[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. I was told a story about heading over to somebody's house that had foundation issues. And that's what we're talking about in this hour of the show. People have been over there and had the high pressure sale. Homeowners were crying while she was, he was in shock. They had just gotten a 40, 000 bid.

[00:00:22] Eric Goranson: I walk in and realize it was going to be a lot more because they had asbestos tiles and flooring down in the, in the basement. So it was just going to be this ugly situation. So I started poking around and working around and went, the water's coming from over here. I said, can I go outside the house? I walk around the outside of the house and start doing a foundation inspection.

[00:00:40] Eric Goranson: I see a crack in the foundation. Just one. That's it. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, but This is around the house from the house shows brought to you by pyramid heating and cooling [00:01:00] serving in Oregon, the Portland metro area and Bend, Oregon. They are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.

[00:01:07] Eric Goranson: To find out more, head to pyramidheating. com, Oregon, CCB 5 9 3 8 2. Welcome to the round the house show. The next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. I'm Eric G. If you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house. Online. com. And of course, if you want to reach us here at the studio, 833 239 4144.

[00:01:29] Eric Goranson: That number again is 833 239 4144. And if you're brand new joining us today, thanks for tuning in a little bit about us before we get started in today's show. So we have our national radio show here, which is around the house as podcast. And of course the television show around the house Northwest. Which we just last week finished episode 75 and we have almost 500 videos out there to help you with that home improvement project or.

[00:01:58] Eric Goranson: Some of those brand new [00:02:00] materials and things you can do inside and outside your house, experts, everything else over there and head over to around the house online for more information. Today, I wanted to give you the be all end all a foundation repair and wet basements. The truth behind it, because there is so much information out there.

[00:02:21] Eric Goranson: And it is one of those industries that there are so many great companies out there that do foundation repair deal with wet basements. But there's also a small percentage out there that are not solution based, but are very fear based and they will come in and tell you that your house is falling down.

[00:02:40] Eric Goranson: And I tell you what, this can be a massive problem. And so if you have foundation issues, I really want to help you out today and see if we can get you taken care of with more information here for you because there is so many conflicting information. And then this is an industry that I have worked with companies on.

[00:02:59] Eric Goranson: So I [00:03:00] know about it. I've been in the crawl spaces. I've been through the training in the seminar. So I know. What many of the solutions are out there. And so let's try to take some of the fear about it away from it today. Let's take the fear away and talk about it. Now, there are many things that happen, but if you have a basement, I know for so many people down there in California and some of the Southwest, Which don't have basements.

[00:03:24] Eric Goranson: You are maybe slab on grade where it's just a concrete slab and maybe there's tensioned post tension cables in it or whatever. That's what that is. And, but if you've got an older house, whether you're in anywhere in the country, this will apply to you. And a lot of it does even apply to crawl spaces in many situations.

[00:03:44] Eric Goranson: So these are things that you should be paying attention to. First off, if you have water in your basement, the first place I want to take a look if you've got moisture down there is take a look at the gutters going into the [00:04:00] downspouts, going into a storm drain system. You should never have those downspouts.

[00:04:06] Eric Goranson: Dropping right next to the foundation that will cause damage to the concrete that will cause basement flooding And you never want to have that drop right next to it. It's just not going to be a good thing It's going to cause a ton of problems. It will degrade that And that's a big issue that we had here in portland In the major metropolitan area I'm in, they used to have the storm drain system and the sewer system go into the same plumbing system and go down.

[00:04:37] Eric Goranson: Then what would happen is we'd get heavy rains, we'd have a big storm and it would overwhelm the system and they'd have to drop that sewage into the river. It was rainwater and sewage because it was more they could handle. So at one point, they went around and gave people a tax break to remove themselves from that.

[00:04:55] Eric Goranson: But the problem was, is instead of making and put it into a storm drain system, they just dumped it right next to the home. So [00:05:00] we have tens of thousands of homes and our cities here that were built with a system that took care of the water. Now, it drops it next to it. And all of a sudden, there is tons of foundation damage because they didn't inform people and they just.

[00:05:16] Eric Goranson: Worried about getting to disconnected, not about the foundation damage. So now is you see flaking concrete, you have efflorescence, which is that kind of foamy looking white, crusty looking stuff. That's coming through the foundation where the moisture is bringing the salts and everything that were in that concrete through and making it flake off.

