Base­ment Foun­da­tion Cracks are a Big Prob­lem in Palos Heights IL 60463

Apr 21, 2014 • By Matthew Stock.

Palos Heights is a small west­ern sub­urb of Chica­go with a pop­u­la­tion of 12,000 and a land area of less than 4 square miles.

Often con­fused with its larg­er neigh­bor, Palos Hills, the small­er town is near­ly 20 years old­er and has the inter­est­ing his­to­ry of being orig­i­nal­ly devel­oped as quar­ter-acre ​“farm-ettes” to encour­age new res­i­dents to pur­sue small-time agri­cul­ture. This exper­i­ment didn’t last long and Palos Heights soon became a more tra­di­tion­al suburb.

Palos Heights didn’t, how­ev­er, fol­low the path of most Amer­i­can sub­urbs as it expe­ri­enced no sig­nif­i­cant pop­u­la­tion boom in the peri­od imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing World War II that saw the growth of sub­ur­bia across the U.S. The midst of that peri­od found Palos Heights with only 1,200 homes of the cur­rent 4,500 and real growth didn’t take place until the 1970s when more than 1,000 homes were built.

Today, home­own­ers in Palos Heights com­mute to Chica­go for their jobs and enjoy the recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties afford­ed by Lake Kather­ine, an 85-acre park and nature pre­serve. Like their coun­ter­parts in near­by Oak Lawn and Ever­green Park, though, they are also dis­cov­er­ing prob­lems with their homes as they age and many have dis­cov­ered base­ment foun­da­tion cracks.

Base­ment Foun­da­tion Cracks are a Prob­lem in Palos Heights

Most foun­da­tions in Palos Heights are con­struct­ed of poured con­crete; some are built out of con­crete blocks. Either of these types of foun­da­tions can crack and the cracks can be either struc­tur­al or non-struc­tur­al.

Struc­tur­al Cracks are gen­er­al­ly wider, more than 1÷8”, and are typ­i­cal­ly found in a def­i­nite pat­tern. In a poured con­crete wall, there will usu­al­ly be one ver­ti­cal crack in the mid­dle and two angled cracks across the upper cor­ners. Unseen from the inside are ver­ti­cal cracks in the cor­ners where the dam­aged wall has bro­ken away from the adjoin­ing walls.

In a con­crete block wall, the cracks run through mor­tar joints in a stair-step pat­tern and typ­i­cal­ly sur­round a bowed or inward­ly bulging sec­tion in the cen­ter of the wall.

The pres­ence of these cracks indi­cates dam­age to the wall and insta­bil­i­ty of the foundation.

Non-struc­tur­al Cracks are typ­i­cal­ly less than 1÷8” wide and do not fol­low a pat­tern. Cracks in poured con­crete will usu­al­ly be more or less ver­ti­cal and may seep water. In a con­crete block wall, the cracks will also fol­low the mor­tar joints but prob­a­bly won’t be seen as admit­ting seep­age because of the hol­low con­struc­tion of the block.

Non-struc­tur­al cracks in poured con­crete are best repaired by inject­ing them with expand­ing polyurethane that seals the cracks and remains flex­i­ble when cured to pro­hib­it re-crack­ing from minor foun­da­tion move­ment. Seep­age from cracks in block walls can be man­aged with inte­ri­or drain tile or stopped from out­side with an exte­ri­or water­proof­ing membrane.

Repair­ing a struc­tur­al crack is not nec­es­sar­i­ly dif­fi­cult but it requires a great deal of knowl­edge and skill to ensure that the foun­da­tion is sta­bi­lized. Walls with struc­tur­al cracks have moved, or rotat­ed, inward and if they are left unre­paired will sep­a­rate from the above­ground struc­ture and no longer sup­port it.

Depend­ing on the amount of rota­tion, the dam­aged wall may be repaired with car­bon fiber. If the wall has moved less than 2 inch­es, then car­bon fiber strips can be epox­ied to the wall to pre­vent any fur­ther move­ment, leav­ing the foun­da­tion stabilized.

If the wall has moved more than 2 inch­es, low-pro­file chan­nel steel, anchored at top and bot­tom, will be used to stop the wall’s inward rotation.

Car­bon fiber is the less cost­ly method, mak­ing it advan­ta­geous for Palos Heights home­own­ers to dis­cov­er and repair base­ment foun­da­tion cracks soon­er rather than lat­er. Nei­ther method requires main­te­nance and both repairs can be cov­ered by a stan­dard stud wall if the base­ment is to be finished.

Regard­less of the tim­ing or mate­r­i­al, a Palos Heights home­own­er who dis­cov­ers base­ment foun­da­tion cracks will need the advice and assis­tance of a qual­i­fied foun­da­tion repair con­trac­tor and/​or base­ment water­proof­ing con­trac­tor. At U.S. Water­proof­ing, our foun­da­tion repair team uses engi­neer­ing data and the lat­est meth­ods and mate­ri­als to do per­ma­nent, cost-effec­tive repair and our base­ment water­proof­ing experts draw on our 57 years of expe­ri­ence keep­ing base­ments dry all over Chicagoland. Why not ask for our free advice?

Want to know more about base­ment foun­da­tion cracks in Palos Heights? Please ask your ques­tions in the Com­ments box below.

Tags: basement foundation cracks palos heights, palos heights basement foundation cracks

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