Fix-For-Broken-Bricks-And-Crack-in-South-Wall-Of-A-House-In-Southeastern-Michigan-Project-ParR1

A vertical crack appeared in the face brick of the South wall of this house in Southeastern Michigan close to a basement window. The crack ran pretty much from grade line to the Second Floor level. The home-owner found the crack to be not only unsightly but its effect on the resale value of the house. Efforts to seal the crack with caulk over the past several years was not satisfactory to the home-owner.

We looked at the crack in the face brick -- it was rather a narrow crack. The grade slopes down towards the West side a little bit so naturally we had to think about the posiblity of differential settlement at the West end. And of course there is also a possibility of a soft spot in the foundation right underneath where the crack occurred. Taking care of the differential settlement would have required lifting up the structure at the affected location -- but we found this to be an expensive proposition. After doing a bit of value engineering we decided to fix the wall by replacing the broken bricks and repairing the cracked and damaged mortar joints.

The house was built in the late seventies and the owner did not have any bricks saved from the original construction. However a search in the backyard of the house and underneathe the deck helped us harvest the required number of bricks needed for the job. The owner is happy with the job. We believe that this was a good fix -- however we are going to monitor the situation to see that the fix sticks so that we don't have to tackle the expensive fix of having to tackle the problem of differential settlement by lifting up the structure underpinning it and locking it in place.

I have presented here some pictures of the wall from before and after the fix.


Fix-For-Broken-Bricks-And-Crack-in-South-Wall-Of-A-House-In-Southeastern-Michigan-Project-ParR1 ... Picture 1




ANAND Enterprises project ParR1-101

Fix-For-Broken-Bricks-And-Crack-in-South-Wall-Of-A-House-In-Southeastern-Michigan-Project-ParR1 ... Picture 2




ANAND Enterprises project ParR1-101

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Fix-For-Broken-Bricks-And-Crack-in-South-Wall-Of-A-House-In-Southeastern-Michigan-Project-ParR1 ... Picture 3




ANAND Enterprises project ParR1-101

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