[00:05:37] Eric Goranson: I have been in foundations where I could sit there with my fingers and pull it apart. And get through to the other side, not taking a screwdriver, just picking it apart and having it come apart. And that's really can be caused by that. Now we also had some areas here and this has happened in areas across the country.

[00:05:56] Eric Goranson: There's also an area here where People were [00:06:00] buying concrete and they weren't using washed and clean sand. So it had salts and stuff in it. And that broke down earlier as well. So first off, make sure that you have those gutters going into downspouts that are now going into a storm drain system that takes that water at least 10 feet away and downhill.

[00:06:19] Eric Goranson: Now you can run it out to the street if that is downhill, but here's a thing you need to talk to your city about or your County or wherever. If that's going to go out, you don't want to have it running it right across the sidewalk and talk to your people that manage the stormwater in the street. Some places they have it.

[00:06:36] Eric Goranson: If you see, you know, some neighborhoods, you'll go down and you'll go walking down a neighborhood and you'll see if there's these little holes in the curb and that's where the water comes out into that storm drain system. So, in that situation, you can run it out into the street, into the gutter system and go that route.

[00:06:52] Eric Goranson: Now, the second of all, many streets, they don't want that. So you can't drain it there, but you could drain it at the edge of the yard. [00:07:00] And if it does soak into the yard, yeah, but you could get it. So if it does overflow, it does go across the sidewalk into the street. The only thing is in the, if it's winter time, that can cause ice in the sidewalk, which you could be liable for, also could cause discoloration of the sidewalk, mold moss growing on it.

[00:07:15] Eric Goranson: So just be very careful what you're doing there. Know your rules and know where you can, what you can do and what you can't do. Don't have to come back and do it or get a fine from the city on that or the road department or whoever runs that for you. But really taking care of that, getting that away from the house is good for your house.

[00:07:31] Eric Goranson: That is a great project and it's a pretty easy DIY one. So all you need to do is grab PVC or ABS and run that down into the deck. Basically that gutter system to go into storm drain system. So you're just going to do that, get it away from the house. Then you can go into a perforated pipe or something like that to let it go back into the ground.

[00:07:52] Eric Goranson: And if you want to put it into a dry wall, dry well, or have a pop up there where it will go up to the, you know, downhill and away from the house, that's not a bad way to go [00:08:00] either. So something to consider there, but that's the number one say thing. I would say 50, 60 percent of the time I've seen that greatly reduce or stop water in the basement.

[00:08:11] Eric Goranson: So that's the first tip right off the bat. Second of all, if you have a crack in your foundation, there are easy fixes for this and Simpsons, strong tie and. Rhino carbon fiber make carbon fiber patch kits for this. And this is something that I really want to talk about here in the next segment, because you can really have some serious foundation problems and can fix them without spending a ton of money on it.

[00:08:39] Eric Goranson: If this is done correctly, but before you get into repairs, if you have multiple big cracks, and I'm not talking just like a little hairline crack that will happen, especially around vents and things like that. Okay. But if you've got significant cracks that you could probably put as much as a credit card through or even bigger, then I've got some answers [00:09:00] here for you.

[00:09:00] Eric Goranson: And that's going to be really important to make sure that we get those answers for you. And I'll tell you how to do it, because there's an easy way to do it that you'll know that you have the solution and then you can go out and get those bids or even decide if you want to do it as a DIY project yourself, because that is an option as well.

[00:09:18] Eric Goranson: You just have to follow those procedures to get it done correctly. So when we come back, we're going to talk about how to fix and how to get repaired and make sure you've got the right solution for a broken foundation. And we'll do that just as soon as around the house returns. Don't go anywhere. And if you want to find out more information about us or send me a message.

[00:09:38] Eric Goranson: Head over to around the house, online. com around the house. Be right back. Don't change that dial. We got more to show you.[00:10:00]

[00:10:10] Eric Goranson: To around the house show the next generation of home improvement. Thanks for joining me today. Hey, make sure you follow us on social media. Just look for around the house. We are the original and only real around the house show across the country out there. And we've been around here for geez, so many years.

[00:10:27] Eric Goranson: I am the fourth host of this show over the years, over the decades. And we have a great time here with the show. And hopefully we're helping you with information to help you navigate being a homeowner. And we do have a closed group out there as well. And that's on Facebook. It's called around the house nation.

