Basement Repair

[CHONGS]

What kind of cracks are they? horizontal? Vertical? On the corner? near the center of the wall?

a couple <1/8" inch cracks horizontal, and near the center

sounds like this japanese girl i did back in high school

wow it just got fracking racist up in here.

wow, I am completely flabbergasted, that came out of nowhere.  I had no idea 'sclams has such a problem with people from the great Orient.

i ate at panda express today, GTFOOMF

The fact that you think this exonerates you speaks volumes. 

[Jeffy]

Sounds like your main problem is drainage.  Make sure the ground slopes away from the house all the way around.  Keeping the water away from the foundation is your first step.  Once you've done that, then you can worry about crack-filling.

Do you happen to know how deep the static groundwater level is in your location?

[ew2x4]

What kind of cracks are they? horizontal? Vertical? On the corner? near the center of the wall?

a couple <1/8" inch cracks horizontal, and near the center

How long are the cracks? If they're more than 3-4 feet, that could be bad. Horizontal means structural weakness in the wall itself. Are the walls still even and vertical? Do they bow at all?

[Poster formerly known as jthutch]

I might add my current basement is not a cinder block foundation it is concrete and is not structurally sound and that is why it has braces holding the wall up.  It has not moved in 30 years and we will replace the wall when we have the time and money but for now we have stopped the leaks, and did a semi finish job textured the wall and painted.

Nothing should be growing in our walls as I said they are not cinder block I guess I should have explained that in advance.  Also our cracks were about 30 feet long horizontal and 1/2" in areas but again no leaks and moisture free for now.  Like I said we have some work to do to fix the basement but the inspectors (3) the we had look at the house said it is structurally sound as long as the braces are in place.     

[ew2x4]

I might add my current basement is not a cinder block foundation it is concrete and is not structurally sound and that is why it has braces holding the wall up.  It has not moved in 30 years and we will replace the wall when we have the time and money but for now we have stopped the leaks, and did a semi finish job textured the wall and painted.

Nothing should be growing in our walls as I said they are not cinder block I guess I should have explained that in advance.  Also our cracks were about 30 feet long horizontal and 1/2" in areas but again no leaks and moisture free for now.  Like I said we have some work to do to fix the basement but the inspectors (3) the we had look at the house said it is structurally sound as long as the braces are in place.     

Yeah, with concrete walls, you did the right thing. Patching and bracing is about all you can do.

[Dirty Sanchez]

Not a basement but fairly similar...I live in an earth contact house where my back wall backs up to dirt.  Had a few cracks forming in the hallway and garage with some water getting in when it rained a decent amount.  Had some guys come over and the first day they put a patching over the cracks.  The next day they drilled holes in it and pumped a sealer in.  Haven't had any problems. I think it cost about $800 for 20' of crack.  The more feet of cracks there were the cheaper it was.  Now if there's wood or more severe structural damage, that's a whole different story.