Basement Concrete Wall... Can I CUT these off?

Canarywood1

You can't see slurry walls,as they are subsurface barriers and are below grade.

Peacemaker

Yeah, that's weird... I'm not entirely sure what they are (even after reading the linked info...), but my walls have this interesting feature where it looks like they have a small slit every few feet or so and on VERY cold days there seems to be the 'slightest whisper' of air from these 'slits' (don't know what else to call them). Some of them seem to have a tiny bit of 'rust' stain below the vertical slit. Very odd, but wonder if it has something to do with 'air-flow'??

Cheers,

Duckweather

It is likely they attach the steps, either L shaped with the L buried in the concrete and the straight end is the end you can see. They keep the step from pulling away from the house as the frost may affect the end away from the foundation. Cutting them off the steps would probably separate from the foundation eventually. A little or a lot depending on soil, frost, etc. Are the slits you talk about on every wall? They do make precast wall sections that interlock for foundations. If only on one wall or a couple places are they on a wall that has no dirt on the other side? Then they could be old openings that were filled with concrete and the slits are the joints. Hint, those would be in pairs.

Canarywood1

VERY cold days there seems to be the 'slightest whisper' of air from these 'slits' (don't know what else to call them). Some of them seem to have a tiny bit of 'rust' stain below the vertical slits.


I've never seen anything like that,what part of the country are you in??

Peacemaker

Thanks for all that helped and gave suggestions...

I wanted to close this Thread earlier, but one of my Family members had a Stroke and things are 'just' getting back to normal... (quick detection made all the difference!)

Anyway,

Indeed these Bolts and Plates were put into place after the foundation was put in when the house was built. They are anchors for the outside concrete steps and would likely tilted and broke-off had I removed those Bolts and nuts. Instead, using a cut-off tool, I cut them back to the Nuts and 'patched over' them with hydraulic cement. Before I did this, I chipped all around the plates and removed the 'old patch' that was there to begin with... Once that was done, I used a Concrete sealing formula wash (similar to Kryton) that enters the concrete and crystallizes. I sealed the entire wall and 2' of the floor (also filled cracks with Hydraulic cement) and prepped as per directions.... Tested the walls with paper and cardboard and Final result is a nice Cool Room with NO moisture!!

Thanks again for all your help!

Cheers,

dengle

I have bilco doors in my basement and i have similar bolts where those precast stairs meet the foundation to hold them in place. It's quite possible those are meant for that purpose as to your precast stairs.

EDIT: And if I would read through the rest of the last post, I would have seen you figured it out. BUT, you have confirmation now