Hey Guys,
First of all THANK YOU for ALL of your opinions, knowledge and expertise in this matter. All of you have valid concerns/points. The brickwork in my own opinion is on the semi poor side, some sections were better than others depending on who was doing what on that brick crew on what day. I do believe it was also some badly mixed mortar batches. The flip side of this is, it was meant to be a "sack finish", kinda like full filled mortar joints with some limited overrun and then mortar is swiped across the whole brick finish. I found out the hard way that it also was done improperly for the most part.
Overall from a distance, the house brick is fairly nice looking. I will find a couple of pics with the new architect shingles and post them soon, so you can give me your thoughts.
Secondly, I don't know how many brick ties they did actually put, but I don't think it was very many at all, very few widely spread out. I believe it is a combination of several factors, river silt/sand fill added to raise elevation 1' right before construction, several hot/dry drought periods 20-40 days @ up to 98-100 degrees, drying out under/around the house. Big Pin Oak tree sucking up ground water immediately in front of my house slab.
Most of this is happening on the rear of a U shaped house with the longest continuous run of concrete with brickwall and the biggest crack/break is within 1 1/2 ft. from the corner/end wall.
There was also a fairly large Gum tree that fell within 20' off to the side of that corner break area during a hurricane and I am sure it had some impact, that could have jarred the house foundation.
I do also remember some bulldozer/log truck/trackhoe activity several times through the years transversing the rear of the house about 75 to 100' away. My house would have some pretty good motion at times from these things occurring. Makes me wonder if any of this took a toll and resulted in this damage now?
I will take a couple of more pics today or tomorrow a little further away from the wall to give a better viewpoint.
Finally, I must ask, what would be the better lifting method/technique to use for this and should it raise it to the point of most of the cracks closing substantially.
I have 4 different foundation companies coming soon to inspect, Olshan, Cable Lock, WKC and Baton Rouge Foundation (last two local)
The Baton Rouge Foundation guy says he will not be responsible for ANY plumbing or interior wall/ceiling damages resulting from the corrective work that he does, is this the norm?
What are the odds of that type of damage occurring on corrective work?
Just want to know what questions to ask when they inspect and want big bucks to do this. BR foundation guy already saying at least 10 pilings/piers at $400 a piece and some other accessory charges! So already $4000 at least for a beginning guess!
Hope I didn't forget anything else? ha
Oh, could a civil engineer be of help to me? I have a good friend that is a recent college graduate, that I could enlist to assist me in some way. I am thinking I could let him review the foundation company quotes/technical drawings to determine the best approach to take.
Thank YOU very much!