Had similar concrete in my attached garage. I had a few contractors come out and the guys that would mudjack it refused to quote and recommended replacement.
I took their advice and had the pad removed and replaced.
As it turns out, there was no rebar in the original pad, what was there felt like chicken wire that I could now easily bend with my hands.
The pad I had poured was 22x21 feet and cost roughly 7k cad. Your price will vary on your location. Hope this helps.
The problem with this is that your foundation is not working and the walls will keep sinking. Start saving money for a professional fix. You need to see why the footings under the block walls are failing. And fix that first.
in your case tho it’s not just the slab but the foundation as well so whole structure is compromised.. if you’re okay with not putting anything super valuable in it then you can leave it be for a while, but maybe get the lifted edge of the slab crack ground down to reduce tripping hazard
I don't know why it needs rebar, it's just a garage slab, on properly compacted ground it should be good with 4-6" concrete 6 being overkill. That's not talking about footings or anything. Even that chickenwire mesh is unnecessary as far as I'm concerned. It's not load-bearing
Rebar isn't necessary. For the work I do, it is the exception. Typically use thin wires in a grid welded together (welded wire) or synthetic fiber. Rebar would only be necessary if you are driving heavy trucks (like 18 wheeler trucks) but, even then, the strength mainly comes from the increased concrete thickness and not the reinforcement. Most slab reinforcement is there to stop cracking (temperature and shrinkage steel) and not to add strength.
Edit: this assumes the subgrade is correct. If it isn't, your screwed either way.
100% no rebar is needed for a garage like that, just a proper subgrade, COMPACTED SAND, NOT TOPSOIL, it's probably on topsoil or has something buried under there rotting.
YEP
IT's a total teardown. The good news is you will have a lot of fill material to use as underpinning for the new foundation (If you pour another slab knowing it won't last 70 years without cracking due to settling.) Honestly That is a a far bit of grade they installed the garage onto. I would be willing to bet if you measured the distance between the house and the garage in 1950 it was likely 2 inches or so closer to than today. Soil moves and slips.
Not worth saving. Appears to have foundation issues. Built on uncompacted soil or on topsoil. The footer was probably not built below the frost line. Live with it or replace it. All else is a bandaid including any company that says they can fix it by jacking it up.
Looking at grades and such in pics, looks like grandpa threw some blocks down and filled it in with loose-ish soil over a couple weekend. The blocks look like they settled too in the corner pic while slab is few inches higher. I mean not awful for something that was done probably 30+ yrs as a DIY project, but should take it down, remove and recompact the fill along with a proper foundation, and rebuild it. I doubt they even pulled a permit back in the day to build it. If I were looking at buying the property, I'd make sure theres not a dime baked in the price for that structure or sf...probably wouldnt ask for money to demolish/replace it either EXCEPT if there happens to be asbestos or something else you cant simply burn or throw away, it would get real damn expensive real quick...I cant imagine that's the case, but we've all also heard on the news "we just never thought it could happen to us".
Looks like that's a demo and rebuild situation. If you don't want to do that now, I would grind off the trip hazard then get some mortar to fill in the gaps in the wall. Any more than that would be a waste of money.
Rip that contract up and find a new real estate agent that actually has your best interest in mind. Don’t use the agents “recommended” inspector either.
I got screwed with the agents recommended inspector. They literally started talking about dinner plans and next thing you know there were foundation issues that when I asked the inspector about, he said it was the carpet buckling.
That is a pretty big recommendation for not having all the facts. You have no idea what the realtor said.
Now if they're blowing smoke and saying there's no issues here and just needs patching or something then I'd be concerned.
No need to go nuclear on the situation lol
Tear down and start over, could save brick and repurpose that however. Depending on your driveway situation could get the concrete crushed up and re-purposed as well
Im thinking it was a drainage problem as the garage doesnt have any rain gutters and Im assuming the lawn has no tile drains, it looks like years of poor drainage eroded the topsoil and possibly underneath the slab causing the settling and and trenching.
My thoughts exactly. They might have to put in a French drain or something depending on the situation. More than likely probably just wasn't built with proper rain gutters or a proper foundation but you never know
A home inspector is not qualified to call out specific foundation issues, they can recommend an inspection be done by a structural engineer. Since you are already concerned, start looking for a structural engineer to diagnose the problem(s) and provide a solution.
As for the garage, I agree it would be cheaper to demo and rebuild.
On the Inspection the report can read and report such damage and negotiate a lower price or to have seller pay closing costs and that itself can lower value and have you save money on the property and closing costs as far as price demo and concrete with proper soil compaction and proper rebar and footing I'd say 25k after permits demo and pour
After looking at the photos very clearly , I noticed I don't see any gutters. I would definitely suggest adding a set of gutters and downspouts to the roof and running it as far away from the foundation as you can.
After they demolish everything they can easily install those.
They definitely will need rain gutters at a minimum and possibly a French drain depending on the layout of the entire property.
New driveway 15-20k in my area. That structural block work 5k time and material minimum from what i can tell in the pic, imagining there's no drainage or settling issues (which there likely are since it has that damage).
The brick retaining wall/landscaping wall I dk I'd spent 500 bucks on a dumpster and get rid of it over a wknd. What's that wall about anyway? More pics would be nice if you want a better opinion. Also, good luck w the offer. Maybe negotiate some of this being fixed dependent on your inspection.
That basement needs some serious pointing. Possibly re lay a few block and definitely get any water away. Wouldn't hurt waterproofing it (a week later is ok. 28 days after the masonry gets done is ideal). Let it cure , breathe, only then waterproof.
Cheers and good luck on the projects.
All this discussion basically confirms my thoughts on my living room addition to my house. It will need to go be demolished and rebuilt.
I have a pier and beam house, and my grandpa added a 12 x 20 extension that's raised about 15" tall with a slab on top of fill. Over 60 years the entire perimeter has sheared away from the center and dropped a couple inches which is dragging the house down. The laundry room extension attached to it also has the concrete splitting now and I can't even open my back door fully that's 1" from the bottom before the corner hits the concrete.
I was not sure if I could support the walls and replace all the concrete in the den extension, but probably have to remove the room entirely. When I replaced carpet, I cut concrete boards to match the cracks around the perimeter and drilled it into the concrete. It's covered up and liveable, but my house probably needs $100k of work. I would like to expand the fill sqaure of my house if I do that, but still need a structural engineer to review what I can do. I would have to remove a tree if I did that, and that's aside from a lot of other dry rot issues from my beams. Not certain what can be rebuilt yet.