[00:10:44] Eric Goranson: You can join us there. And if you're listening to the podcast out there, if you want to catch it early, or here's some of these episodes where I did extended cuts, where we go on for extra minutes and some extended confirmation of that information for you, really that [00:11:00] extra information that got cut out because we were too long in the show or whatever.

[00:11:04] Eric Goranson: If you want to hear those extended cuts, head over to around the house online. And for about a cup of coffee a month. You can be a part of that, uh, insider group there where you get the podcast a couple of days early, as well as those extended cuts and any information out there that goes out, uh, we've got some special stuff for you and we will have some exclusive episodes coming up as well.

[00:11:26] Eric Goranson: Can't wait to show you as part of that. So pretty fun, pretty easy. And you get a man, some of those episodes, you get an extra 10, 15 minutes of information for you, almost like an extra segment. So there's a lot there for you. We've been talking today about foundation repair, wet basements, the truth behind all of that stuff.

[00:11:44] Eric Goranson: We were talking about gutters into downspouts and repairing cracks with carbon fiber. But here's the thing. If you have some serious foundation problems, my favorite way to do this is to go find a structural engineer first, before you go out and get estimates, [00:12:00] have that structural engineer come in and take a look.

[00:12:02] Eric Goranson: It, what you have going with your foundation, that's a really big one right there because they can come in and they're not there to sell you something. They are engineering. So they're going to tell you what the most cost effective solution is to repair it. That will change everything that way. Then you can go out and get estimates on that repair.

[00:12:24] Eric Goranson: So if they come in and say, Hey, you need to use this carbon fiber. You need to do this to patch those cracks. No big deal. But if you need to put in helical peers or something like that. That now, you know where to go. We'll save you a ton of time in doing this. So it could cost you hundreds to a thousand bucks to get that engineered solution.

[00:12:42] Eric Goranson: But the cool thing is, is if you go to sell your house, you can say, Hey, here's the sheet. I fixed it, right? Here's the engineered solution. Here's how we fixed it. You're good to go. And it's stronger than it ever was. That's the best way to handle that. So get that done first. Now, if you've got two or three cracks in it, [00:13:00] what the usual will come in and do is we'll come in and they use carbon fiber.

[00:13:04] Eric Goranson: So what they do is they come in and clean up that foundation. They'll put a patch in there. For instance, I have used cement, cemental. Excuse me in that. And so it's a concrete repair product. You wet the wall down, basically make it up into like a, a softball size. That way you have the, uh, the right mixture.

[00:13:24] Eric Goranson: It's a thick paste of a high pressure cement and you fill the crack with that first after you've cleaned it out. Then the next thing you do is after that's cured, you come in and put one directional or multi directional. Carbon fiber over the top of that area. Sometimes you'll put it down the crack.

[00:13:43] Eric Goranson: Sometimes you'll put it down the crack and across it, depending which direction the crack goes, and that will give you a strength in there and it'll actually be stronger than the concrete around it. So that's a great way to do that. Now it's depending on which way the crack is going. If you have a crack that is going up and [00:14:00] down, that's one thing, but if you've got it in the middle of the concrete wall.

[00:14:04] Eric Goranson: Where it's going left to those horizontal cracks are a huge deal that is buckling. And that is trying to collapse that foundation. And now there's multiple ways of doing this to fix that. And this is where that engineer is going to come in many times. You can come in and do strips of carbon fiber down that that is one solution.

[00:14:25] Eric Goranson: And that will add that strength back in it. The next one is I've seen people come in with steel I beams. They'll dig down, cut holes in the concrete floor, put some pieces in there of steel up and down and help buttress that wall in there again. That's another way to do it. I've seen different ways of doing that.

[00:14:44] Eric Goranson: I've seen other steel systems. There's other steel interior wall systems I've seen used. Another solution, and I have done this in extreme cases and it works really well. You can go in there and go with a new interior [00:15:00] foundation wall. Now, this is what you do instead of lifting up a house. Instead of going in, there's no need anymore to come in there and Jack the house up unless you're trying to move it or you want to raise the house up to give more space and give a better view.

[00:15:18] Eric Goranson: That's one way to do it. But what we've done in the past is we've actually, Came in and did a new interior foundation on the inside. So you leave the old foundation, you build one right on the inside and pour up against the old one. And you can create a whole new foundation that way. And if you do it and you want to add ceiling height to the basement, you can do that as well.

