Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing
Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing
(OP)
Poured-Concrete Engineers:
Looking at an 8-foot high, 10-inch thick basement retaining wall that has sustained a horizontal crack for approximately 60 feet of its 123 foot length. Is it practical & feasible to remove the slab inside the wall, pour a footing, & pour a new wall to reinforce the existing cracked wall - tying the new wall to the existing wall. The existing wall has not moved differentially at the crack and has not sustained notable horizontal inward deflection. The existing wall is approximately 5 feet from and parallel to an existing street, making it more economical to leave the existing wall in place, avoiding serious distubance of the street.
Thank you for your assistance.
DCEngr1
Looking at an 8-foot high, 10-inch thick basement retaining wall that has sustained a horizontal crack for approximately 60 feet of its 123 foot length. Is it practical & feasible to remove the slab inside the wall, pour a footing, & pour a new wall to reinforce the existing cracked wall - tying the new wall to the existing wall. The existing wall has not moved differentially at the crack and has not sustained notable horizontal inward deflection. The existing wall is approximately 5 feet from and parallel to an existing street, making it more economical to leave the existing wall in place, avoiding serious distubance of the street.
Thank you for your assistance.
DCEngr1






RE: Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing
Horizontal & at mid height on the compression face is weird for a retaining wall.
Given the cost of extensive repairs like like this, it might be prudent to scan the wall to see what kind of bar is installed then run the numbers to see if it works before getting too deep into the repair.
RE: Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing
If the existing wall has failed, your option is feasible. However, if the wall is reinforced, a crack may not mean that the wall has failed. I would be careful in excavating for a footing, as this presumably will increase the span on the existing wall. Perhaps do it in increments, similar to underpinning.
RE: Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing
If so, are there any odd or discontinuous loads that might affect the wall below?
RE: Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing
RE: Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing
If not, the wall may shoulda been a cantilever wall.
RE: Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing
Maybe the wall was designed as a cantilever which would mean a crack in the compression face, which is weird as Signious noted. So is it possible that for the 60ft of crack length, the wall has somehow changed support conditions from cantilever to pinned top causing the interior face to become in tension?
That would explain the location of the cracking, perhaps they didn't put any reinforcing on the inside face at all. It also wouldn't take much bending (inward deflection) to cause a visible crack.
Maybe I'm just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks but it's oddly possible. Is there anything in the floor framing at the bounds of the cracks that could act as diaphragm supports laterally?
RE: Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing
In any case, I'd keep Hokie66's admonition in mind, that is, for excavation on the inside of the wall. If the excavation's on the outside of the wall then it wouldn't increase the load, unless I'm missing something.
RE: Cracked Concrete Basement Retaining Wall - New Interior Wall for Reinforcing