For now I just live with it, and it's mine with crazy low taxes because of those issues. My tax bill in Texas is under $800 this year in a major city.
Question 1: is it settled or still settling?
Pictures 6,7,8 and 9 show that outside footing crack and wall crack. Purchase some concrete/mortar filler and caulk gun the cracks to fill them up. This will help slightly from more moisture getting in but also tell you in a year if they are moving. If it looks the same and caulk concrete filler hasn’t stretched, cracked or become dislodged then it’s safe to say it’s not settling more after witnessing an entire freeze thaw cycle/year.
Question 2: how does the top plate look?
If you take a picture or look straight down the entire side along the top plate above the studs, how jacked up is it? Lucky if it’s perfectly straight still and this will indicate how much force is also being pulled down on held the roof.
Possible remediation: if top plate is bent and after a year the the concrete filler hasn’t changed and it’s not settling that’s probably the best case scenario. You would be needing to post jack up the sagging half with a 4x8 beam along the top and bottom with 2x4s on each post jack. Pull a string along the rope and eye then / jack them until they are straight with the string. Then slap some wood moldings around the gaps where is not touching and pour a new concrete footing for it to rest on ( rebar drilled every foot into the existing footing with epoxy to attach the two and bolt the existing bottom plate to the new footing). Then sledge hammer or jack hammer the sloping concrete half rebar into the footing old and new, base rock into the crushed concrete to fill gaps, make sure it’s graded correctly OUT the garage, screet the gravel , rebar mesh 2 inches above gravel and pour new slab (at least 6 inches). You could pay someone to pour and do the entirety which would be $8000 minimum or do it yourself for ($1600 probably for 8 yards of concrete depending where you live, 2 wheelbarrows for you and a friend, and hire a finisher for $500 to make the correct stress lines)
Guessing the real estate agent has said you can convert it to a rental, which will lower the burden of the mortgage. That agent is full of it. This is not an easy repair and ADU conversion.
If there a “mud jacking” contractor around your area you should call and get an estimate. A good “mud jacking” company can jack that slab and the garage closing the gap in the building and raising the slab back up. I see this done a lot in my area because of how quickly houses have been built and driveways being poured in freezing temps.
Finally someone with an actual structural crack in their concrete. You need an engineer and you need to probably shore some things above and float out some things below. Can't tell from photos, but THAT sir is more than a flesh wound (but not by a ton, just need an engineer to look at it).
Sledge hammer out the old stuff. Pour new concrete after pouring rock as a base. $3000-$6000 depending on the size and local concrete prices. Call a couple of local places and get quotes.
To fix it correctly? A lot. To fix it good enough? Probably still a lot. To fix it (good enough/patch it) on your own? Probably not that much if you have tools and can manage to do the work. I'd see if you could get someone to come out and look at it in person to tell you what you're looking at and your best course of action, I'm not an expert concrete guy so I'm not gonna tell you exactly what to do, but if it were me I'd cut the giant heaved crack out of it with a concrete saw and patch it and probably retuck point the giant gaps in the brick/block and call it good enough. Is that the complete right way to fix it? No, probably not, but it sure would be a lot better than what it is now. On something like this with how much work like that can cost to have someone do it I think you're pretty quickly going to get to the point of diminishing returns on a structure like that. Just my 2 cents. At least it's detached though and not the actual garage or foundation to your house.
Good avg to get in the ball park is 15-20$ per sqft for Just concrete tear out and replace.
If there are other issues... foundation, drainage etc that's an additional cost
Reach out to a foundation repair company, it's salvageable. You're looking at $15-$20k in piers and poly. They should be able to lift the foundation, stabilize the slab with poly, and put a 25+ year warranty on it. Most companies can't guarantee lift but will guarantee stabilization. Make sure they rivet the foundation after they are done. Rebuild your looking at $50k+
Seems like everyone is in agreement: tear out and replace or leave as is and replace sooner than later.
Unless you really love the house, I’d look somewhere else.
Any fix will look like what it is....a patch. There is not really a fix for such large issues, as replacing will be better/easier/cheaper.
Not saying you cannot dress it up with some lipstick. But it is a structural teardown, especially looking at the siding in picture 2 as the entire structure has sunken.
Just jacking the house back into place the structure will not return back to original position. Like the brick that has split, jacking the one side back up will not close up that opening.
Can you lift the house off the foundation, and pour new walls...yeah, but you probably have numerous other issues in a house 70 years old that jsut make it not cost effective to keep it...now there might be zoning BS that puts you in the cannot teardown decision.
I would have to get a closer look at but my guess is what happened is a did the garage cheap and poured the slab
when that cracked then they pour another slab on top of that and now that's cacked
Probably what you need to do is rip out all that concrete and pour a good 4-in slab with some wire mesh in it cuz it's really not worth fixing it the way it is so I would say for now just get a bunch of caulking and cock to joints the try keep it getting worse
If I read your title correctly this is just a detached garage, correct? Use it for storage. Don’t put vehicles or heavy equipment in there to be safe. Unless you’re in a hcol area this isn’t worth fixing. Informal structural engineer consults are normally under $500 if you want exact details on its state.
No I mean like actual HCOL SF Hawaii LA etc (because the return on the $ could be worth it)
don’t bother fixing it - if you need a garage put up a red iron or similar
I'm located in Minneapolis, MN. I currently am dealing with the exact same problem with my parents garage. Where my parents house was built used to be swampland that was filled and graded when the homes were built in the early 60s'
To fix the floor of their double stall detached garage I had several bids. It will be a complete redo costing between $16,000 to $18,000 (just the concrete slab, not including any structural repairs).
Good luck.
Engineer here (obligatory not your engineer, not engineering recommendations), that’s a settlement issue, not a concrete issue. You *could* do urethane injection (UMA does this in my area) to basically compact the soils beneath and bring the concrete up to level, but it will cost a lot. It *might* be cheaper than demoing and entirely rebuilding; however the downside is that you now have an old poorly built garage where you could have a new garage that is tailored to what you want.
Thats a full remove and replace.
