Why No Basements in Texas? - (Finally Revealed!)

[touchdown]

 

[Creeper]

This makes sense. I have a basement in my home in NJ and since I moved in I have had nothing but problems with the foundation walls. I had engineers look at the problem and they attributed the problem the clay soil around my home in particular. The water absorption put pressure on the foundation walls and I had two wall either bow in or break. One wall on the die of my house literally caved in after cracking vertically. I have to have part of the wall replaced and they shoved rebar into the cinder blocks to provide extra strength. That was at least 20 years ago and I have no had any problem with that wall since. The rear wall started bowing inward, and the wall began to crack horizontally and vertically. The 2nd row of blocks began to shift inward at 3/4". Again I had an engineer look into it and he said it was from the pressure of the soils expanding from the absorption of water. To fix this problem I had tieback installed in the wall about every 6 ft. They drilled holes in the basement wall and pounding these long steel rods into the soil in my back yard. They dug holes on the back yard where the rods extended into the yard. Then they put these big steel plates on each end of the rods (which are threaded). One plate screw on the rod in the hole in the back yard. The other screws onto the rod against the wall in the basement. The idea is the two plates hold the wall in place so it cannot cave in. Every year they came in to tighten the plate in the basement which would eventually straighten the wall out will providing support. So far, after about 15 years it has worked. The wall is straighter than it was before. But this was expensive. I use my basement a lot for projects and things I work on. But I will never finish it. I like having a basement, but I completely understand the problems basements can cause in the wrong conditions.