An 1873 Gothic Revival Home in Albany, Oregon

Charles Royal House, circa 1873
140 SE 5th Avenue, Albany, Oregon

Foundation and Masonry Repair

Table of Contents

October 2005: Bricks
August 2005: Footings
July 15, 2005: Rot repair
August 9, 2004: Pumping concrete
August 6, 2004: Installing supports, part II
August 1, 2004: Installing supports, part I
May 30, 2004: Kitchen forms
May 22, 2004: Additional supports
April 25, 2004: Foundation forms
March 8, 2004: Foundation plans
March 2, 2004: Under the house with Paul Hightower
February 14, 2004: Initial pictures of brick work

Overview

When we bought the home, its brick foundation had largely failed. The lime-based mortar from the 1870s no longer was holding the bricks in place. I worried that a mild earthquake would cause the home to shift off its foundation.

Most people would have repaired the foundation by jacking up the home, removing the failed bricks, and installing a poured or split-face concrete block footing. Certainly this would have been an easier approach than the one we ended up using. But I wanted to preserve the historic brick veneer while stabilizing the home. So I hired a professional civil engineer to create plans for strengthening the foundation entirely from the inside. This involved digging trenches inside the existing brick, fabricating a forest of metal struts, lag bolting the struts into the sill beams, and pumping concrete under the house to lock the entire system together.

I'm proud of the result: it preserved the historic character of the original brickwork, but it brought the home up to current earthquake codes. Handling all the paperwork and building code inspections was a bother, but this should provide peace of mind to future occupants.

Bricks, October 2005

	Barb and I laid the bricks for the kitchen area foundation work. This brick work is purely decorative -- the structural strength comes from the poured footings and the metal struts.
	You can see the string lines we used to determine exactly where to place each brick.
	The finished brickwork looks much like the existing brickwork on the rest of the house. This makes sense because we used bricks from a chimney that we tore out of our home down the street. Thus, the bricks were manufactured in the 1880s, just a few years after the other bricks in the foundation.
	A view showing the back of the kitchen.

Footings, August 2005

	Ken Williams built the forms to support the bricks in the kitchen area. He mixed the cement with the help of an electric mixer.
	I asked Ken to leave an area open next to the kitchen door to use as a crawl space entrance.

Rot Repair, July 15, 2005

	I've crawled throughout the foundation, and the only rot I found was at the corner of where the utility room meets the bathroom. The downspout was missing, so water ran down the house soaking and rotting the foundation's sill beam. So I decided to cut out the sill beam and replace it with an identical-sized beam from the basement of the Allen house.
	In this image, I've cut back the sill beam along the side of the house far enough to reach sound wood. Later I cut back the other beam. I remain impressed with how carefully the care the original builders cut notches to receive each 2x4 wall stud. This house was built with balloon framing, and each stud sits in its own pocket in the sill beam. Even without using any nails, this created an incredibly strong connection between the walls and foundation.
	As you can see, I used the existing beam to cut identical notches in the replacement.
	The fully repaired foundation.

Pumping Concrete, August 9, 2004

	After months of preparation, the day to pump concrete finally arrives. Top photo: Tim from Chuck's Concrete Pumping arrived thirty minutes early to set up his pumper truck. Middle photo: Tim and I talk to Bill Cutler who is pulling the concrete hose to the back of the house. Bottom photo: With everything in place, Tim, Bill and I wait and wait. The first concrete truck was over 45 minutes late.
	The first Morse Brothers truck finally arrives, and we direct the driver, Dennis to back up to Tim's pumper truck.
	Bill Cutler heads under the porch to begin placing concrete as it comes out of the hose.
	The view under the front porch with forms ready to receive concrete.
	I used a trowel to level, move and compact the concrete mud. It was hot work ... the temperature rose to 97 degrees while we were pumping concrete.
	Twice while we were pumping, dry clots of concrete became stuck in the line, and Tim had to take apart fittings and whack the line with a hammer to unclog the hose.
	Bill placed most of the concrete ... he did a super job, and it was tough, hot work.
	The view of the garage footings after the first concrete truck was empty. It had 9.75 yards of concrete. The "clean-up" truck only needed 1.5 yards to fill the rest of the garage footings and finish the pour.