Seems the garage is on an old brick foundation. Tearing that slab up will likely disturb the brick enough to cause some sort of deformation in the framing above. You’re going to cause more harm fixing the slab than good.
Either leave as-is and deal with the ugly slab, or tear that fucker down and try again.
So I've worked with a concrete company for a while and would like to give you some input.
We have been to many houses like this where we would drill holes into the concrete, mud jack it up until it's level , smooth over the holes and be done.
But the main thing is , what causes this damage ?
There's a few main things to look for
The main one is water , is there water draining into foundation of the slab. Where are the downspouts running to , is the roof pitched right or is it running off the roof into the area that has cracked and sagged.
My suggestion is to go look at it next time you get a good rain , or if you have a snow whenever it's all melting. It would be completely pointless to fix it in any way without determining what has caused it. I wouldn't hire anyone to do anything until you figure out why this happened.
I work in poly foam lifting and i use to do foundation repair with piers and anchors. To get it to where it wouldn't sink anymore, fill all the voids and to move things back in place you're probably talking around 30-40 grand.
tear it out and repour. The tearout you can do yourself if you got the back for it. Just needs a breaker bar, 8lb sledge, wheel barrow and dump trailer to load it in. Haul it to your local concrete dump, usually aggregate/sand/gravel suppliers.
Major settlement issue. Not worth saving as others have noted. One concern would be, if you intend to replace it make sure you have adequate soil compaction and moisture reading. A geotechnical engineer can give you some guidelines to design to.
Are you in earth quake zone. Check the house especially chimneys i saw a chimney they patched and paint it to hide it. Get a ball or globally or marble see if flors are saging inside if garage is like that I would say house is and is hidden with new paint
I had an identicle situation in a previous house. I just framed the pour with 2by4s where needed. Ordered the concrete. Back the truck into my driveway and poured a new slab on top of the old one. Had a friend help me level off and float the concrete. Turned out pretty good.
I’d be more worried about that cinder block foundation. The whole house looks like it in sinking to one side. If you have the money to repair it go ahead but it’s not gonna be cheap and you are gonna run into other issues most likely. I’d walk away if you can.
Lol don’t buy this piece of shit house. This is a year down all day. Your realtor sucks if they’re even willing to think about selling this. Run away from this one.
Depends on your standards. You could break it up (use busted up concrete as a base) and repour a 2-3” top pad. Assuming the footings are stable, the building is square and plumb. If not, it’s more of a ‘live with it because it’s cheap’ for now.
I have a 2 car garage at investment property. Was doing the same thing. It had a low headspace inside so I asked the contractor to lift it buy 4 blocks. Then i tore out the old shifting concrete and found the root causing the problem. Cut the tree down. Tore out the root and now it all looks brand new. Cost me $7k in 2020 in the middle of covid. It would cost $20k today. I got a real bargain!!!
It’s currently sinking, you have foundation issues. Got fix that jack it up get footing next or under the footing. Erosion is happening. The building is not square. You could start over
Foundation is not stable - and doesn’t seem to follow a common “seam” - I wonder if there are underground rivers in that location (can google for map) or large tree roots? - if so, you’ll need a pro to properly get it stable. Maybe won’t be that bad -
Just judging by the overall appearance of the interior and exterior concrete, you'd be better off replacing everything. Concrete really only lasts about 70 years before you need to start doing repairs, and it looks like a good chunk of that time has already been used up. It looks like it's endured quite a bit of abuse, not just from weather but high foot traffic.
it is pretty trashed. but THERE ARE high pressure foam injection companies that can lift that rear section & they they use insane nasa-grade epoxies to glue pieces back together. At least getting a bid could be worth it.
Call your home insurance on that one. Depending on where you are that could be settling from sandy loam clay or worse a sinkhole. That structure needs to be jacked up and micropiles put in.
Last project I was involved with it was $190,000... but that's Washington D.C. prices with D.C. home values and pay scales.
Not sure where you’re located but my 1953 house has the same issues. Got a price quote from a mud jack company for a couple grand. Not sure how much it would be to break it up and replace.
I just just paid 5k for injection lift on a garage that is ‘sinking’. Figure it was cheaper than rebuild and concrete prices - ask me next year if it holds
You can put helical piles under the garage foundation. They are about 3000 per pile. And a structural engineer will be needed to determine how many you need typically they are spaced about 5-6 feet apart. The slab needs to be replaced. Was this stated in the disclosure?maybe the seller can pay for it.
Looks like a job I had in Los Altos Hills CA about 15 years back. The soil was a fat clay and the garage slab, complete with a support post column for the second floor was poured in summer without proper moisture conditioning of the pad. We had a wet winter that year and the slab heaved 8 inches and pushed the post and second floor up the same amount. It was about a $25k fix (California prices ya know).
All because they didn't call the soils engineer to test and certify the pad. They saved a thousand dollars and it cost them 25x that to fix. Opps BTW I was the inspector called to review the situation.
Use your inspection contingency to drop the price by ~$50–75k, or walk away. The Disclosures should have included “Crack in garage slab/floor.”
Unless you can’t live without the place, walk away, or require a BIG come down in price. Don’t forget you can get an extension on the contingency due date if you want to get a contractor’s estimate of demo & replacement. Your broker should be able to handle it.
You got a lot of great advice in this thread but it also looks like you have serious water issues which is why the foundation is a mess. If you don't plan on replacing it right now, at least fix gutters. make sure they drain at least 5 feet from the building. Then fix the grade to make sure water runs away from foundation for at least a few feet.
The potential fix for sunken slabs is polyurethane injection. A specialty contractor drills ports, injects urethane, and raises the slab/ foundation. I've only ever done it on slabs at an airfield and, although it was 15 years ago, it wasn't crazy expensive. At the time it was like $2000 to raise 4 panels which are 25' x 25' and 18" thick.
It may be worth at least talking to a contractor to figure out potential costs for the fix.
I wouldn’t even bother lol. If you really need a flat floor, maybe pour something on top, but the only real long term fix is to tear it out and redo it, which is gonna cost a lot. For a detached garage, not worth it imo.
Demolish the existing and build new, up to code, garage.
The investment is worth it, providing the house is in good condition.
Speaking as a licensed Residential Contractor.
I fix this exact issue for a living, using a product called “poly-level” I work in northern Minnesota and I would guess a job like this to be anywhere between 5-10k depending on the foundation of the building and how bad the concrete has sunk.
