We recently got a call from a brand new homeowner. They noticed water coming in the basement at the seam between the stone foundation and a poured concrete foundation. The homeowners noticed that where the previous homeowner has painted or put a skim coat on the stone foundation, there was water coming in through that. They painted it right before they sold the house. We felt the wall, and we could push our finger into...

What we see out in the field is three types of foundation walls that are being painted.  One type are stone foundations. When we see stone foundations that are painted, 92% of them are peeling, which means that only 8% are not. The reason this is happening is because there is mortar in between each stone. These homes were built at least 80 to well over 100 years ago. The mortar in between the stone...

In New England, stones were readily available from plowing fields. Foundations were needed, so Yankee engineering said, "let's use them!" Like any foundation, stone foundations tend to leak as they age. What we are finding when we go out to homes is that there is a smear coat of mortar over the stones on the foundations and the smear coating is falling off. The skin, or smear coat, is a combination of sand and mortar...

We have a very interesting case study to share today about an apartment building that was built with ICFs and survived something disastrous. We don't use alot of ICFs in New England, but ICF stands for "Insulated Concrete Forms." Think of a giant Lego, about 18" long and about 6" high, that is what an ICF looks like. But, instead of being plastic think of Styrofoam, and take out the middle of the lego and...

The 3 main causes for a unattractive or dangerous walkway or sidewalk: Cracks Spalling and delamination Broken concrete Let's take these one at a time. How can cracks form in walkways. There are lines in concrete walkways that are called expansion joints. They are here because concrete expands and contracts depending on the weather. Sometimes they are put in too far apart or not put in at all. When this happens you can get cracks...

This week we have an interesting call from a homeowner in Chelmsford, MA. The customer told us that she wanted to have her yard excavated around her house in order to have two nonstructural foundation wall cracks repaired and damp proofing (not waterproofing material) installed. We asked her where she learned that in order to install damp proofing material and repair the cracks she needed to excavate and tear up her landscaping. The homeowner told us...

There are problems that can incur when the weather is too hot. One of the biggest problems that happens is you are more likely to get crackings in the concrete, regardless of if it is walls, floors, steps or walkways. You can also get reduced durability in the concrete. And in both walls and floors it is a reduced strength that can happen when you pour concrete in hot weather. A fourth thing that can...

We went out to do a job this week in Scituite. The customer did not want us to cut out the sheetrock from the finished basement. As we started to dig to follow the crack down, we discovered that someone had poured come concrete in front of the crack and then stacked cinder blocks on top of each other. They homeowner then attempted to seal the blocks to the foundation wall. This was a true...

Job of the Week: We call and/or email every customer a day or two before their appointment to confirm the start time and address of the job. Today we called a couple in North Kingstown, Rhode Island and left a message to confirm. We followed up with an email as sometimes it is easier for customers to respond by email. We received a confirmed message via email from the husband. At the same time, we...

The other day I was thinking about the average foundation crack which is about 8 feet and about 1/4" wide. If you made that crack into a circle, how big would it be? I talked to a friend of mine who is an engineer, and he figured out that a crack in the foundation that size is like having a 5 1/2" hole in your foundation. That's alarming! A hole that is 5 1/2" in...