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Posted is a top view of the layout of my garage (attached). It is a typical wood stud structure on top of cinder blocks. The big opening is the door and the red is compromized cinder blocks. They are all cracked and I can take the peices out. I've been attempting to fill them with cement but the top part is very tricky as I cannot really physically pour that high from the side. In a typical situation where a new foundation is poured it would be poured from the top and the walls would not be in yet.
My question is, how bad is it for all the front to be pretty much unsupported? Can the other 3 walls take the slack ok, or will it cause some pressure that could cause the rest of the structure to start giving way? The whole foundation itself is not in really good shape. Some pics here.
Water does not seem to be a huge issue (the black is not wet) but the mortar is in really bad shape and some bricks are even poping out.
I've been told to keep a heater in that crawlspace (this is under the garage) as it had issues where it would freeze up and crack in winter. This foundation is no more then 6 feet underground so it's all within frost level.
While this is probably not a DIY project, what are some ways to fix this? For now I'm trying to pour cement and fix the bricks but I don't know if that will suffice as a structural fix. It will help to keep bugs out and insulate a bit from the cold. (there was direct air gaps where I could see outside from the crawlspace).
How would I go about pouring cement all the way to the top? I can build a form, but the form should go right to the top, so how do I pour inside it? The only thing I can think of is to do it from inside the garage and just make a hole in the 2x4 that is over the brick, should I do that?
This is how it looks like from outside.
Now another thing I just realized, is brick equivalent to siding, as in, it's non structural and just for looks, or does it play a role in the structure? I'm guessing not. The biggest issue I see here is that my brick could start to crack, but I could technically take all of it down without affecting structure right? I am guessing (hoping) the wood structure can hold ok without any good front integrity. I've seen houses that "stick out" a bit on one side and they're ok... so maybe I'm just worrying too much. Also, there are no visible cracks on the small bricks on either the front or side of the garage (the other side is inside the house, so it's just cinder block and no brick, with a chimney, no damage there either).
My question is, how bad is it for all the front to be pretty much unsupported? Can the other 3 walls take the slack ok, or will it cause some pressure that could cause the rest of the structure to start giving way? The whole foundation itself is not in really good shape. Some pics here.
Water does not seem to be a huge issue (the black is not wet) but the mortar is in really bad shape and some bricks are even poping out.
I've been told to keep a heater in that crawlspace (this is under the garage) as it had issues where it would freeze up and crack in winter. This foundation is no more then 6 feet underground so it's all within frost level.
While this is probably not a DIY project, what are some ways to fix this? For now I'm trying to pour cement and fix the bricks but I don't know if that will suffice as a structural fix. It will help to keep bugs out and insulate a bit from the cold. (there was direct air gaps where I could see outside from the crawlspace).
How would I go about pouring cement all the way to the top? I can build a form, but the form should go right to the top, so how do I pour inside it? The only thing I can think of is to do it from inside the garage and just make a hole in the 2x4 that is over the brick, should I do that?
This is how it looks like from outside.
Now another thing I just realized, is brick equivalent to siding, as in, it's non structural and just for looks, or does it play a role in the structure? I'm guessing not. The biggest issue I see here is that my brick could start to crack, but I could technically take all of it down without affecting structure right? I am guessing (hoping) the wood structure can hold ok without any good front integrity. I've seen houses that "stick out" a bit on one side and they're ok... so maybe I'm just worrying too much. Also, there are no visible cracks on the small bricks on either the front or side of the garage (the other side is inside the house, so it's just cinder block and no brick, with a chimney, no damage there either).
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