[00:15:40] Eric Goranson: So that is something that, again, you have to run permits and engineer. But it is so much easier because generally speaking, you can be living in the house during that time. If you're going to be jacking the house up, you're moving out, you're moving a lot of the stuff out of there. And you're going to be living offsite in another place for weeks or months.

[00:15:57] Eric Goranson: But this here, generally speaking, [00:16:00] we've had people stay in the house during this time. So there's no need to do all the repairs. You're not worried about breaking tiles, damaging plaster or drywall. So it's much more efficient to put a new interior foundation. And now you will lose some square footage of the basement because you're going to be losing six or eight inches around the perimeter on all sides of this, but you do have double the foundation strength now, or if not more, because that original foundation, of course, was already compromised.

[00:16:26] Eric Goranson: But that's a great way to do this without having to jack the house up. So that is another way to fix extreme foundation issues. And there's definitely a way to do that. You have to have an engineer plan for that. They're going to come in and tell you, looking at the soil, how big the footing needs to be.

[00:16:46] Eric Goranson: And when you dig out a foundation on the inside, when you're doing that, you'll have to put new footings in. What you don't want to do, since you've already probably have a foundation issue anyway, The worst thing you can do is go in and just tear out the whole floor [00:17:00] because that's usually holding or keyed in those foundation walls from pushing in.

[00:17:05] Eric Goranson: So many times they will come in and what they do, AB section. So you'll go through and put in footings in certain areas and they'll cut out like every other space. So you'll still leave the concrete and they're holding it, but you'll cut out about half of it to put those footings in, let that cure, that's holding the wall then, then you can cut out the rest to put those in there.

[00:17:23] Eric Goranson: So there's a lot of different ways to do this. To make sure that you hold the house up and keep this structural, but it's a great way to do it and get you a whole brand new foundation on the inside. And if you've got brick or something pretty outside, don't worry about it. It'll still be the same. And so that's a great way to do it without having to lift the house up.

[00:17:40] Eric Goranson: And that can save you some serious money on a project. So talking about foundations here, and I tell you what, I'll tell you a story here real quick before we go out to break. I was sitting there at Somebody's house. I was coming over to do a quote and this company, I'll just call them company. A was out there giving an estimate.

[00:17:59] Eric Goranson: These people saw a [00:18:00] crack in their foundation and water coming in. They gave them an estimate of 40, 000 to fix this and it was a flooded basement. And that was really They hadn't put the crack, the homeowners did not put the crack and the flood together. So they just had a water in the basement thing. So I pull up 10 minutes early, it's going to kill time doing an estimate.

[00:18:23] Eric Goranson: And I already see another companies. They're still meeting with them. So I wanted to wait for them to go. So I was waiting for them to leave before I came up, knocked on the door to keep this from being less awkward. So just waiting for them to get through their quote. People come out, I walk up homeowner is in tears.

[00:18:38] Eric Goranson: You could see she's just hold it together. He's horrified. They had just had a very high pressure sale of a 40, 000 fix. All right, we got to go out to break guys. I'm going to finish this story because it was a huge one. We'll do that just as soon as around the house returns. Don't go anywhere.[00:19:00]

[00:19:06] Eric Goranson: To the round the house show the next generation of home improvement. If you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house. com. We went out to break and I was telling a story. I want to catch everybody up to speed. If you're listening to us on the radio. I was told a story about heading over to somebody's house that had foundation issues.

[00:19:22] Eric Goranson: And that's what we're talking about in this hour of the show. And people have been over there and had the high pressure sale. Homeowners were crying while she was, he was in shock. They had just gotten a 40, 000 bid. I walk in and realize it was going to be a lot more because they had asbestos tiles. And flooring down in the, in the basement.

[00:19:41] Eric Goranson: So it was just going to be this ugly situation. So I walk in and said, wow, 40, 000 bucks. Is that what you're upset about? Okay. Let's, let's take a look and see. So I started poking around and looking around. I went, the water's coming from over here. I said, can I go outside the house? I walked around the outside of the house and start doing a [00:20:00] foundation inspection.

