Basement Wall Bracing

At American Foundation Repair, we repair and replace bowing or leaning foundation walls, commonly found in low-grade level homes. These walls are often cinder block or concrete masonry unit (CMU) foundation walls. A bowing or cracked basement wall can jeopardize your home’s safety and structural integrity, making early detection critical.

Signs of a Bowed or Leaning Foundation Wall

• Horizontal Cracks: Cracks running horizontally across your basement foundation wall.
• Diagonal Cracks: Cracks on the corners of the foundation wall, indicating inward leaning.
• Bulging or Misalignment: Noticeable bulging or misalignment in the wall.
• Split Sill Plates: Wood sitting atop the foundation showing signs of splitting.
• Improper Anchor Bolt Installation: Anchor bolts installed incorrectly.
• Pocketed I-Beams: Bulging at the end of the I-beam visible from the exterior.

These foundation warning signs can be overlooked, especially in finished basements, leaving homeowners unaware of potential risks to their foundation.

Many of these signs could be overlooked, especially in a finished basement. Homeowners may be living with a potentially bowed wall and not even know it! The main cause of a bowing foundation wall is caused by poor grading (ground) pitch (level) toward the home causing hydrostatic pressure during heavy rain falls. Other factors could be unsatisfactory gutters (clogged, damaged etc.) preventing the flow of water from going into the downspouts away from the home's foundation. Instead the water flow is flowing next to the foundation perimeter creating unwanted lateral pressure. The excessive lateral pressure pressing against the foundation wall will cause bowing. Block walls are not meant to prevent excessive outside wall pressure and therefore your home will begin to bow inward, causing a structural stress failure to your foundation wall and home.

Even with proper working gutters, you may still have a problem with your foundation wall bowing if the grade level is pitching toward your home. When it rains, water tends to naturally flow from the highest point to the lowest spot. Unfortunately, some homes are sitting in some very low spot, almost bowl like spots.

Excessive soil pressure is one of the main factors causing a wall to bow or lean inward. The outside pressure from the soil against the foundation wall will eventually lead to misalignment and cause the foundation wall to bow or lean. This does not happen overnight! It takes years for walls to start showing signs of structural failure. Once the signs are evident it is too late to take preventative measures, and now the problem must be structurally repaired.

A leaning wall will occur when the floor framing is not properly secured to the foundation wall. Experiencing this problem you will notice a diagonal cracks on the foundation wall indicating inward pressure movement. Not addressing this issue will cause significant damage to your home, have an expert come out and evaluate the situation, we’ll provide you with the best solution to your foundation problem. Epoxy crack injection in most cases is NOT an adequate repair, but a “quick fix – band-aid” to a more extensive foundation problem. Make sure to have one of our experts evaluate your problem for a proper permanent foundation repair solution.

A driveway directly next to your home may also cause your foundation to bow because of continuous lateral pressure from the outside including extra weight from the cars and trucks parked outside.