Woodford Wall-Pushing System Mike H.
Challenge
Our design specialist discovered a failing CMU block foundation wall following his in-field inspection. The wall was most likely damaged by hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure refers to water pressure and is a major cause of foundation wall problems. Water weighs about 60 lbs. per cubic foot. If the soil around the foundation wall is saturated with water, there could be tens of thousands of pounds of hydrostatic pressure against it, creating the deformity.
Solution
Because this failing CMU block foundation wall was diagnosed before total wall failure, it was a good candidate for our proprietary Woodford Wall-Pushing System. The Woodford WallPushing System is able to restore an affected foundation wall to as close to its original plumbness without total wall replacement.
The exterior is first excavated in order to alleviate the hydrostatic pressure that has been building against the foundation wall. Then the brackets are installed in the interior basement. Once they are bolted to the slab floor, they are methodically adjusted, slowly restoring the foundation wall to a more acceptable, vertical state.
Once this is done, access is made at the top of the CMU foundation wall from the garage above. Structural rebar is installed through the open cores of the blocks for reinforcement.
In most cases, the block wall is then core filled with rebar and concrete for added reinforcement, but in this specific case, core filling could not be done instead we used Carbon Armor straps to hold the wall in place after the pushing. The result is a repaired CMU foundation wall that is structurally reinforced with carbon armor. An exterior drainage system is installed in addition before the area is backfilled.
We were able to save the customer's CMU foundation wall without having to replace it before total wall failure.
