Base­ment Foun­da­tion Cracks = Trou­ble for Homes in Win­net­ka IL 60093

May 27, 2014 • By Matthew Stock.

Win­net­ka IL is one of the best-known of Chicago’s North Shore sub­urbs for many reasons:

It’s the name­sake of a song hit of the Big Band era, ​“Big Noise from Winnetka;”

It was the loca­tion (and film­ing site) of the ​“Home Alone” house; and,

It host­ed a 1965 speech by Dr. Mar­tin Luther King.

Per­haps not as well-remem­bered these days is the impor­tant dual role that Win­net­ka played in the devel­op­ment of Amer­i­can ele­men­tary edu­ca­tion, in both its ped­a­gogy and its infrastructure.

The ​“Win­net­ka Plan,” a sys­tem of ear­ly ele­men­tary edu­ca­tion that stressed unstruc­tured, ungrad­ed learn­ing was devel­oped in 1919 by an ear­ly super­in­ten­dent of Win­net­ka pub­lic schools, Car­leton Wash­burne. Washburne’s plan, uti­liz­ing a cur­ricu­lum of ​“com­mon essen­tials” and ​“cre­ative group activ­i­ties,” was a depar­ture from the rote learn­ing then wide­ly prac­ticed and influ­enced Amer­i­can edu­ca­tion for decades.

Along with the cur­ricu­lum, Wash­burne worked with famed archi­tects Lawrence B. Perkins and Eliel and Eero Saari­nen to build the Crow Island School where the open archi­tec­ture and wings for each age lev­el facil­i­tat­ed the unstruc­tured learn­ing process. The school, now a Nation­al His­toric Land­mark, also fea­tured the world’s first ​“jun­gle gym” in its play area.

Besides this archi­tec­tur­al trea­sure, there are lots of homes in Win­net­ka, some built by oth­er famed archi­tects, which house the village’s 12,000 res­i­dents. Two-thirds of these homes are more than 70 years old and all but a few hun­dred are more than 50. Old­er homes like these often suf­fer from age-relat­ed prob­lems and many dis­play base­ment foun­da­tion cracks.

Base­ment Foun­da­tion Cracks in Win­net­ka Homes

Both struc­tur­al and non-struc­tur­al base­ment foun­da­tion cracks are found in Win­net­ka homes. Either is an indi­ca­tion of a prob­lem but a non-struc­tur­al crack is the eas­i­er to repair.

Caused by set­tle­ment or pres­sure from over-sat­u­rat­ed soil, non-struc­tur­al cracks are usu­al­ly nar­row (less than 1/8”), run ver­ti­cal­ly and don’t cre­ate a par­tic­u­lar pat­tern in a poured con­crete wall. In a mason­ry wall they will occur in a stairstep pat­tern in mor­tar joints. Non-struc­tur­al cracks may seep water.

Wider than 1÷8”, struc­tur­al cracks almost always occur in a pat­tern. In a poured con­crete wall, home­own­ers will usu­al­ly spot a ver­ti­cal crack near the cen­ter, anoth­er angled across each upper cor­ner and, invis­i­ble from the inte­ri­or, ver­ti­cal cracks on the exte­ri­or where the dam­aged wall is begin­ning to sep­a­rate from adja­cent walls. Struc­tur­al cracks will fol­low the stairstep pat­tern in a mason­ry wall but will usu­al­ly lead to a bulge or a bowed area in the middle.

Fix­ing a non-struc­tur­al crack can be done quick­ly and cost-effec­tive­ly by inject­ing it from the inte­ri­or with expand­ing polyurethane to fill and seal the crack all the way to the out­side soil. The polyurethane will remain flex­i­ble after cur­ing to avoid re-crack­ing from minor foun­da­tion movement.

A non-struc­tur­al crack can also be repaired from the exte­ri­or with sodi­um ben­tonite clay that cre­ates a per­ma­nent bar­ri­er on the pos­i­tive side of the foundation.

Struc­tur­al cracks are indi­ca­tors of a big­ger prob­lem and not the prob­lem itself; repair requires that the cracked wall be sta­bi­lized. Struc­tur­al cracks are indi­ca­tors of inward wall move­ment; a wall that has moved less than two inch­es can be per­ma­nent­ly repaired and sta­bi­lized by cement­ing car­bon fiber strips to the wall with indus­tri­al-strength epoxy with spac­ing based on engi­neer­ing data.

If the wall has moved more than two inch­es, sta­bi­liza­tion will require the instal­la­tion of low-pro­file chan­nel steel that is secured to the foot­ing and floor joist above to pre­vent fur­ther movement.

A Win­net­ka home­own­er that finds base­ment foun­da­tion cracks in his or her home will require pro­fes­sion­al advice and ser­vice, whether the cracks are struc­tur­al or non-struc­tur­al. At U.S. Water­proof­ing we offer a unique com­bi­na­tion of base­ment water­proof­ing and foun­da­tion repair exper­tise based on 57 years of base­ment water­proof­ing expe­ri­ence and a ded­i­cat­ed foun­da­tion repair team that calls on the newest tech­nol­o­gy and reli­able data to repair and sta­bi­lize base­ments in Win­net­ka and else­where. Why not ask for our free advice?

Have ques­tions about repair­ing base­ment foun­da­tion cracks in Win­net­ka homes? Please post them in the Com­ments box below.

Tags: basement foundation cracks winnetka, winnetka basement foundation cracks

Previous Article | Learning Center Archive | Next Article