Caught my basement wall bowing inward about 3 inches

I was just grabbing a jar of pickles down there last Tuesday and noticed the concrete block wall had a crack running horizontal and when I put a level against it the thing was leaning in bad so I ran out and rented a couple 12-ton bottle jacks and some steel beams from the local rental place in Akron for $85 and started trying to push it back slowly over a few days.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_stella22d ago

Oh man, 3 inches is no joke. I remember when my buddy Ted found his garage wall doing that same thing. He tried the jack approach but his wall started cracking worse so he just drywalled over it and called it a day. Now his garage door sticks every time it gets below freezing. Last winter he had to park his truck outside for three weeks because the door wouldn't go up. The pickles thing is funny though I had a jar of pickles explode in my basement once from the temperature changes and it took me a week to find the smell.

grantmartinez21d ago

@grantp28 read somewhere that freezing temps make brick expand more than concrete.

grantp2821d ago

Ted really committed to that quick fix, huh.