[00:20:01] Eric Goranson: And in there it's a split level basement. I see around the window, I see a crack in the foundation. Just one. That's it. So I go inside and say, Hey, I have an inspection camera. I just poke a hole in the drywall right here real quick. And, and I even have some patch in the car I can put on it. And it's just going to be the size of a pencil.

[00:20:20] Eric Goranson: So I do that. And I look in there and that's where all the water is coming from. And it's coming down the inside of the wall and running down over to the corner. And it looks like you've got a big foundation wall problem because it was just wetting the whole base of that wall. So we took a look at it at the time.

[00:20:33] Eric Goranson: It was like 2, 500 bucks to fix this thing. And what's cool is that that was the appropriate solution for that. And quite frankly, we didn't even get the job because the homeowner said, I think I can do that actually, if that's all it is. So they were going to tackle it themselves. And so the right repair on that would have been going in there.

[00:20:52] Eric Goranson: Opening that wall up, taking the sheet rock, any framing back around that. You would go in there, get it nice and dry, grind out any loose [00:21:00] stuff. What we would have done is gone in there and done that patch with that concrete mix, which was just that cemental, they're super high tension concrete mix. Then what we would have done is we would actually drilled in to that And over that patch after it dries, and we would have pumped in this urethane crack filler, what it does is it goes in like warm honey, and then when it hits moisture, it expands out like foam and seals the crack from the other side of the wall.

[00:21:33] Eric Goranson: So it just follows down any paths of water. As soon as it hits damp soil, boom, off it goes. And within an hour it's sealed up. It's not going anywhere. So that then you have to just put the wall back after you put some carbon fiber over the top of that to make sure that you've got it taken care of, but that's all you have to do.

[00:21:51] Eric Goranson: And then whatever that solution is in the carbon fiber to tie the pieces back together, you can use these, they have these crack repair pieces that Rhino has [00:22:00] that are great. They're crack repair staples. And so what you do is you drill a, like a half inch hole and then put a groove in there and you can set these in epoxy.

[00:22:07] Eric Goranson: And they're basically like. 12 inch staples that'll tie things back together. So it doesn't move anymore. And you could put those in and then carbon fiber over the top or whatever you want to do and make that super strong that way. And that's a great way to tie concrete back together. So it doesn't move anymore.

[00:22:23] Eric Goranson: And that would have been the solution, the solution that this foundation repair company had given in. Was to come in, rip out the walls in the entire basement, come down, put a perimeter sump pump in there and in a French drain system below grade. And that was their solution. It was going to be more than 40, 000 bucks because one, you had asbestos and two, and I say they had asbestos, they had nine by nine tiles.

[00:22:49] Eric Goranson: And what looked like black mastic underneath it. So you had the double down asbestos down there and you're going to have to disturb that. So that was going to have to go. And then they had to refinish the basement. So that could have been an 80, [00:23:00] 000 project by the time they're all done or more. So this is where those things can get really expensive and it was a quick and easy fix.

[00:23:09] Eric Goranson: And then they can remodel their basement when they want to, they want to cover up that they don't have to worry about it. Now, the one thing I'm going to go off here a little bit. I want to talk about this when it comes to basements. There is one thing that you really can't fix from the inside, and that is without getting in below grade.

[00:23:27] Eric Goranson: And I want to say that with an asterisk there without going below grade. Is that if you have a foundation that is leaking at the point where the floor hits the wall, that is usually what they call a dry joint right there because they poured the walls first and then poured the floor down there second.

[00:23:47] Eric Goranson: So what happens is, is that dry joint, if you have a high water table, water's creeping in there. So the first thing with that, what you want to do is make sure your gutters are under control. Make sure you have no groundwater issues outside. We'll talk about [00:24:00] controlling groundwater outside here in a little bit, but if you've got that all taken care of, and it's still a high water table, guess what?

[00:24:05] Eric Goranson: Your best solution is Going around the perimeter of the house on the inside and cutting the concrete and putting in a French drain system below that, then you can put new concrete in and finish it as you would with a sump pump. And that way it's grabbing that water, going into a low point and then pumping it out and away from the structure, 15, 20 feet away at least.

[00:24:28] Eric Goranson: And that way you're not getting the water back in there, but that's really the best way. Now, if you have the other one that you can't fix from the inside, really at all. Is if you have a concrete block or a CMU block foundation, because what happens is, is each one of those blocks have a little hollow spot in the inside.

