Quote:
Originally Posted by Archiseek
Mine has a poured foundation - 1913 house - designed for and by an engineer who worked for the railways. It's in great condition.
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This is a very good point, as the person who did the work knew what he was doing back then. So many things can go wrong even now. It really has nothing to do with using Tyndal Stone for the Walls or Concrete, but more so how the site was prepped. Back then they did not usually clean it to raw CLAY, we have different layers of CLAY here in Manitoba, undfortuntaly the West side of the red is poor quality, but you can still work around it.
Homes that were rushed or guys that did not know what do to and did not remove the topsoil etc properly, and did not lay weeping tiles and back fill properly ended up making a mess. This STILL happens today where PILES are not mandatory. But we now stripe all the topsoil off before any new contruction.
Also the mix of that concrete is crucial. I have worked on driveways and basements that are 100 years old and no rebar and that concret is so thick and strong it is unreal. Yet I have worked on some really bad stuff where the lime has seeped in and the walls are falling apart. This is the same with a Tyndal Stone build. When the Mortar goes, so do the Stones eventually.
Best way to fix is from the outside, lay new weeping tiles, spray the tyndal stone, if you can, put on a rubber membrane, and back fill properly with the right materials and make sure all your New down spouts are not shared with your sewer system as they were back then. You will just under mine your basement. After this, you can do two things, if your floor is great, leave it, if not redo, if it is really bad tear it out. After that you can either use cinder blocks ( you will loose some basement space ) and make fresh walls around the entire house. You then back pour cement behind the walls to fill the void. Now insulate with rigid foam, 2X6 studs with a spray foam works awsome as you need no vapour barrier.
Sorry for the spelling, I am half asleep