| |
You are here: Experts > Industry > Construction Industry > Building Homes or Extensions > reinforce foundation
Expert: Bruce E. Johnson - 11/3/2009
Question
QUESTION: old house in Calif.with weak foundation (not slab; 8 inch concrete 'curb' to which mudsill bolted). we had 1 corner reinforced (repoured concrete w/ rebars around existing foundation)some years ago. we want to do other corners: do we just pour concrete around old foundation? how do we bolt new concrete to mudsill? if old foundation still there, is surrounding it really effective?
ANSWER: Hi Kathy, if you had similar work done before what is preventing you from having the same type of work repeated in this case? I have reinforced footings before by undermining them and repouring concrete underneath. Pouring alongside a footing may work with proper doweling with reinforcing bars. As far as bolting old mudsill to new concrete? You can have the mudsill in place and the bolt already in it, then you pour up the concrete to the bottom of the mudsill and the anchor will be included. Otherwise you can drill into the concrete through the mudsill and epoxy a bolt into the concrete. When the epoxy sets you tighten the nut to secure the mudsill..I hope this information helps, please feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: THANKS. My husband is going to do this work.. but our crawl space is not high enough for concrete drill bit to "drill into the concrete thru the mudsill and epoxy.. into the concrete." So how would we properly dowel with reinforcing bars a new footing alongside the old one? kathy
Answer
Hi again Kathy, it is not necessarily mandatory for the mudsill to be bolted. There are straps available for this work also. Simpsonstrongtie.com can give you alternate methods of attachment. As far as your footings go..you don't have to do the work from underneath the house. You can dig around the house on the outside and do your additional repour from the outside. Again it will reguire digging enough room to get your drill in place and using a 5/8" concrete bit, drill into the existing footing, clean out the hole, inject the epoxy, insert a #4 rebar dowel. From the outside you can also undermine the old foundation and make sure that the new concrete gets underneath for additional support. I hope this information helps, please feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com
Add to this Answer Ask a Question
|
|