[00:24:44] Eric Goranson: And most people did not fill those up with concrete or a slurry as they built them. So those can collect water and you can have water leaking in one corner and they can leak in between those blocks and come out a whole other place. So for that, really, you have to get [00:25:00] outside, dig up that foundation, get down, waterproof it all the way down to the ground.

[00:25:06] Eric Goranson: And in fix it that way, there's not really a great way to do block because there's no, you're just going to chase it forever. You can't use anything on the inside as a, as a barrier to really keep that from coming in, in my experience, because it'll just chase you around anywhere. It's like having a thousand leaks in a pool.

[00:25:22] Eric Goranson: You're just not going to get anywhere trying to do it. And so that's a big one right there. And let's talk about one other thing here too, while we're in this segment. Before we go out to break here in a few minutes, dry lock is a great product to slow down humidity transfer from the outside of the house to the inside.

[00:25:40] Eric Goranson: But as good as it is, you can't really paint anything on the inside to not push, let water come through it. If you already have a leaky foundation, you're not going to paint on a product out there. In my experience, I haven't seen it work yet. That will stop that. It will slow down moisture. If you've got a [00:26:00] high humidity basement and you want to cut the humidity down, sure, paint some stuff on it.

[00:26:04] Eric Goranson: It will help, but it is not the be all end all for humidity issues in a basement. So if you've got high humidity, Sure, you can dry lock it. The issue though is, is that it's still going to push through. It's going to push the dry lock eventually out of the concrete. It will bubble up. You'll have issues, but really that's, that's a minor difference.

[00:26:25] Eric Goranson: That stuff works, but it's not going to be a foolproof thing. If you have humidity over 60 percent in your basement, you'll still need a dehumidifier or proper airflow within the house. So you can control that. There's not going to be a thing that stops that, but really fixing the main issue and not covering up is your key to any foundation issue like that.

[00:26:45] Eric Goranson: Now, if you have a house, and I want to talk about this here. If you have a house, That maybe has a hill that is going towards the house, or you've got a hillside or even a mountain that comes down. And for time to time, you get water that comes down in [00:27:00] floods areas. I've had houses that I've worked with where they had groundwater that would continue like a stream coming down the hill into their backyard.

[00:27:09] Eric Goranson: And that was a huge issue. So what we did on that kind of situation is we did a French train system because they're on a hill and it kept going towards street. So what we did is we went in and dug a nice wide 18 inch wide trench. And we dug this trench. All the way around the back and created a barrier, almost like a little reverse moat here.

[00:27:33] Eric Goranson: We dug that trench came down the side, down the property line and out towards the front. Then what we did is we put a French drain in the bottom of that with fabric. And then we put not gravel, but rock because we wanted that rock to look like a decorative piece, but we wanted to give it a space. So water could go down in there.

[00:27:55] Eric Goranson: Surface water all the way down into that could go into it. And collect that [00:28:00] water and keep it. I'm going to the house over the top. So what happened is the water would come down. It would come down the hillside, hit that rock barrier and the water would go down into those rocks through that 4 inch pipe and out towards the front.

[00:28:14] Eric Goranson: Now, if you don't have that, you could put it into a big pump drywall type thing where it gets overflowed. And it'll pump out and send it to another area. You could do that as well. But those are all secrets to making sure that works. And you can control groundwater that way. If you have a spot that every time you get heavy rains in the back because it's low or it's out front where it's low and you need to control water and get it someplace else, that's a great way to do it because it looks like landscaping.

[00:28:38] Eric Goranson: All right, around the house. We'll be right back after these important messages. If you want to find out more about us, Head over to around the house online. com. We'll be right back. Joe jeans on top. To the [00:29:00] around

[00:29:06] Eric Goranson: the house show the next generation of home improvement. I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today. We've been talking about foundation repair. Wet basements, the truth behind all of it. And we've been diving into some big rabbit holes here. And hopefully these are things that really, that I can help you fix these issues around your house, because these foundation issues can be really scary and they can be even more scary when you bring somebody else that is a fear based contractor, trying to get your hard earned money when there are simple solutions at times.

[00:29:37] Eric Goranson: For fixing this. Now, these are things, there's a lot of materials out there that can be used for foundation repair, and even if you've got unreinforced buildings, and there are products out there, if you're trying to make something that is earthquake friendly, there are a lot of products like carbon fiber.