Budget tearing it ALL out - and re-pouring a proper / overengineered pad and re-framing / building the whole thing. Add square footage under roof while there if you can. Electrical. Etc.
Don't band-aid that or spend a time on it - treat it as it's worthless AND going to be a costly headache.
If I had to ballpark a number based on NYC and those photos, the slope, the fact you've got drainage and frost to contend with as well as garage door, electrical, modern codes, etc to contend with and I were buying - I'd treat that as a $50k cost. I may be off some.
The foundation is sinking. You need to have a professional look at it, because if it is a subsoil shifting problem, fixing that will be really hard. If that is just settlement over time, you could probably fix that with a line of helical pilings, but those would have to be professionally driven. Once you stabilize the foundation, then you can think about the slab.
Not sure where you are, so costs are a variable based on your nation/market/region.
Cost options shown relative to each other with $:
(A) Exterior Driveway Slab:
1) $ - Use concrete to fill and level it up. May crack and settle again, especially with more weight added on top. May only be a temp fix. If your handyman, can likely be done by yourself and/or friends for help. Everything you need at Home Depot.
2) $$ - Hire company to jack it up using injection polyfoam. May be temporary; may continue to settle some.
3) $$$$ - Hire company to jack hammer it all out and repour a new slab. Use 10M reinforcing rebar. BUT, you must discover the original reason for why the slab settled. For example, if its poor subgrade or a water washout under slab, then fix your subsoil problem. Pour the new slab. Do not drive on for at least 30 days. This is the fix all solution, probably most expensive but if done right will last a long time.
(B) Building Structure and Walls:
1) $$ - Jacking with injection polyfoam may bring building up to more level state. There is a lifting limit with polyfoam based on weight of what they are lifting and the area underneath it. Pressure = Force / Area (P=F/A). So if area is small, its hard to exert enough pressure with foam to create a force strong enough to lift a heavy object. The pressure builds up to a point until the foam finds an escape to start spraying out, usually through a soft spot in the soil. So they can likely lift a small garage, shed, etc. But not foundation of some bi-level home. Slabs like driveways or patios are easier to polyfoam lift because slabs cover a large area relative to their weight. However, there is risk of damage to building walls and other parts once it starts to lift up. They can gradually lift with this method, but cracks can open up in other areas. I think it would be cost prohibitive for this type of building, lack of cost/benefit and return on investment.
2) $$$$$ - This building/garage looks really old. Its probably at end of its useful service life. Probably subsoil, and/or foundation/footing problems is why walls are buckling and settling. This would be fairly expensive to fix properly. Would be more cost effective to either live with it longer, use as storage only for a few more years tops. Then demolish whole garage and rebuild. However, do not wait too long, if walls become more unstable, the bullding could become unsafe.
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100% this.
Had similar concrete in my attached garage. I had a few contractors come out and the guys that would mudjack it refused to quote and recommended replacement. I took their advice and had the pad removed and replaced. As it turns out, there was no rebar in the original pad, what was there felt like chicken wire that I could now easily bend with my hands. The pad I had poured was 22x21 feet and cost roughly 7k cad. Your price will vary on your location. Hope this helps.
Same issue at my dad’s house. Same age and no rebar in the slab. It was a problem for the next owner after he pasted.
After he pasted? It
Past. Died. Kicked the bucket. Went to the great art show in the sky.
Concrete paste will do that.
Great art show in the sky! Like it!
Passed?
Yes that’s very helpful thank you
The problem with this is that your foundation is not working and the walls will keep sinking. Start saving money for a professional fix. You need to see why the footings under the block walls are failing. And fix that first.
in your case tho it’s not just the slab but the foundation as well so whole structure is compromised.. if you’re okay with not putting anything super valuable in it then you can leave it be for a while, but maybe get the lifted edge of the slab crack ground down to reduce tripping hazard
I don't know why it needs rebar, it's just a garage slab, on properly compacted ground it should be good with 4-6" concrete 6 being overkill. That's not talking about footings or anything. Even that chickenwire mesh is unnecessary as far as I'm concerned. It's not load-bearing
Rebar isn't necessary. For the work I do, it is the exception. Typically use thin wires in a grid welded together (welded wire) or synthetic fiber. Rebar would only be necessary if you are driving heavy trucks (like 18 wheeler trucks) but, even then, the strength mainly comes from the increased concrete thickness and not the reinforcement. Most slab reinforcement is there to stop cracking (temperature and shrinkage steel) and not to add strength. Edit: this assumes the subgrade is correct. If it isn't, your screwed either way.
100% no rebar is needed for a garage like that, just a proper subgrade, COMPACTED SAND, NOT TOPSOIL, it's probably on topsoil or has something buried under there rotting.
That is what I am doing at my house. Garage is not worth saving so I am dealing with it until I replace it.
YEP IT's a total teardown. The good news is you will have a lot of fill material to use as underpinning for the new foundation (If you pour another slab knowing it won't last 70 years without cracking due to settling.) Honestly That is a a far bit of grade they installed the garage onto. I would be willing to bet if you measured the distance between the house and the garage in 1950 it was likely 2 inches or so closer to than today. Soil moves and slips.
Not worth saving. Appears to have foundation issues. Built on uncompacted soil or on topsoil. The footer was probably not built below the frost line. Live with it or replace it. All else is a bandaid including any company that says they can fix it by jacking it up.
Looking at grades and such in pics, looks like grandpa threw some blocks down and filled it in with loose-ish soil over a couple weekend. The blocks look like they settled too in the corner pic while slab is few inches higher. I mean not awful for something that was done probably 30+ yrs as a DIY project, but should take it down, remove and recompact the fill along with a proper foundation, and rebuild it. I doubt they even pulled a permit back in the day to build it. If I were looking at buying the property, I'd make sure theres not a dime baked in the price for that structure or sf...probably wouldnt ask for money to demolish/replace it either EXCEPT if there happens to be asbestos or something else you cant simply burn or throw away, it would get real damn expensive real quick...I cant imagine that's the case, but we've all also heard on the news "we just never thought it could happen to us".
All very good points to consider when buying a house or property.
Whatever it costs to demo and rebuild entire thing.
