years and expands within the concrete mix, causing concrete spalling and strength reduction.
Aggregate with expansive minerals is not too uncommon. It is always ruled out for ready-mix. However, poor design standards and mix testing lets crap like this slip through. Salt water calcium chloride contamination of sand can be bad in the gulf, I don’t know about this area in question.
Sounds like the quarry pulled a lot of wool over peoples eyes to get them to look the other way.
I knew some guys that built a runway with oversized aggregate that had internal contamination like this situation. The runway had to be shut for over a year prior to resurfacing or replacement. I was second bidder so I had no sadness for the Owner or the contractor with the bad design/build problem.
Average cost to raise a house after Hurricane Sandy is about 100,000.
If they have to remove an old concrete foundation, add a bunch more.
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