[00:29:57] Eric Goranson: There are fiber reinforced [00:30:00] products that can be sprayed on walls. Simpson strong tie has one. It is a really cool product and it's something that's been used in commercial buildings and I've seen it. They just used it up in Seattle to fix a bridge. They were trying to put a, it was a car bridge and they converted it over to their light rail system.

[00:30:18] Eric Goranson: Didn't make traffic any better, but they did get the light rail system across that bridge. But what they did is they had to come in and strike from the concrete because they realized that they were overbuilding on this bridge that was existing. So they have this product that is something that if you have a brick building and you're trying to get it up to earthquake code or future earthquake code, it's a basic carbon fiber concrete mixture.

[00:30:47] Eric Goranson: And so what they do is they come into this backside of a brick building, like the inside of it, and they put, almost like shotcrete, they spray this carbon fiber [00:31:00] mixture of concrete on the wall, they press in a carbon fiber mesh. into that starts to cure a little bit. Then they come back and spray over the top fit to the certain engineered mill thickness.

[00:31:13] Eric Goranson: And what this does is this adds strength to the building and it gives it a basically a glue to the inside that holds all this brick together. So it can withstand an earthquake. And so this is good for brick block concrete. They just did that on that bridge up there. They went around and did the outside pilings of the bridge because they were too small and they needed to make them stronger.

[00:31:38] Eric Goranson: So they went around and did that. And it's a great solution. I have worked with the product. It is not a DIY product. Contractors that are experienced. And there's a handful of them in the country. It is a rough product to work with. It is tough trying to get that mixture. And we had a pallet of it and I was with a company.

[00:31:58] Eric Goranson: We played around with it to [00:32:00] see if we could use it. Holy smokes. It was hard to work with, but technology does that. And maybe it's easier now, but it was a hard product to get right to spray out. And maybe we didn't have the right pump or whatever it was, but we were trying to play with that. And it works really well though.

[00:32:16] Eric Goranson: It is something that is an engineered solution. So if you've got a commercial building or a brick house, Maybe in Southern California or anywhere in a earthquake zone. Simpson StrongTie does have some great products for that. Now you can go through, I've seen companies go through and put in layers of carbon fiber or strips to hold things together.

[00:32:35] Eric Goranson: And that's a good way to, after an engineer has drawn out what needs to be done, it's a good way to tie things together so they don't move. So that's really cool how you can go through and do that with a building. And, uh, take something that, uh, might have to be torn down because it won't meet code or it could fall down and hurt people and make something that's going to be much more stronger for the next big one.

[00:32:57] Eric Goranson: And that's something I wanted to talk about here as well is, [00:33:00] is. Earthquake retrofits with a foundation. And this is something that companies go out and do, but if you're going to tackle this as a DIY project, if you have a crawl space or a basement, there are brackets that you're going to do that ties the sill plate down to the foundation.

[00:33:17] Eric Goranson: Here's the thing. Before the 1970s, most homes Only the house weight is holding that house on the foundation. So not only until the 70s in many places, did you see building codes starting to say, Hey, that house has to be bolted down. And if you watch the news with a tornado or hurricane, you'll see a perfectly looking house laying in the middle of the street.

[00:33:37] Eric Goranson: And you're like, how did that get out there? It's because the winds exceeded. Or water and winds exceeded the weight of the house and it blew it off or floated it right off the foundation. So you can go through and tie this down. And so some companies will go through and they'll tie that sill plate down, but there's so much more that needs to happen.

[00:33:56] Eric Goranson: You have to tie that whole structure together and tie [00:34:00] it to the foundation. So not only do you have to put these foundation plates down to tie that in, but you need to use a bunch of different brackets to do it. So if you have posts in the middle of the basement, that post needs to be fastened to the footing or the concrete floor.

[00:34:15] Eric Goranson: That post needs to have a bracket to the beam above it. So those brackets are holding that. So the post doesn't move. That beam then needs to have ties that tie it to the floor joists. The floor joists need to have brackets that are tied to the sill plate. You see where I'm going. Every wood connection needs to have a MITEC or a Simpson bracket there to hold that together.

