I have a basement wall that is bowed in about 3 inches or so (8' high, block, 8" thick outside grade leaves about 18-24" of block showing). I have had several people/companies come out to give estimates. Most of the ones that didn't think we needed excavate to repair I am not considering.
Top prospect so far: Company want to excavate, install deadmen and do the steel plate & rod thing to straighten and reinforce the wall, then tuck point or plaster the cracks, tar the wall to waterproof it, install a vapor barrier, 4" drain tile and back fill.
My questions to you out there are:
1)With a house in pretty much all sand soils (and I mean sand, not sandy) with good drainage due to hill top location, will deadmen provide adequate support to the wall on a 28' wall he suggested 3-5 deadmen. Keeping in mind that our plans are to only be in this house 3-5 years.

2) Pros/cons to tuck pointing vs plastering the cracks? I assume what he means by plastering is plastering over the outside wall instead of tuck pointing each individual crack/joint..

3) Is tar a normal waterproofing method for basement walls. He also says he will install a vapor barrier before back fill.

4) This wall is at the end of our house where the driveway is. Does it matter what type of back fill he uses? The sand he dug out or other. I am concerned about the weight of vehicles in the driveway and don't know if any type of backfill would make any difference or not.

Other information that may or may not help:
The wall is hollow block (1960's construction). Even with the large number of cracks (one is close to 1/4" wide, there are practically no signs of water damage in that part of the basement. When I tore the paneling out, there was about a small (2-3') piece of the 2x4 framing on the floor that was rotted. May or may not have ben water damaged, too crumbly for me to tell and there were no other signs of water damage or staining on the rest of the wall framing.

I would like to bring this one contractor and ask a few more questions before I sign the contract and would appreciate any help from you out there with what I should be looking for and follow up questions to ask.

Thanks, BEn

If only that one wall is bowing, I suspect you were victim of a double whammy. Eight inches is not sufficient wall thickness for 6 to 6.5 feet of retained soil. The limit is more like 5 feet for eight-inch block. Maybe the wall would have been OK, since all the others are (I presume) if not for the added loads because of the presence of the driveway adjacent to the wall.

What I don't understand about the "deadmen" approach is that the deadmen are anchored in the same soil that is pushing against the wall, which seems to me like chasing one's tail.

Is the bowed wall perpendicular to, or parallel to your floor joists?

Do you have room inside your basement for a block pilaster or two that would be 8 inches thick and extend about 16 or 18 inches out from the bowed wall? Or perhaps steel beams anchored to the basement floor and the joists above...they might only need to be 4 or 6 inches deep?

The cracks in the wall should be repaired with hydraulic cement, but the rest of what they propose to do seems fine. I just have my doubts about the deadmen.

The wall is parallel to the floor joists.

Also, my dad thought had the same thoughts about using deadmen. Using his "physics logic" and no real contruction experience he suggested this: Put the deadmen far enough away from the house that they would be on the other side of the driveway. That way if vehicles on the driveway were the cause or partial cause of the way bowing in then the same forces would help by pushing the deadmen away from the wall. Any thoughts on this?

Make that a triple whammy. Insufficient wall thickness, imposed load adjacent to the wall, and probably the top of the wall not properly braced by the floor structure.

The real right was to fix the problem wopuld be to excavate outside the wall and rebuild the wall using the 12-inch 75% solid blocks that should have been used, and brace the top of the wall correctly into the floor structure.

Richard is correct about the removal and replacement of the wall being the only realiastic way to correct the problem.

You failure was probably caused by several different factors.
1. Insufficient wall thickness for an unreinforced basement wall.

2. The possibility of a "surcharge" on the soil from a near-by driveway that increased the lateral load on the wall.

3. The wall in question did not benefit from carrying the first (and maybe only)floor loads that actually increase the lateral capacity. The walls perpendicular had mor vertical loads and were more stable.

Patching the wall joint does nothing to give any strength to the wall. One you got the horizontal crack in the mortar joint (no matter whether hairline or 3/8"), the wall lost its strength.

Buttresses inside are a possiblity, but they eat up space and are costly.

Buttresses outside are a possibility, but they would have to extend outward a greater distance than interior buttresses.

Pilasters are also a possiblity, but that would require a major re-build of the wall and pilasters are not effective for stiffening a long wall unless they are spaced closely.

Tiebacks and anchors are another possiblity, but the wall must be straightened before the anchors are installed. The size, spacing and effectiveness obviously depend on the properties of the soil. Some sands have good shear strength, while others are only good if confined.

Replacing the wall is the most straight forward and common solution with major bowing. The existing footing should be able to be reused. The two choices are a reininforced(4'on center) 8" concrete block wall or a 12" block wall. Going from the normal 12" hollow block to a 75% solid 12" unit provides little additional strength and most codes allow both for your probable situation.

If you have driveway close to the house it might be good to call an engineer even if your permit does not require it.

I hope this has given you a little information to consider.

I just got another quote of aroudn $7,100 to excavate and replace the end wall with 12" blocks and to dig out the opposite corner of the house where there is some water leaking in. Anyquestions I should be asking this guy?
I don't have a paper quote in hand yet, just a phone message saying that he will write up a full proposal if the $7,100 puts him the neighborhood for this job. I figure I can work some specifics into the proposal before he writes it up if I know what I should be asking him to be specific about.
Thanks to all out there who have given advice so far!!!

There are a lot of specifics. Will he tooth in the new block with the intersecting walls? Will he parge? Will he dampproof with brush coats, not spray? Will he waterproof? Will he connect the top of the wall to the floor framing? Will he brace the floor framing for at least 3 joist spaces where the wall is tied in? Will he restore the outside? What type of block will he use? What type of mortar? Will he install truss-type masonry reinforcing (Dur-O-Wal for example) every second block course? Will he patch the basement floor when finished with the wall? Will he provide anchor bolts cemented into the block cores? Those are off the top of my head...maybe someone will add to them. Good luck!