Basement Walls. Acceptable Plumbness

[Rob Kiz]

First of all, thanks to those that responded to my previous post.

I'm preparing my house for sale and two of my basement walls will definitely need steel reinforcement beams and one will not.

I'm having trouble deciding on the other wall. It is out of plumb by about 5/8 or 3/4 inch tops. There is some step cracking where I can fit a quarter through the cracks and some horizontal cracking where I can fit a penny. I had the basement inspected 8 years ago and they determined the wall was out of plumb 3/4 inch so it hasn't moved (The walls I am reinforcing moved about 1/4)

If I didn't reinforce this wall, how much of a deal do you think a buyer, and their realtor and inspector, make out of this wall?

Thanks again for your opinions.

Rob

[Jim Elbrecht]

If I was still there with a couple 'reinforced' walls, another that was out of plumb wouldn't kill the deal.

Personally, if I was selling the house, I'd try to sell it 'as is' with disclosure & a couple estimates. Somebody who really wants the house will bite and get to make their own decision on the rest of the walls. [my gut says I'd price jacking the works up and replacing the entire basement]

Jim

[DD_BobK]

Rob-

A wall that is out of plump but not moving or has static cracks is not a huge deal, unless the cracks leak.

Hilti (& other mfrs) have crack repair materials & techniques.

what exactly do you mean by....

and one will not.

[aemeijers]

Apologies for sounding harsh, but to anyone with construction background and/or a competent house inspector, a basement like that, even 'reinforced', would likely be a deal breaker unless there was a massive price cut, especially with the current housing market. In the case of a basement wall, past problems are a good indicator of likely future problems. Most realtors would be clueless- I had to educate several when I was house shopping and discovered major defects. (They grew to expect me wanting to see the basement before I bothered to look at the rest of the house. There were lotsa houses where I never saw what the upstairs looked like.)

I've seen probably a couple dozen 'reinforced' basement walls over the years, and none of them impressed me, because nothing had been done to solve the underlying problem. (almost always inadequate foundation drainage/improper backfill and grading, or a slumping hill.) When I was a wee lad, my father was building a lakeside home for someone, and his basement contractor did something wrong, and the wall buckled. That end of the house was held up by a crane and a spreader beam, slung from a cable punched through the dried-in house, for a week, while that end of foundation was totally rebuilt. My father took a bath on that house, but he would not allow a half-ass patch job. Not sure if he went after the sub or not- I was just a kid after all- but I never saw that guy on any of his sites again.

[DD_BobK]

Our market soured sooner... after first Q '05 things got very "soft". We were late listing our house by about 3 months and it wound up on the market about five months with only a handful of offers.

My point to the OP was either implement a designed / stamped "fix" or be prepared to "give back" off the price.

The house eventually sold for 15% below asking price and we were lucky to get that. Hence my motivation to "make the list go away" by throwing some money at it.

cheers Bob

[jamesgangnc]

The op didn't say anything about where he was or what the surrounding homes were. You can't assume he's going to take some huge hit because you did or because he's got some issues with the basement walls. Just because they have shifted around some doen't automatically mean that the house is about to fall. Could have taken 60 years to do that and will be another 60 before it really is a problem.