Hi! First let me thank you for the mass of knowledge I am gaining from this board!!
Perhaps I missed it (highly possible) but what is the procedure for straightening a bowed, poured concrete wall AFTER the obvious of fixing the OUTSIDE problems of water, clay soil, hydrostatic lateral pressure etc. Walls are 8 ft tall, 36 ft long, and I am not sure of the concrete thickness. Of all the contractors I've spoke to, only ONE has mentioned repairing from the OUTSIDE but he was also talking in the range of 15k for one wall and using helical tiebacks and anchors to straighten and secure. I have my entire basement to repair.
Thanks again!

Depending on how much the wall has bowed, you may not have to straighten it. If not, you may want to take steps to ensure that the bowing does not increase. Probably the simplest way to do that would be to build masonry pilasters inside the wall, with appropriate footings, after, of course, you discover and cure the cause of the bowing. If the bowing is very slight, you may not have to do anything at all, once the cause is remedied.

How much has the wall bowed in? How high is it? How thick is the wall? What is the distance from outside grade to the basement floor? Is the wall cracked and leaking? What is the direction of the floor joists at the top of the wall; parallel with it, or perpendicular to it? Is more than one wall bowed? Which ones, if plural?

On the 2 36' walls, they are bowed about 4 inches. The 24' walls 3 inches. The concrete is 8" thick and the outside grade is 7' to basement floor. In only one corner is there any leaking during heavy rains. Huge diagonal cracks in corners that have been filled from the inside with some sort of sealant. The floor joist run perpendicular to the 36' walls. Also, I have at least 4 anchor plates connected to deadmen on each wall thus I am leary of using anchor plates as these obviously didn't do the trick. Although they were placed only about 4 feet from the foundation. I will not put a bandaid on this as so many contractors around here are suggesting! This is my children's home! Thank you Mr. Richard!

Probably not telling you anything you don't already know, but before you do anything, DEFINE THE PROBLEM1 Since all walls are bowing, I suspect the soil composition plus water. Do you know if there are expansive clay soils in your region? If so, that might be the problem.

Your local buildiong department, or municipal or county engineering department, or a cooperative extension service can probably tell you about the soils.

When you find out more information, please let us know.

That is one thing everyone gripes about around here is the clay soil! My basement was flooded 3 times in 2 weeks from sewer backup just last month. 3.5 feet of sewage the first two times and 1.5 the last. Citys main system failed during the tornadoes and thunderstorms and here it came in my basement. I know the work to do to take care of that. From reading here, I believe the bowing is a result of the hydrostatic pressure buildup from the clay retaining moisture sitting against the foundation. It was not near as bad before the flooding!

If your suspicion is correct, then excavating along the foundation down to the footing, installing a perforated pipe drain, waterproofing the walls, and backfilling with pea gravel, should solve the problems.

Once that's done, you may not need to rebuild the walls. You may want to add piers on the long walls for your own sense of security.

The piers you speak of, will I be able to refinish my basement once they are installed? Will the walls "move" back once the weight against them is removed? Do you recommend a particular pier?

I cannot thank you enough for your help! All that I've read in the 40+ pages here, has really armed me with some knowledge so I'm not being *taken* by some crook! A couple of different fellows started their sales pitch, working from the inside, so I politely showed them to the door!

I'm afraid the walls won't move back, unless a similar force is applied to the other side of them, so if you want to fill your basement with clay and hose it down good...

Seriously, no, they won't move back. The piers I am talking about would be something like 8x16-inch concrete block reinforced piers, with the 16 inches extending out from the walls. You might need two or three on each long wall, and maybe none or one on the short walls. The piers would have to have footings, so a chunk of the floor would have to be cut out...something like 16x20 inches, by a foot deep or so. The piers would extend the full height of the walls, and their purpose would be to stabilize the walls and stop further movement (bowing).

Please realize that all of this is seat-of-the-pants sight-unseen guesswork, and the services of a structural engineer should be retained for exact recommendations, after he's examined the house and all the relevant conditions first hand, and when you're ready to do the work.

Thanks again for all of your help! Before finding this board (via googling foundation repair) I had NO CLUE how to go about this. Now I know what needs to be done, and the ONLY side from which it needs to be done!
I also have LWP's pics as a guide, so I'll know somewhat how it should look. Hmmm...maybe I'll get some pics and post once the work is in progress which will be very soon I hope!
Have a fabulous weekend!
Trish

If this is going to be a do-it.yourself project, be sure you've read, and keep in mind, LW's precautions about the do's and don'ts of digging, such as don't pile the excavated material at the edge of the excavation and only dig a little at a time. Pay attention to the soil behavior and any water that may be present; both can indicate the danger of a cave-in. If you have any doubts, go back and find LW's posts on the subject of safety and re-read them. Please.

Oh no...I won't be doing it. It will be hired out, but at least this way I know what needs to be done, how it is to be done and how it should look! I'll go 100 ft up in the air, but looking down in an 8 ft hole makes me nauseated! Strange! Now the task at hand is finding a reputable contractor to do it and do it right, wish me luck!

Kansas Kid, How did this finally work out for you? I am just about to get started on the same problem, and it is emotionally and financially exhausting. When we found the problem, we were devastated! Tomorrow I get the estimates from the basement repair companies, based on my structural engineer's recommendations. Did you use a national repair company? If so, can you share who they were, and if you would recommend them?

Where is KS are you? I am in the KC area and know the soils quite well. The only problem with just excavatiing the wall and installing a drainage system with rock fill is that you have not done anything to resist the soild movement. MO & KS soils are highly unstable and expansive, so even after this repair, you could still at some point have soil movement against the wall and then the original problem remains the same.

While I like the idea of excavating and having drainage there, it is not a bad idea to consider Helicals anchors if the bow, lean, or break in the wall justifies it. Otherwise if the deflection is under 2", you can consider carbon fiber reinforcement that will resist soil movement against the wall. Helicals are usually the best because the go into the ground at a low angle and reach solid soil that isn't moving. Deadman anchors, Duragrips, etc. go out into the same soil causing the problem and therefore fail. Steel I-beams sometimes work, but I have seen up to 3" of bow due to the wall continuing to push in... which can cause indirect pressure against floor joists and load bearing beams because of the way they are tied in at the top of the wall.

Before you completely discredit this approach, do a little reseach on stabilizing or correcting foundation walls. Your budget may largely dictate what you decide to do, but you should consider all options beyond some guy on a message board.