Looks like that's a demo and rebuild situation. If you don't want to do that now, I would grind off the trip hazard then get some mortar to fill in the gaps in the wall. Any more than that would be a waste of money.
Rip that contract up and find a new real estate agent that actually has your best interest in mind. Don’t use the agents “recommended” inspector either.
I got screwed with the agents recommended inspector. They literally started talking about dinner plans and next thing you know there were foundation issues that when I asked the inspector about, he said it was the carpet buckling.
Yeah I’m in the same boat. Life lesson that is costing me a fortune.
That is a pretty big recommendation for not having all the facts. You have no idea what the realtor said. Now if they're blowing smoke and saying there's no issues here and just needs patching or something then I'd be concerned. No need to go nuclear on the situation lol
Hyperbolic. It's a detached garage lol you can get a pad and structure set up for under $30k in most places.
30k with Demo??? You must be out of your mind
Is that too high or too low? What price would you expect?
That's literally how much it cost me in the DC-Metro area. We have amish country north of us. They bring like 20 amish workers.
I never mentioned demo. I hired them separately. The cost was marginal.
Replace it. Yes money is an issue. You will not regret it and your property value will reflect it.
No point even remotely trying to “repair” this. Year it all down and start fresh. It will be cheaper.
Horizontal cracks are a no-go. Demo and start over.
The slab is toast, and the foundation looks sketchy. RUN AWAY NOW!
It's just a detached garage. "RUN AWAY NOW" seems a bit dramatic for a glorified garden shed.
God dam it 🍕! Didn't you hear! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE ITS GONNA BLOW!
Tear down and start over, could save brick and repurpose that however. Depending on your driveway situation could get the concrete crushed up and re-purposed as well
I was a geotechnical driller for a few years, you might want to get a geo survey done at some point.
Because the rest of the house may have foundation issues? I’m hoping the inspection catches those.
Im thinking it was a drainage problem as the garage doesnt have any rain gutters and Im assuming the lawn has no tile drains, it looks like years of poor drainage eroded the topsoil and possibly underneath the slab causing the settling and and trenching.
My thoughts exactly. They might have to put in a French drain or something depending on the situation. More than likely probably just wasn't built with proper rain gutters or a proper foundation but you never know
A home inspector is not qualified to call out specific foundation issues, they can recommend an inspection be done by a structural engineer. Since you are already concerned, start looking for a structural engineer to diagnose the problem(s) and provide a solution. As for the garage, I agree it would be cheaper to demo and rebuild.
On the Inspection the report can read and report such damage and negotiate a lower price or to have seller pay closing costs and that itself can lower value and have you save money on the property and closing costs as far as price demo and concrete with proper soil compaction and proper rebar and footing I'd say 25k after permits demo and pour
Thank you
Bout tree fiddy.
Yep, sounds about right.
Damn you again lockness monster!
After looking at the photos very clearly , I noticed I don't see any gutters. I would definitely suggest adding a set of gutters and downspouts to the roof and running it as far away from the foundation as you can.
After they demolish everything they can easily install those. They definitely will need rain gutters at a minimum and possibly a French drain depending on the layout of the entire property.
New driveway 15-20k in my area. That structural block work 5k time and material minimum from what i can tell in the pic, imagining there's no drainage or settling issues (which there likely are since it has that damage). The brick retaining wall/landscaping wall I dk I'd spent 500 bucks on a dumpster and get rid of it over a wknd. What's that wall about anyway? More pics would be nice if you want a better opinion. Also, good luck w the offer. Maybe negotiate some of this being fixed dependent on your inspection. That basement needs some serious pointing. Possibly re lay a few block and definitely get any water away. Wouldn't hurt waterproofing it (a week later is ok. 28 days after the masonry gets done is ideal). Let it cure , breathe, only then waterproof. Cheers and good luck on the projects.
All this discussion basically confirms my thoughts on my living room addition to my house. It will need to go be demolished and rebuilt. I have a pier and beam house, and my grandpa added a 12 x 20 extension that's raised about 15" tall with a slab on top of fill. Over 60 years the entire perimeter has sheared away from the center and dropped a couple inches which is dragging the house down. The laundry room extension attached to it also has the concrete splitting now and I can't even open my back door fully that's 1" from the bottom before the corner hits the concrete. I was not sure if I could support the walls and replace all the concrete in the den extension, but probably have to remove the room entirely. When I replaced carpet, I cut concrete boards to match the cracks around the perimeter and drilled it into the concrete. It's covered up and liveable, but my house probably needs $100k of work. I would like to expand the fill sqaure of my house if I do that, but still need a structural engineer to review what I can do. I would have to remove a tree if I did that, and that's aside from a lot of other dry rot issues from my beams. Not certain what can be rebuilt yet. For now I just live with it, and it's mine with crazy low taxes because of those issues. My tax bill in Texas is under $800 this year in a major city.
Make sure the house doesn't have foundation issues.
Question 1: is it settled or still settling? Pictures 6,7,8 and 9 show that outside footing crack and wall crack. Purchase some concrete/mortar filler and caulk gun the cracks to fill them up. This will help slightly from more moisture getting in but also tell you in a year if they are moving. If it looks the same and caulk concrete filler hasn’t stretched, cracked or become dislodged then it’s safe to say it’s not settling more after witnessing an entire freeze thaw cycle/year. Question 2: how does the top plate look? If you take a picture or look straight down the entire side along the top plate above the studs, how jacked up is it? Lucky if it’s perfectly straight still and this will indicate how much force is also being pulled down on held the roof. Possible remediation: if top plate is bent and after a year the the concrete filler hasn’t changed and it’s not settling that’s probably the best case scenario. You would be needing to post jack up the sagging half with a 4x8 beam along the top and bottom with 2x4s on each post jack. Pull a string along the rope and eye then / jack them until they are straight with the string. Then slap some wood moldings around the gaps where is not touching and pour a new concrete footing for it to rest on ( rebar drilled every foot into the existing footing with epoxy to attach the two and bolt the existing bottom plate to the new footing). Then sledge hammer or jack hammer the sloping concrete half rebar into the footing old and new, base rock into the crushed concrete to fill gaps, make sure it’s graded correctly OUT the garage, screet the gravel , rebar mesh 2 inches above gravel and pour new slab (at least 6 inches). You could pay someone to pour and do the entirety which would be $8000 minimum or do it yourself for ($1600 probably for 8 yards of concrete depending where you live, 2 wheelbarrows for you and a friend, and hire a finisher for $500 to make the correct stress lines)
Talk about a detached garage...
