Load-bearing basement interior wall in poor condition

MARTINOV · 27 Oct at 8:19 AM

Hello! I'm renovating the basement and have now torn out the framed walls. The house is from 1934, and the walls were framed in the 70s.

Why does the load-bearing wall look like this? It couldn't have been built so sloppily and unevenly, could it? Some larger chunks are even a bit loose/can be wiggled a little. Some cavities in the wall go in over 20cm from the short end.

Could this be a structural danger that needs addressing, or is it just aesthetic?

If it's only aesthetic, how do I repair the short end with such severe cavities? (the long sides are to be plastered and painted with silicate paint)?

Thanks in advance!

MathiasS · 27 Oct at 8:29 AM

Someone has made an opening in that wall.

What you should consider is whether the floor structure above still has support. When I've done this a couple of times at home, I've placed a u-beam as support upwards and then continued to cast new "ends" on the wall so that there are straight and neat corners. These castings then also serve as posts for the u-beam, transferring vertical forces down into the foundation.

g.kraft · 27 Oct at 8:34 AM

It's probably just in the opening where it looks like that, someone opened it with more force than finesse.

If you're worried, you could tear off a bit of the studs and inspect the wall in the middle.

I agree that I would double-check/replace the beam above the opening.

MARTINOV · 27 Oct at 8:42 AM

MathiasS said:
Someone has certainly made an opening in that wall.

What you should consider is whether the joists above still have support. When I've done this a couple of times here at home, I've installed a U-beam as support upwards and then continued and cast new "ends" on the wall so that it results in straight and neat corners. These castings then also serve as columns for the U-beam, transferring vertical forces down to the foundation.

Thanks for the response, it certainly looks like that, yes. But according to all the information available, the basement should be completely original in terms of layout. The upper floor has been extended a couple of times, with a crawl space underneath, but the basement is supposed to be untouched as far as I know.

There's no beam or anything else in the opening anyway...

The following picture was taken with a mobile phone at the opening, and about 1.5m forward you can see with the naked eye that it is uneven according to the drawn line.

The next picture is of the same place on the upper floor, there is a clear dip in the floor.

Is the house going to collapse?

MARTINOV · 27 Oct at 8:45 AM

G g.kraft said:
It's likely just in the opening where it looks like that; someone has opened it with more force than finesse.

If you're worried, you can remove some of the framing and inspect the wall in the middle.

I agree that I would double-check/replace the beam above the opening.

Thanks for the response. Yes, it's just in the opening, the long sides' non-load-bearing walls have been partially removed and there it's more even and plastered. Could this have been an outer wall before, and that they simply dug out the basement to make it larger?

cpalm · 27 Oct at 8:53 AM

Could it be that the wall was previously cast against the ground?

MARTINOV · 27 Oct at 8:54 AM

C cpalm said:
Could it be that the wall has previously been cast against the ground?

I don't understand what you mean, please elaborate

cpalm · 27 Oct at 8:57 AM

M MARTINOV said:
I don't understand what you mean, please elaborate

So that the basement was smaller at one time and this was an "outer wall"?
Then they have excavated more.

MARTINOV · 27 Oct at 9:00 AM

C cpalm said:
So the basement was smaller at one time and this was an "outer wall"?
Then they dug out more.

Yes, it almost seems like that. If you look at the pictures above, the irregularities in the ceiling near the opening align well with a dip in the floor upstairs, under the dresser...

Probably not urgent since it's been this way since the late '70s, but you still want to address it...

The theory here is that this was previously an outer wall, and they opened up and excavated to make the basement larger, but didn't reinforce with a beam or something similar?

cpalm · 27 Oct at 9:04 AM

M MARTINOV said:
The theory here is that this was previously an exterior wall, and that they opened up and dug out to make the basement bigger, but didn't support it with a beam or similar?

I don't know if I would go so far as to call it a theory, but it could be an explanation as to why the wall is so uneven. 🙂

MARTINOV · 27 Oct at 9:18 AM

C cpalm said:
I don't know if I would go so far as to call it a theory, but it could be an explanation as to why the wall is so uneven. 🙂

If it is the case that they just opened up the existing outer wall without redistributing the loads (as it seems, it is unlikely a coincidence that the floor on the upper floor has a dip very close to that area), who do I contact for repairs? Carpenter? Bricklayer?

You probably also need to "push back" the floor structure that has settled before installing the beam, right? The dip on the upper floor is around 12mm.

cpalm · 27 Oct at 9:32 AM

That sounds reasonable. I would start by bringing in someone more on the engineering side. You might need to take a closer look at the construction to confirm the problem and choose the right solution, possibly dimension any load distribution and see if there's anything else that should be addressed.

Kane · 27 Oct at 9:56 AM

M MARTINOV said:
The theory here is that this was previously an exterior wall, and that they opened it up and dug out to make the basement bigger, but did not reinforce with a beam or something similar?

Do you have any drawings of the house?

MARTINOV · 27 Oct at 10:13 AM

K Kane said:
Don't you have any drawings of the house?

Strangely enough, I don't. All the documents I could obtain through the municipality were related to the extension of the upper floor, as well as the garage. There don't seem to be any drawings of the basement...

MathiasS · 27 Oct at 10:39 AM

The floor structure above the basement, how is it constructed? It's hard to see in your picture. If it's a wooden floor structure, it's just a matter of lifting it, but if you have a bathroom above with waterproofing, tiles, etc., you need to be very careful - it could turn out very badly.

In this post, there's at least a picture of how I've done this. I have done it in two places in the house using this method and in a couple of other places with wooden posts and wood beams. Where lifting has been needed (where there has already been a hole that wasn't properly reinforced), I've used a heavy-duty garage jack or posts and long levers. Note, however, that I didn't have anything sensitive above, just more wood - so I've been able to lift without risking issues.

https://www.byggahus.se/forum/threads/hur-lang-tid-tar-ett-kaellarprojekt-bilder.28628/post-4029649