Just visited my elderly folks this morning, and found a surprise in their basement. Apparently years ago they had wall anchors installed in an attempt to mitigate cracking/bowing in their cement block basement wall. They were supposed to tighten the anchors at intervals to minimize damage to the basement walls, but I'm guessing that hasn't happened. I noticed this morning that along an ~8' stretch, the entire basement wall has moved horizontally inward an inch except for the very bottom row of cement block which has remained stationary. So there is literally a one inch offset from the bottom row of cement blocks and the entire rest of the wall. Additionally, there are no cracks in any blocks themselves but plenty of stair-stepped cracks in the mortar joints (most cracks are minimal width, but a few are 1/8"-1/4").
Aside from calling a foundation expert to assess, what are recommended options in this case? Will continuing to periodically tighten the wall anchors be sufficient? Does the house need to be jacked up and a portion or all of the basement wall need to be rebuilt? Because they're elderly and on a fixed budget, I'm looking for advice based on what will suffice for the next 5 years or so and is cost efficient in the short term.
Aside from calling a foundation expert to assess, what are recommended options in this case? Will continuing to periodically tighten the wall anchors be sufficient? Does the house need to be jacked up and a portion or all of the basement wall need to be rebuilt? Because they're elderly and on a fixed budget, I'm looking for advice based on what will suffice for the next 5 years or so and is cost efficient in the short term.