PowerBraces & SentrySeal Fix Leaky, Bowing Wall in Hillman, MI

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2017 by Brittany Gutman

Challenge

This homeowner called because she was looking for a permanent solution for her cracked, bowing basement wall. In a previous attempt to fix the issue, she had the wall excavated and filled the empty space with sand. This worked for some time but the wall started to bow again and moisture was coming in through the cracks. This homeowner was looking to sell the home but she wanted to make sure the wall was fixed correctly before putting it on the market.

Solution

To fix the bowing wall and hopefully restore it back to its original position, we installed the PowerBrace system. This system uses steel I-beams that are attached to the joists in the ceiling with steel brackets and in the floor at the other end. A joist reinforcement method is used to distribute the weight evenly across the ceiling to make sure the floors and walls above are not negatively affected. The beams are also coated in zinc to prevent corrosion over time and the system can be tightened to potentially straighten the wall.

To deal with the moisture entering through cracks in the wall, we installed SentrySeal. For this installation, we had to excavate the soil surrounding the wall in order to place the SentrySeal sealant. This membrane is used to seal off cracks in the wall from the outside, which prevents water from entering the home.