[00:34:40] Eric Goranson: Because not only do you need to hold that together, you don't want just the nails that are 50 years old and hopefully they're not rotten. Not only do you want to have that taken care of, you need to have the whole system tied as one. And then you have something that's going to hold up and do a lot better job of holding the house up in a foundation.

[00:34:59] Eric Goranson: So [00:35:00] those are things you got to be really careful with, with that. So if you're doing the earthquake retrofit, every piece of wood down there that is a structural member needs to be tied to the one next to it. So, like, with the joist going to the rim joist, or the band that goes around those floor joist systems, around the floor system, that needs to have brackets there, so everything needs to be bolted together with the right nails, screws that are structural, and tied in together, and that way, you're good to go.

[00:35:28] Eric Goranson: So, make sure you've Don't skip any of those steps. That's how you get to a strong foundation. Now, the other thing I want to talk about here, and this is a big one right here. And it's something that you should be really thinking about with any foundation like this. And if you're going to be doing work down there and finishing it, don't go buy a house that just had a brand new basement finished an older house that had it in there.

[00:35:55] Eric Goranson: What I tell people is I want to make sure that you have all those water issues resolved [00:36:00] before you finish a basement. And that could be two or three years you want to see. I just was answering a question yesterday. On Facebook on a group, not my group, but a group. And what they had was, is they had a serious issue.

[00:36:13] Eric Goranson: They were sitting there and I was pretty well shocked. They had a one year old house and they had insulated and put plastic up and then did drywall. And there was just a mold sandwich behind the wall and they didn't waterproof it correctly. And they used plastic in the wrong spot so they could trap moisture in there.

[00:36:33] Eric Goranson: And they just didn't waterproof anything correctly. And I had to tell him the bad news of, you're gonna have to one, test the mold, see what you got before you tear into it, understand what you're working with. Is this something that's going to be deadly to you? Is this something you need to be wearing a hazmat suit?

[00:36:48] Eric Goranson: Is this something that's not a big deal? What mold are you working with? So you know what you're dealing with. It could be super poisonous. It's all bad for you, but there's stuff that's worse than others. You want to make sure that the toxic level is something that you can work with. [00:37:00] So test that mold and then you're going to be tearing out and seeing how far it goes.

[00:37:04] Eric Goranson: Now that mean it might mean using an inspection camera, making a tiny hole and seeing, or it means you're opening the whole walls up. Maybe you got to strip that whole basement down to the studs or beyond that to get that taken care of. But really you can't, I never recommend plastic down there because anytime you're putting plastic up And you're encapsulating insulation in behind it.

[00:37:25] Eric Goranson: You've got an issue right there. So anytime that you have that, you have got just the recipe for a mold sandwich. So you need to be really careful. And that needs to be an engineered solution that works for your area because in certain areas you have, it's, it's interesting. Basements are crazy. When you get into frosty areas, I know of Areas and some of you guys go, yeah, that's how my house is.

[00:37:48] Eric Goranson: And that's awesome that they have to plan for that floor to raise inches because of frost teeth. It's going to actually raise that floor up inches. So everything in the basement has to float. So you need to [00:38:00] understand what has to go on in your area to make sure that you have a building that's going to withstand what mother nature is going to toss at it.

[00:38:07] Eric Goranson: So you don't want to have moisture coming through that wall. You don't need it in the space. And if it's going to go into a system, then it needs to go into a system. That's going to go down into maybe one of those trough gutter systems that are below grade to catch it. I want to make sure that you don't have a mold sandwich growing back there and create a sick house atmosphere for you and your family.

[00:38:27] Eric Goranson: So spend some time, understand it, deal with some building science experts in your area, understand what's going to move, what's not going to move and spend a few seasons, making sure that that basement. It's not going to pour a bunch of water through it or move up and down or anything like that. So you understand it that way.

[00:38:46] Eric Goranson: You can have a safe place that you're living in and you have something that's going to be comfortable and you're not doing it again. Can't tell you how many times I see people buy a house. That was a house flipper house. And six months or a year later, they're tearing the basement out and [00:39:00] going after the house flippers because they have a moldy basement.

[00:39:03] Eric Goranson: Cause nobody paid attention to that in January, February that basement floods and everything has to come out of it. And all those new materials are going in a dumpster because it got ruined. So I just want to make sure that we fully understand what goes on before we finish it. Thanks for tuning in to around the house.

[00:39:21] Eric Goranson: We have one more hour to go.