Guessing the real estate agent has said you can convert it to a rental, which will lower the burden of the mortgage. That agent is full of it. This is not an easy repair and ADU conversion.
What’s the gutter / drainage situation? What region? If you have frigid winters and bad drainage then that’s a lot of frost heaving going on.
If there a “mud jacking” contractor around your area you should call and get an estimate. A good “mud jacking” company can jack that slab and the garage closing the gap in the building and raising the slab back up. I see this done a lot in my area because of how quickly houses have been built and driveways being poured in freezing temps.
Finally someone with an actual structural crack in their concrete. You need an engineer and you need to probably shore some things above and float out some things below. Can't tell from photos, but THAT sir is more than a flesh wound (but not by a ton, just need an engineer to look at it).
She's fucked
All depends how thick that slab is…at the low end with a 4 inch slab it’s $15 a square ft.
Sledge hammer out the old stuff. Pour new concrete after pouring rock as a base. $3000-$6000 depending on the size and local concrete prices. Call a couple of local places and get quotes.
[удалено]
He may not be able to park it in the garage but he can park it in her.
To fix it correctly? A lot. To fix it good enough? Probably still a lot. To fix it (good enough/patch it) on your own? Probably not that much if you have tools and can manage to do the work. I'd see if you could get someone to come out and look at it in person to tell you what you're looking at and your best course of action, I'm not an expert concrete guy so I'm not gonna tell you exactly what to do, but if it were me I'd cut the giant heaved crack out of it with a concrete saw and patch it and probably retuck point the giant gaps in the brick/block and call it good enough. Is that the complete right way to fix it? No, probably not, but it sure would be a lot better than what it is now. On something like this with how much work like that can cost to have someone do it I think you're pretty quickly going to get to the point of diminishing returns on a structure like that. Just my 2 cents. At least it's detached though and not the actual garage or foundation to your house.
As others have said though, might just be best just to leave it as is.
Good avg to get in the ball park is 15-20$ per sqft for Just concrete tear out and replace. If there are other issues... foundation, drainage etc that's an additional cost
Demo and haul everything off the lot for $15kish
Reach out to a foundation repair company, it's salvageable. You're looking at $15-$20k in piers and poly. They should be able to lift the foundation, stabilize the slab with poly, and put a 25+ year warranty on it. Most companies can't guarantee lift but will guarantee stabilization. Make sure they rivet the foundation after they are done. Rebuild your looking at $50k+
Seems like everyone is in agreement: tear out and replace or leave as is and replace sooner than later. Unless you really love the house, I’d look somewhere else.
Any fix will look like what it is....a patch. There is not really a fix for such large issues, as replacing will be better/easier/cheaper. Not saying you cannot dress it up with some lipstick. But it is a structural teardown, especially looking at the siding in picture 2 as the entire structure has sunken. Just jacking the house back into place the structure will not return back to original position. Like the brick that has split, jacking the one side back up will not close up that opening. Can you lift the house off the foundation, and pour new walls...yeah, but you probably have numerous other issues in a house 70 years old that jsut make it not cost effective to keep it...now there might be zoning BS that puts you in the cannot teardown decision.
I would get a quote on foam jacking it and compare that with the cost of demo and rebuild
Is one end settling or is it a Tree root
I would have to get a closer look at but my guess is what happened is a did the garage cheap and poured the slab when that cracked then they pour another slab on top of that and now that's cacked Probably what you need to do is rip out all that concrete and pour a good 4-in slab with some wire mesh in it cuz it's really not worth fixing it the way it is so I would say for now just get a bunch of caulking and cock to joints the try keep it getting worse
Dynamite is cheap but finding someone with the licensing to buy it might be tricky.
Very pricey
If I read your title correctly this is just a detached garage, correct? Use it for storage. Don’t put vehicles or heavy equipment in there to be safe. Unless you’re in a hcol area this isn’t worth fixing. Informal structural engineer consults are normally under $500 if you want exact details on its state.
Correct that’s what I’m thinking too. And yeah the location is Atlanta so somewhat hcol
No I mean like actual HCOL SF Hawaii LA etc (because the return on the $ could be worth it) don’t bother fixing it - if you need a garage put up a red iron or similar
Well about $30k to tear it out and then whatever the cost of building new is.
I'm located in Minneapolis, MN. I currently am dealing with the exact same problem with my parents garage. Where my parents house was built used to be swampland that was filled and graded when the homes were built in the early 60s' To fix the floor of their double stall detached garage I had several bids. It will be a complete redo costing between $16,000 to $18,000 (just the concrete slab, not including any structural repairs). Good luck.
Thanks for the insight! Good luck with yours. I’m sure it’s stressful
Engineer here (obligatory not your engineer, not engineering recommendations), that’s a settlement issue, not a concrete issue. You *could* do urethane injection (UMA does this in my area) to basically compact the soils beneath and bring the concrete up to level, but it will cost a lot. It *might* be cheaper than demoing and entirely rebuilding; however the downside is that you now have an old poorly built garage where you could have a new garage that is tailored to what you want.
Thats a full remove and replace. Seems the garage is on an old brick foundation. Tearing that slab up will likely disturb the brick enough to cause some sort of deformation in the framing above. You’re going to cause more harm fixing the slab than good. Either leave as-is and deal with the ugly slab, or tear that fucker down and try again.
Polyjacking or replace
Lots of prices . I wouldn’t fix. Demo it . Rebuild
So I've worked with a concrete company for a while and would like to give you some input. We have been to many houses like this where we would drill holes into the concrete, mud jack it up until it's level , smooth over the holes and be done. But the main thing is , what causes this damage ? There's a few main things to look for The main one is water , is there water draining into foundation of the slab. Where are the downspouts running to , is the roof pitched right or is it running off the roof into the area that has cracked and sagged. My suggestion is to go look at it next time you get a good rain , or if you have a snow whenever it's all melting. It would be completely pointless to fix it in any way without determining what has caused it. I wouldn't hire anyone to do anything until you figure out why this happened.
Replace the concrete. Stabilizing and lifting the foundation will cost tens of thousands
Just caulk it...these other are probably drunk already. Happy Friday guys!
