Strengthening the foundation of a brick house with their own hands

In the operation of buildings, the destruction of the supporting structure is very often observed, this problem confronts the owner of a private house with the question of how to strengthen the foundation of a brick house with his own hands.

Old houses usually used a strip foundation, which has poor performance.

The belt structure absorbs moisture very much, it freezes and at the same time crackes, causing deformation at home. Therefore, the option of strengthening "just put the formwork and fill it with cement" is not an option at all.

Depending on the depth of damage to the base of the house from the brick, its kind, it is better to choose one of the modern methods of reconstruction, which will allow you to use your house for a long time.

And the tips below will help you find out whether you want to hire a team of workers for repair, or you can do all the work yourself.

Causes of destruction

Deformation and subsidence of the house foundation can be caused by a number of factors, consider them in more detail:

• Gravity. Especially often, destruction for this reason occurs in brick houses, which is due to the large weight of the structure;
• Design errors. Preparing for the construction of your country house, order the project in specialized institutions. A correctly executed project is a guarantee of safety of your money, health, life;
• Earthwork. The erection of other buildings in the neighborhood, the installation of extensions to the main structure will have a negative effect on the construction;
• Natural factors are erosive soil processes, changes in the level( rise) of groundwater, seasonal soil heaving, seismic effects;
• Remodeling of the house. The design of the foundation, its calculation are carried out for a specific house with a certain mass, the arrangement of structural elements, so unreasoned changes can adversely affect the integrity of the house;
• Operating fault. This includes washing the house with rainwater and melt water, household drains;
• Vibration effects from nearby highways or industrial buildings, explosions in quarry mining, etc.

Works on the strengthening of the foundation refer to the planned work in the operation of a brick house.

In the housing and communal services such work is necessarily held every few years, and twice a year( with seasonal inspections of residential buildings), the foundation condition is assessed.

Signs of destruction and assessment of the foundation state

Signals for alarm when inspecting the base of a private house will be cracks and depressions.
You can evaluate the state of the foundation, as they say, with your own hands.

All the cracks, regardless of the reason for their occurrence, should be installed "beacon".

This term refers to paper adhesive strips, fixed across the identified defects. With a complex crack shape, the "beacon" is placed on each straight section.

The degree of danger of destruction is determined by the rupture of paper strips when they are observed for 10 days.

If during this period the "beacons" remained undamaged, then they carry out the current cosmetic repairs - they block the bricks and cement in the crack, put the formwork and make the pouring of concrete.

Otherwise, it is obvious that the process of destruction of the construct continues, and therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the old foundation.

Ways to strengthen

Repair of the foundation of both a brick and wooden house can be done both with your own hands and with the help of hired professionals.

Please note that the simplest jobs when reinforcing the base of the belt or pile( columnar) types, but the reconstruction of reinforced concrete and concrete foundations, as a rule, requires the use of special equipment and special skills and knowledge.

Of course, you can do the old fashioned way - to put the formwork, pour concrete and forget about this problem for a couple of years, but it is better to familiarize yourself with the options offered below, which will prompt you how to strengthen the foundation.

Spraying

This method is applicable if the house is supplied on a tape, brick or rubble foundation, and the damages of the bearing base themselves require only the restoration of the outer layer.

Spraying perfectly strengthens the base of the house, strengthening its water resistance. With the use of concrete shotgun it is not necessary to install the formwork, and also the consumption of concrete is reduced.

Before work, it is necessary to prepare a trench along the perimeter of the foundation with a width of 1 to 2 m and clean the base from debris.

Then we put on the foundation notches, which will increase the adhesion of the concrete solution to the base.

To reinforce the restoration layer, it is also advisable to use reinforcing mesh from reinforcement or binding wire.

In the video, a specialist shows us how concrete is applied to the surface with a concrete cannon.

Video:

Extension of the sole

This system of strengthening the foundation of brick houses has been used for a long time in cases where the damage is rather deep and it is easy to carry out by hand.

Schematic illustration of this version of the repair work is shown in this figure.

First we remove the soil from both sides of the foundation. From the inner and outer sides are put special prefabricated castings, which in the lower part are pulled together through the anchor.

Concrete( cement mortar) is poured on both sides between the base and the outflows, in the upper part, it is possible to fasten the ebb with the foundation with the help of reinforcement.

The remaining interval of the trench is covered with soil, which is carefully rammed.

Difference from the way when formwork is put into the foundation is to use a moisture-resistant material for tints and create additional screeds between them.

Installation of protective brick walls

Another method available for self-realization.

As in the previous versions, the preparatory stage consists in excavating the trench( depth about 1 m) and cleaning the surface of the base from debris.

Then, all the existing defects in the foundation are sealed with cement mortar, which is closed on the outside with a waterproofing material( most often a roofing material), on top of which brick masonry( shirt) is arranged.

The preparatory trench is filled with greasy clay after completion of work.

As a method, how to strengthen the foundation, you can use a variety of the above method.

The use of a reinforced concrete shoe perfectly strengthens the columnar foundation.

Here, around the reinforced support, a grid of reinforcement is pre-assembled, on which wooden formwork is fixed, the distance between the foundation and the formwork is poured with concrete.

The resultant structure not only reconstructs the base of the structure, but also increases the supporting capacity of the support.

Piling method

The piling method has proved itself in the repair of both brick and wood construction with a base of any kind.

There is only one restriction - this method is unacceptable for wooden huts, in which the lower corners have rotted.

This method is represented by two methods.

The first option is used if the tape, columnar or some other socket is damaged slightly.

Special drill holes are drilled through the foundation into the underlying soil, reinforcing rods are placed in the boreholes, and concrete is gradually poured into the empty space.

This method requires the use of special equipment and a sufficient amount of time to create metal-concrete rods.

The second option - pile-screw - can be used, both to strengthen the foundation, and to completely replace it, which is especially important, for example, for a village house built on a rubble base with a slight penetration.

As demonstrated in the video, tubing piles treated with anticorrosive composition are installed by the method of drilling into the soil to a depth exceeding the local freezing level of the soil.

The name of this method is derived from the design of the piles used, at the end of which the helical blades are placed.

After installing the piles( for small houses they are enough for one for each corner), their upper parts are trimmed, leveling.

Video:

I also want to note that this option is much cheaper and more economical in time for the traditional method for Russia, when the formwork is poured around the basement and poured with concrete.

As you already understood, the piling method is only available to a specialized team, this method of strengthening the foundation is impossible to implement by oneself.

In general, when deciding the question: "How to strengthen the foundation?" - the professional's advice will not be superfluous.