Goldsmith Rental Property

Monday, April 18th, 2011 by Melissa Wilcox

Challenge

The owner of a two-story home that was built in the 1930’s was preparing to sell his house. Over the years, the homeowner noticed cracks appearing on the foundation walls of his garage as they began to bow inward. In fact, the problem continued for so long that one wall had bowed in approximately 3". The homeowner was concerned about putting the house on the market as-is, because he did not want to lose money on the sale of the home due to the obvious problems with the garage walls. Several options for repair were considered, including total wall replacement and a wall anchoring system. Wall replacement was determined to be too expensive and the process would take too long to complete. Because the garage of the home is below grade and the home extended on either side, a wall anchor system could not be utilized since digging on the outside would be impossible.

Solution

The homeowner needed a solution that could be installed quickly, would fit within his budget, and would offer a warranty that could be transferred to the next owners of the home. Foundation Supportworks of New England installed (11) PowerBraces™ to stabilize the garage walls. Heavy-duty, zinc-coated steel beams were positioned along the garage walls and secured to the floor system with a patented tightening bracket. Throughout the floor system, additional bracing was installed to ensure the load would be effectively transferred, causing no damage to the floor joist system. The PowerBraces™ were spaced approximately five feet apart and two feet from the corners of the walls. The eleven PowerBraces™ were installed in one day, meeting the homeowner’s goal of a quick installation. The solution also fit within his budget and offered a transferrable warranty to give the future homeowner’s peace of mind that the garage walls were permanently stabilized.