gregorio, what are you trying to accomplish? Like mick mentioned a couple days ago, if you're trying to keep water out, that needs to happen outside the house. There is little to nothing you can do on the inside to prevent it. If you just want to keep humidity down and prevent mold/mildew, running a dehumidifier in the summer is probably going to be the easiest and most effective method. That's what I do.

This is my first house and the first time I've ever seen the interior of a foundation wall. When I saw cracks I thought, ****, that can't be good, I'll have to fix that. But there doesn't seem to be a standard/simple fix for cracks on block foundations.

If the solution to my cracks is, "as long as water isn't coming in, don't worry about some vertical cracks in your foundation wall," then that's great. I just don't want to be the guy who doesn't know what he's doing and plows ahead and has to rip everything out in a few years to deal with something that should have been fixed in the first place.

WRT the densifier/sealers, they sound great and I had no idea they're not standard. I would just go ahead with it because why not spend a couple hundred dollars to get a wall that's denser, won't crack anymore and won't spall, except the walls were painted and I'd have to remove all the paint first. That seems like a lot of work, so if there's no real benefit, I won't bother.

I appreciate the feedback. I don't know wtf I'm doing, and it's great to be able to get advice from people with no financial incentive. I'm sure if I call in "Wise Cracks" or "The Crack Doctor" basement specialists for an opinion, they'll try to sell me on their sure fix that I absolutely need.

My advice is to really keep an eye for moisture coming through. No water? No problem. Usually foundation cracks are only a problem if your yard is graded badly, and the best fix for that is to improve the lay of the land to encourage drainage. The concrete is there to hold out the soil and hold up the house, if it's stopping water you have other problems.

If you can hold off on finishing the area until after at least one rainy season, that should tell you if there's going to be an issue. After that, you can improve the area with confidence. Even just from your pics I'm fairly sure there is no issue.

If you're planning on finishing the basement, those wall cracks will drive you nuts in their uncertainty. I'd stand outside and run the hose at them for a half hour and see if anything is coming in. If there's water coming in, the issue has to be dealt with before finishing the basement, and it's probably going to be quite expensive. Usually about 1k per crack around here from the outside and if it's the whole foundation then who knows.

Speaking as a contractor of 20 years, if that were my house I would leave the wall cracks uncovered for the next 7 months, hope for a really wet spring, and see what happened. If water came in, I'd dig outside, put a good bitumen coating on the exterior, and install a French drain. Otherwise, I'd leave them alone because what I just described is expensive and a messy PITA that will wreck half your yard.

Then I'd carry on with whatever my basement plans were and not bother with densifiers and whatnot. They may help as a sort of half-assed vapor barrier, but that's not really what they're made for. I would buy a hygrometer though, (less than $20 for a good one), and if my basement started getting > 60% humidity in the summer I'd put a dehumidifier down there, ideally drained directly to a sink or something so I wouldn't have to worry about emptying it.

There's always an outside chance those cracks will get worse some day and be a real problem, but it's slim and not worth worrying about imo.

You could run a hose nonstop for days and it wouldn't even come close to generating the hydrostatic pressure from one heavy rainstorm.

Thanks guys. I haven't noticed any water coming in, but I wasn't that diligent. Testing it again to be sure makes more sense than hoping, and if that means waiting until after the snow melts and we get some spring rainstorms than so be it.

Sorry, one last (I hope) question about my basement. I'm wondering if one of the windows is missing a header, or if I'm just dumb and don't know what to look for. All of my other windows have a steel header like this:





But this window (the rough opening looks like it was expanded at some point) doesn't have the steel header. Inside, there is a 2x4 frame around the windows, and the joists above the window rest on that and some mortar(?):







Outside, It looks to me like there's nothing supporting the bricks above the window and that they are starting to sag:





So is there something wrong here, or am I just being dumb and paranoid? If this is a problem, who do I get to look at this for me--a GC or do I call a foundation repair or a concrete/masonry contractor.

I'm no expert, but that doesn't look great.

In fact, it looks like something that had to be corrected on an episode of Holmes Makes it Right.

I just watched a youtube of a mason cutting out the bottom row of bricks and installing a lintel so I guess my first call is to a mason.

Do I need to do something on the inside, too, to support the joist?

Yeah, you need a lintel and a mason there.

If there's a rim joist with joist hangers then you're probably OK on the framing. Need to see what's going on at the end of those joists to know for sure. From the pics it looks like they just shoved block in there No idea why they would do that. Is there block between any of the other joists?

All of the joists have a block between them.



The joists disappear between the blocks. I don't see any hangers:




On the walls parallel to the joists, there is also a row of blocks above the foundation wall:

Weird. Looks like 2" block backing up the brick and not enough room left over for a rim joist. You're going to have to reassess once the brick gets cut out and you can see what's going on. Something other than the window needs to be holding up those joists if you don't want the floor/house to start sagging.

The mason could probably do back to back lintels so one of them is supporting the joists, but that would be outside of prescriptive code and he might not want to mess with it. The alternative is going to be cut out brick, remove block between joists, brace and cut back joists, frame in header, install lintel, replace bricks.

