Long story short, the excavator hit part of the stem wall between two garage doors and took a chunk out along with cracking where it meets the “jammed” out section, its loose and only in place because of rebar. Contractor says slab poor will take care of the cracked loose part and they’ll repair the rest. I am not liking that idea and wan it cut out and repaired. What are your thoughts on this? Attached are some pictures of whats going on… Hi-Res https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-rmnonSgYQ2SVhFU0RQOGRxTUk&usp=drive_web
Thanks!
Replies
Can't tell from your pictures where the damage is or how far it extends.
Dan, I can't tell either. And neither can the contractor. Even if the entire wall was excavated, there is no way of telling what is damaged internally. The solution is to replace it in a proper manner. The contractor made a mistake, he has to correct this now, before additional structure is added.
Assuming there is a substantial footing, perhaps even continuous across the openings, I'd make sure that there are no cracks in the footing. I'd assume, too, that the holddowns extend well into the footing. From what you say there is rebar from the footing up into the stem wall. If all this is correct, I'd just remove the stemwall above the footing and repour at the time the slab is poured. If the existing rebar doesn't tie the stem wall to the footing, epoxy some rebar dowels into the footing before the repour.
I wouldn't be so vague about the "repair"
Doesn't matter what the contractore says unless he is the engineer of record for your project. Bottom line is that there is some structural damage to this project (allegedly caused by excavator) and it needs to be repaired. Only the engineer of record for your project can assure you that the repair is made correctly. IMO, the cost of the repair should be the responsibilty of contracting party under which the guilty party (assuming here, again, the excavator) was operating under.