Installing supports, part II, August 6, 2004

It took a couple of days of hard work to install all the supports and rebar.

Top photo: Bill Cutler uses a Stanley hole hog to drive in a 5-inch lag bolt.

Middle photo: Bill and I take a well-earned break.

Bottom photo: Typical placement of rebar to lock everything together.

Installing supports, August 1, 2004

Bill Cutler and I lag bolt the finished supports to the sill beam. As you can see, the job is rather dirty.

We also placed rebar to strengthen the concrete.

Foundation plans, May 30, 2004

	Dave Helton and I tear off the skirting around the kitchen to get a better look at the post-and-beam footings.
	Our next step is to replace rotten or under-built areas with new wood and put in new steel supports.

Finally, we install forms to hold the new concrete footings.

Additional Supports, May 22, 2004

I decided we could use more and sturdier supports for the foundation, so I bought and welded up 21 heavier supports. David Kelter, a certified welding inspector, said the welding was acceptable.

Foundation plans, April 25, 2004

	I take the orange struts to Chris Reiter's in Carlton, Oregon and spend the day welding them together to make trusses according to Paul Hightower's specifications. Later the welds will be inspected by David Kelter, a certified welding inspector.
	Top: We remove a few bricks to slide rebar and other supplies under the house. Bottom: We use particle board to create forms for the cement and put rebar into the forms.

Foundation plans, March 8, 2004

	Based on my discussions with Paul Hightower, I prepared these plans for strengthening the foundation.
	I bought 1,100 pounds of rebar for the garage and foundation strengthening. All the orange U-shaped steel struts in the background will be used to tie the home's sill plates to new concrete footings.

Under the house with Paul Hightower, March 2, 2004

	Paul Hightower and I head under the house to plan out how to reinforce the foundation. Paul is a a local registered professional Civil Engineer, and he obviously is willing to do a thorough on-site inspection. Together we have developed a plan for pouring concrete on the inside of the foundation to stabilize the bricks and make the foundation more earthquake-proof.
	Two images showing the northwest corner of the house ... under the front bedroom. Above: 2" by 8" floor joists running into an 8" by 6" sill beams. You can see the fir flooring above the joists. Below: the bricks sit on a layer of rock held together with mortar. This has provided an adequate footing for the first 130 years.
	A close-up showing how floor joists attach to the sill beams. Each joist fits into a notch cut into the beam providing a sturdy, nail-free attaching system.
	Looking from the front bedroom east into the porch and living room.

Initial Pictures of Brick Work, February 14, 2004

Since we will be improving the foundation, I thought it would be a good idea to document its condition prior to doing any work.

	The original house sits on a brick foundation. I took pictures of the worst areas. In other parts the mortar held up better. From top to bottom, these pictures show the foundation at the back of the dining room, along the east edge of the living room, and at the corner joining the utility room with the bathroom.
	The bathroom and kitchen were added onto the house later, and they sit on post and beam footings. These pictures show the crawl space under the house (which needs insulation), and the back of the kitchen (which looks like it has sheets of asbestos providing a partial barrier for animals.
	The brick work in the garage cooler also has failed in places. Bad initial design caused the joints over the door to fail: the ceiling beam rests right on the middle of the bricks above the door. Thus, the only thing holding up the ceiling beam is the door jamb. Below: an area of the cooler wall showing how the mortar has turned to dust and blown away.

The Allen-House.Com and RoyalHouse1873.Com websites are maintained by Dave and Barbara Sullivan who live in the N. H. Allen House at 208 6th Avenue SE, Albany, Oregon. Our home phone is 541-924-5983.