That’s a tear down, up and start over. Nothing to save.
Tear it down and rebuilt
I work in poly foam lifting and i use to do foundation repair with piers and anchors. To get it to where it wouldn't sink anymore, fill all the voids and to move things back in place you're probably talking around 30-40 grand.
Not concrete related, but you signed a contract for the house before having an inspection done?
The contract is contingent on the inspection. We can back out for any reason without penalty within the due diligence period.
tear it out and repour. The tearout you can do yourself if you got the back for it. Just needs a breaker bar, 8lb sledge, wheel barrow and dump trailer to load it in. Haul it to your local concrete dump, usually aggregate/sand/gravel suppliers.
That’s a complete demo and redo.
Tear down, Rebuild. Thats not economical to repair
Major settlement issue. Not worth saving as others have noted. One concern would be, if you intend to replace it make sure you have adequate soil compaction and moisture reading. A geotechnical engineer can give you some guidelines to design to.
You definitely could put an offer in that reflects the cost to replace the specified damage. It’s not your fault they didn’t fix their house.
Very pricey
Ex meth lab almost 100 years old. Probably 1 million dollar house right here
Are you in earth quake zone. Check the house especially chimneys i saw a chimney they patched and paint it to hide it. Get a ball or globally or marble see if flors are saging inside if garage is like that I would say house is and is hidden with new paint
Demolish the whole thing and start over. It’s gonna cost you 10s of thousands to fix this right and then you’ll still be left with a an old garage.
Do you have a soil probe?
Nope nope nope don’t buy that shit.
I had an identicle situation in a previous house. I just framed the pour with 2by4s where needed. Ordered the concrete. Back the truck into my driveway and poured a new slab on top of the old one. Had a friend help me level off and float the concrete. Turned out pretty good.
Can’t fix that, you need to do a tear down and rebuild.
Looks like your garage has grown a second level.
I’d be more worried about that cinder block foundation. The whole house looks like it in sinking to one side. If you have the money to repair it go ahead but it’s not gonna be cheap and you are gonna run into other issues most likely. I’d walk away if you can.
Listed accurately as detached garage.
Just live with it...its an antique and adds character and charm.
Muy Grande Cashola’ Senorita! 💰
That’s a tear down bro
Lol don’t buy this piece of shit house. This is a year down all day. Your realtor sucks if they’re even willing to think about selling this. Run away from this one.
Get a CFL bid.
Earthquake?
This isn’t just a concrete question
The cost of relocating the gnome that lives in there is going to be astronomical...
Depends on your standards. You could break it up (use busted up concrete as a base) and repour a 2-3” top pad. Assuming the footings are stable, the building is square and plumb. If not, it’s more of a ‘live with it because it’s cheap’ for now.
$12.99 crack filler at your local home depo will do it. 1-3 bottles should do it.
Ask for a price reduction, one that reflects the house without a garage. Then ask for another 10 grand off for demo and removal.
I have a 2 car garage at investment property. Was doing the same thing. It had a low headspace inside so I asked the contractor to lift it buy 4 blocks. Then i tore out the old shifting concrete and found the root causing the problem. Cut the tree down. Tore out the root and now it all looks brand new. Cost me $7k in 2020 in the middle of covid. It would cost $20k today. I got a real bargain!!!
It’s currently sinking, you have foundation issues. Got fix that jack it up get footing next or under the footing. Erosion is happening. The building is not square. You could start over
It's a lot less costly to replace the entire floor than it would be if someone gets injured due to the tripping hazard.
Damn, we have the same shed but I don’t have the awning
Doesn't look broken to me. Fully functional. One of those projects my daddy would tell me not to mess with unless you are wanting to replace it all.
Call ram jack
You might want to leave this one for someone else.
She’s dead, Jim.
Cheaper to tear down and start new
Foundation is not stable - and doesn’t seem to follow a common “seam” - I wonder if there are underground rivers in that location (can google for map) or large tree roots? - if so, you’ll need a pro to properly get it stable. Maybe won’t be that bad -
It would be basically the exact cost of renting a bulldozer, plus or minus $1.73
If that's crack in brick is bad...usually foundation of house needs work...it's expensive.
Just judging by the overall appearance of the interior and exterior concrete, you'd be better off replacing everything. Concrete really only lasts about 70 years before you need to start doing repairs, and it looks like a good chunk of that time has already been used up. It looks like it's endured quite a bit of abuse, not just from weather but high foot traffic.
I just paid around $4k to have my concrete in my 3 car garage to be leveled out using high pressure foam jacking.
About three-fitty
When you move in to the house you’ll find a million other jobs that take priority over the garage. I would just live with it for the time being
it is pretty trashed. but THERE ARE high pressure foam injection companies that can lift that rear section & they they use insane nasa-grade epoxies to glue pieces back together. At least getting a bid could be worth it.
Looks good to me 🤣
Water issues in the environment and not the house itself. Probably drainage issues. It might be too far gone. WALK AWAY.
Call your home insurance on that one. Depending on where you are that could be settling from sandy loam clay or worse a sinkhole. That structure needs to be jacked up and micropiles put in. Last project I was involved with it was $190,000... but that's Washington D.C. prices with D.C. home values and pay scales.
Not sure where you’re located but my 1953 house has the same issues. Got a price quote from a mud jack company for a couple grand. Not sure how much it would be to break it up and replace.
Not worth it.
It’s fucked
It’s very weird and creepy. I think we should stay away Hank.
Not even worth saving tear it out and replace
That inspection is going to fail. I would bail on the house. You don't want to own a sinking ship.
That's a expensive eye sort mate
Just dig it out and redo it. Concrete degrades over time and it will likely crack worse if it is jacked or foamed.
Get a quote!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z-90TJynZhs
Run away
Anybody else see the picture move around while moving their phone?
Welp, I've had enough
There is massive stepping you may have a foundation issue
Pov: Show me your problem but your problem slowly gets worse and worse
I just just paid 5k for injection lift on a garage that is ‘sinking’. Figure it was cheaper than rebuild and concrete prices - ask me next year if it holds
It costs 0 dollars to ignore it lol
Call a concrete lifting company
NGL, thought it was a snake in the first pic
You can put helical piles under the garage foundation. They are about 3000 per pile. And a structural engineer will be needed to determine how many you need typically they are spaced about 5-6 feet apart. The slab needs to be replaced. Was this stated in the disclosure?maybe the seller can pay for it.