Howdy. theres no room between the joists n window for a header, strange design, i assume the window was part of remodel and not original? Are there other windows at that height, can you show a wider shot of the steel header n joist? Do they match the house? Really strange, I have to think it was a homeowner remodel only considering aesthetics for the placement so high.

I don't think the exterior brick sag is necessarily a sign of movement due to no header and could be there was just a sag in the first row when installed. I think you'd see more cracking and bricks falling off rather than a sag. Also the window would be affected if holding weight, hard to open n close.

I don't see a way to fix it without allowing room a header, lowering the window by expanding the opening or replacing with a smaller window that would allow enough space. Changing to a smaller window would probably be the cheapest and easiest and you would only need a framer and probably a plasterer. You could potentially do it your self also.

If every window in the basement is the same height I can't see anyway that they properly support those joists. The house was recently purchased and inspected for a loan?

How much space will a header take up? I need to replace this window with an egress window, so I can't make it much smaller, and I'm worried I'll need to cut it out below and maybe need a window well now, and maybe an engineer since this is all being done with permits.

Bought the house 2 years ago and it was inspected by an engineer but that room/window was finished and covered up inside, though the inspector didn't notice the missing lentil.

All the basement windows are at the same height. The others have lintels. It looks like the rough opening for this window was widened when it was installed in 2006, which is when I assume the lentil was removed and not replaced. There are 3 windows on the opposite end of the basement with joists running perpendicular to them, but that room is finished so I can't see how they were done.

This is the only window perpendicular to the joists that is unfinished. The shot of the steel header is from a window that is parallel to the joists so I assume it's not relevant, but here's a wider shot (lintel is the reddish/black ie rusty part):

The new header would be in line with the joists, so it wouldn't take up any room at all. Here's a quick and ugly cross section. You'd need it to bear at least a few inches on either side of the window. I'd take it all the way to the next joists and throw some hangers on them too.



You can cut out whatever you like under it in the future. This is basic framing. No engineer required, but likely a permit (assuming your codes and enforcement aren't significantly different from mine).

Okay, so is this what it looks like from the front?



Won't try this myself but it's great to know what needs to be done when discussing with a contractor.

Yes. Or at least that's how I'd do it. You might get some variation with a sill plate in there somewhere, but that's the general idea.

Also, that's going to require removing enough brick to do it from the outside. There won't be enough room to get it in from the basement.

Okay thanks. Not looking forward to finding out what this will cost

Howdy again. I'm by no means an expert but find your questions interesting and like to think about them and ramble bit. Cutting back the joist for a header and using hangars was one of my firsts thoughts too but wasn't confident in sugguesting a hangar rated for that kind of load to suggest it. I typically see hangers used in situations were they aren't carrying a structural load, like a drop down soffit. But have seen some massive hardware designed to carry a high load using sds screws. Thinking more about and browsing Simpson strong tie I'm sure there is something. I'm asking someone about it, specifically if the inspector is gonna wanba see if it was engineered

I wouldn't expect it to be too bad. You're probably looking at two half days for a mason and one half day for a carpenter, with minimal materials. If you get quotes that don't reflect those time frames, ask for an explanation.

Joist and beam hangers (along with other specialty hardware) have become very common and are now required by code in many typical framing conditions. Simpson and others have already done the engineering. A correctly installed 2x8 joist hanger is designed to safely support the maximum load you can put on a 2x8 in any reasonable situation. They have the documentation to back this up. Building inspectors know this, so they're only checking to see if the right hardware is in the right place. You can buy the stuff right off the shelf at any home improvement store or lumber yard. Bang the right nails in the right holes and you're set.

Should I wait on this until spring when it's warmer out for the masonry work (probably not getting much above 40 during the day and it's below freezing overnight)? I know they can tent and heat it but that seems like extra $ and the potential for less than optimal results.

I really doubt they'd do tenting and heating. A little cold weather admixture for the mortar would be fine this time of year and wouldn't have any negative effects.

Considering the state and location of that wall (your garage) it doesn't seem like that big a deal to cut open the wall and run the romex inside it like it's supposed to (you'd have to take out the wires - when they aren't electrified - to do this). Or you could do it half assed and get some wiremold and get rid of the 2 by 4 there and screw the box to the wall (turn off the power to the circuit). Or you could do it quarter assed and get some nm staples and see if they hold in the wall.

I'm an electrical contractor and if it were a customer's house obviously I'd do the first option. If it were my house (garage) I'd probably just leave it like that for several years/forever.

Makes sense, thanks. I was wrongly and over thinking it. Without a header I was thinking of the joist carrying the weight from wall to roof, which it potentially is in this case, and how we could carry that with a hanger. Overlooking that the header is now carrying that weight and the joists and hangers will go back to just carrying the floor

How do you think they'll fasten the header? You'd be confident just matching a header to the height of the joists? What kind of span would consider to have it engineered? Just interested