Can Shotcrete Save Your Home?

When our customers first contact us for an inspection, the problems in their homes have often reached the point of being annoying, or being inconvenient. But sometimes we have those customers who feel hopeless. Their basement is under two feet of water, or their crawl space is full of mold, or - as we’re seeing more frequently as of late - their foundation walls are flat out crumbling.

That last one usually inspires the most stress because it’s so difficult to see a solution. Michigan basements are notorious for those fieldstone walls that add so much character but also are seemingly unfixable when they start to degrade.

And in the past, this was true. Even our advanced products like wall anchors and power braces aren’t effective on a crumbling stone wall. Options were limited to risky and expensive procedures that involved lifting the entire house and pouring a new foundation (which means occupants have to move out and there is a nonzero chance of structural damage in the lift process), or giving up and moving altogether.

But now, there’s a better option. One that doesn’t risk the structural integrity of your home, and that is more logistically and financially manageable. It’s shotcrete.

Shotcrete is, in the simplest terms, a concrete that we spray to create new foundation walls. To get a little more technical: we build a wire framework on top of the existing walls and use that to create the new wall with shotcrete. The new walls are literally built on top of the old ones. The process takes a fraction of the time that lifting the house and pouring a new foundation would take, with no risk. You don’t have to move out, or even leave during the process - it just might be a little loud in your home.

If your basement has crumbling walls and it feels hopeless, call us for an inspection.