Tilting Out

[skyeyes]

hi,

I have a sub basement and beyond the foundation wall is corridor that leads to a light well that provides light to a window for the sub basement. The corridor wall is poured concrete and I noticed the top form is tilting outwards. Also I noticed the main form for the wall has a slight tilt also. The top is out of plumb by 2 inches. It looks like the building was put up 20 years ago and it was poured like this. The corridor and the light well there is a steel door. That door is perfectly straight and at the bottom the drywall gap between the tilt wall grows bigger as it goes up. That is why I am thinking it was always like this. Out of plumb to begin with. The ceiling of the corridor is a steel decking piece with a a patio on top of that. The other wall of the corridor is a poured concrete wall that is the support for the rim joist of the building. That also looks like it has a tilt to it with the tilt going away from the building. In all of your experiences is the tilt outwards due to a poor pour originally or over time an issue showed up. I am open to any poking around you will like me to do. Consider me a non-engineer and a facility manager for a multi-family building. I want to get my ducks in a row before getting folks involved. This is owners, management and potentially next steps an engineer. Just looking for an opinion. Thanks in advance.

 

[jhnblgr]

Go hire an engineer, a wall should not be that out of plum in that amount of feet, signs of water leakage, corrosion of deck, vertical cracks in the wall. The tilt appears to be outwards which is odd. Did the base push inwards? Remove the drywall and look at the intersection of the two for clues. Have someone NDT to determine if there is rebar in the wall.

 

[JAE]

Agree - go hire an enigneer.

 

[skyeyes]

That is a part of the problem. We had a structural engineer come in for load bearing inspection. They mentioned the steel decking needs to cleaned off and sprayed with a special treatment. I have that product which is cold galvanizing zinc rich spray. In the process of cleaning the exterior rust I noticed this issue. The engineer missed it. Great question if the base pushed in. The base itself is tilting out also just less of a degree than the top form. What I will do is remove the spray foam where the walls are adjoining and take a picture. The cacks you are seeing are the form lines in the original pics. The other stuff is moisture and gunk. I think prior owner liked spraying silicone sealer on the above patio to prevent water coming down and sealant dripped down. I agree with your assessment that for the amount of feet and the amount of tilting is non-conforming to standards. Because the bottom of the door sheetrock is only a few inches and there is more sheetrock on top they must have poured it like that. You can see a white string which is the plumb line in the original pic. The troubling item is the load bearing wall for the structure has a tilt also. Here is a picture of that wall. I might have to pull out the insulation to get to the wall. new pic has the blue insulation on top that is tilting outward from the building. I will have to get the original engineer onsite. Also maybe think out of the box and get a separate firm outfit to come out to look.