Broken Footer

Mark

There is a footer that appears to have been made with poured concrete using no forms but the soil. Then there are three layers of concrete block on top of the footer. The whole section of the house was then filled with pea gravel. The slab was then poured with what I believe is the concrete block being use as the forms for the slab. There appears to be no cracks in the slab, but there is a crack that is seen from the inside of the house. I looks as though it is where the slab meets the concrete block foundation.

Trench forming of the footer is very common here. Works fine. Using block as the floor form is also common. It always results in that crack you saw. No problem. My all-concrete house has both.

Vern-Mi is right. The broken footing didn't have sufficient earth support, likely fill. Fill could have worked but it would have needed compaction under skilled direction. That's where soil engineers come in.

As it's now a little late to compact, as Vern suggested,I'd be digging down to undisturbed soil for the new footing. If it turns out that there was no fill under the failed area, you REALLY need a soils engineer.

Another potential problem is that some of that pea gravel under the slab probably went in on fill too. In time it won't support the slab. Might be a future problem, might not, depends on the strength of the slab and how far it will span.

To fully understand the scope of the problem you need to find out if there was fill and what portions of the house were built on it. Assuming fill, the contractor clearly didn't know how to deal with it and all areas over fill should be suspect. Not all problems show up so fast.

Sorry to be so negative, but I deal with concrete houses that put large pressure on the bearing soil from roofs weighing 3-400 tons. Something down there must be able to support the weight. Your Dad's(?) house is only going to get heavier as it's finished and moved into, putting more pressure on whatever's under it. Really bad place for any movement.

Good luck.

We will be meeting with the builder sometime next week to review their solution to this problem. I now have better insyte as to the cause, fix and future of this issue.

The old conventional wisdom was to spend whatever was necessary on the roof and the foundation. Anything left over was spent in the middle.

Unfortunately, this attitude has mostly died, in favor of floor plans.

Strong recommendation to physically be there for the excavation for the new footing. You should be able to see a color change in the dirt when they get to undisturbed soil. And I sure hope you don't see top soil.

This builder has a potentially major problem. Make sure it remains his. Ask around about a soils engineer.

We had our meeting with the builder. We have been given a new lot to start over.

I want to thank you for your help in educating me. I used some of what you had written and I believe that it made a big impact in my argument.

Dan

We had our meeting with the builder. We have been given a new lot to start over.

I want to thank you for your help in educating me. I used some of what you had written and I believe that I made a big impact in my argument.

Dan

You must have also done your part to get a start-over. Amazing what a little knowledge can do, eh? And now I'll bet the builder will make absolutely certain the house is properly constructed to ensure he doesn't go through that again. You have a reputation!

One never knows when advice is offered how it'll work out. This is far beyond my wildest expectations. Very glad it worked out for you. Did they admit there was substantial fill under the house? Let me guess, you mentioned a soils engineer?

Assuming the other lot has undisturbed soil, not an old landfill or somesuch, there shouldn't be any problem. Good luck.