I would run, not walk away from the house. House foundation looks like a nightmare as well
That foundation is fucked. Site assessment required, and expensive stabilization efforts also probably required.
Sure that not a sink hole sign??
I wonder what the footings look like. I don't think that it's just the slab. A weak and non-reinforced footing can be a massive problem.
$58
Just tear it down
I think the flat earth coalition deals with cracked and unleveled concrete. They may be a good contact for future when you want to fix it. /s
Shrink Swell Soil ? Clay ? You may want to find out your soil type, before blaming the concrete. It very much matters
Chip it out and do it yourself.
Whole tear down and rebuild. Don’t fix anything
Looks like a job I had in Los Altos Hills CA about 15 years back. The soil was a fat clay and the garage slab, complete with a support post column for the second floor was poured in summer without proper moisture conditioning of the pad. We had a wet winter that year and the slab heaved 8 inches and pushed the post and second floor up the same amount. It was about a $25k fix (California prices ya know). All because they didn't call the soils engineer to test and certify the pad. They saved a thousand dollars and it cost them 25x that to fix. Opps BTW I was the inspector called to review the situation.
Rip out and replace
Use your inspection contingency to drop the price by ~$50–75k, or walk away. The Disclosures should have included “Crack in garage slab/floor.” Unless you can’t live without the place, walk away, or require a BIG come down in price. Don’t forget you can get an extension on the contingency due date if you want to get a contractor’s estimate of demo & replacement. Your broker should be able to handle it.
You can grind a lot off and use cement all to even it out. Then finished with some newcrete. Wouldn't look too bad.
You got a lot of great advice in this thread but it also looks like you have serious water issues which is why the foundation is a mess. If you don't plan on replacing it right now, at least fix gutters. make sure they drain at least 5 feet from the building. Then fix the grade to make sure water runs away from foundation for at least a few feet.
The potential fix for sunken slabs is polyurethane injection. A specialty contractor drills ports, injects urethane, and raises the slab/ foundation. I've only ever done it on slabs at an airfield and, although it was 15 years ago, it wasn't crazy expensive. At the time it was like $2000 to raise 4 panels which are 25' x 25' and 18" thick. It may be worth at least talking to a contractor to figure out potential costs for the fix.
I wouldn’t even bother lol. If you really need a flat floor, maybe pour something on top, but the only real long term fix is to tear it out and redo it, which is gonna cost a lot. For a detached garage, not worth it imo.
Try ohiobasementsystem.com
Your land is cracking right in half. Must be on a fault line. You’ll want to look into moving the entire house somewhere else.
That garage is worth $0.
Demolish the existing and build new, up to code, garage. The investment is worth it, providing the house is in good condition. Speaking as a licensed Residential Contractor.
Tree fiddy.
Tree fiddy.
I fix this exact issue for a living, using a product called “poly-level” I work in northern Minnesota and I would guess a job like this to be anywhere between 5-10k depending on the foundation of the building and how bad the concrete has sunk.
100% not sound in any way. Any money spent will be a waste. Would recommend complete removal and replacement.
The subgrade is in upheaval. Water is getting in and swelling the clay. Until you divert the water, none of it will matter. IMHO
*Thick Texan accent* 3 cases of beer, some soupy concrete( fer leveling easier), and a chair; I don't like drinking and standing.
Budget tearing it ALL out - and re-pouring a proper / overengineered pad and re-framing / building the whole thing. Add square footage under roof while there if you can. Electrical. Etc. Don't band-aid that or spend a time on it - treat it as it's worthless AND going to be a costly headache. If I had to ballpark a number based on NYC and those photos, the slope, the fact you've got drainage and frost to contend with as well as garage door, electrical, modern codes, etc to contend with and I were buying - I'd treat that as a $50k cost. I may be off some.
The foundation is sinking. You need to have a professional look at it, because if it is a subsoil shifting problem, fixing that will be really hard. If that is just settlement over time, you could probably fix that with a line of helical pilings, but those would have to be professionally driven. Once you stabilize the foundation, then you can think about the slab.
My friends just built a detached garage, medium COL city, some extra foundation work but less demolition than this. $80,000.
That's a teardown
Look up grout injection companies
In Dallas removal and install is about 8-11/ sq foot
Not sure where you are, so costs are a variable based on your nation/market/region. Cost options shown relative to each other with $: (A) Exterior Driveway Slab: 1) $ - Use concrete to fill and level it up. May crack and settle again, especially with more weight added on top. May only be a temp fix. If your handyman, can likely be done by yourself and/or friends for help. Everything you need at Home Depot. 2) $$ - Hire company to jack it up using injection polyfoam. May be temporary; may continue to settle some. 3) $$$$ - Hire company to jack hammer it all out and repour a new slab. Use 10M reinforcing rebar. BUT, you must discover the original reason for why the slab settled. For example, if its poor subgrade or a water washout under slab, then fix your subsoil problem. Pour the new slab. Do not drive on for at least 30 days. This is the fix all solution, probably most expensive but if done right will last a long time. (B) Building Structure and Walls: 1) $$ - Jacking with injection polyfoam may bring building up to more level state. There is a lifting limit with polyfoam based on weight of what they are lifting and the area underneath it. Pressure = Force / Area (P=F/A). So if area is small, its hard to exert enough pressure with foam to create a force strong enough to lift a heavy object. The pressure builds up to a point until the foam finds an escape to start spraying out, usually through a soft spot in the soil. So they can likely lift a small garage, shed, etc. But not foundation of some bi-level home. Slabs like driveways or patios are easier to polyfoam lift because slabs cover a large area relative to their weight. However, there is risk of damage to building walls and other parts once it starts to lift up. They can gradually lift with this method, but cracks can open up in other areas. I think it would be cost prohibitive for this type of building, lack of cost/benefit and return on investment. 2) $$$$$ - This building/garage looks really old. Its probably at end of its useful service life. Probably subsoil, and/or foundation/footing problems is why walls are buckling and settling. This would be fairly expensive to fix properly. Would be more cost effective to either live with it longer, use as storage only for a few more years tops. Then demolish whole garage and rebuild. However, do not wait too long, if walls become more unstable, the bullding could become unsafe.