Sinking feeling
October 29, 2024 5:42 PM
Should I stop parking my car in a garage with a sinking foundation?
My wife and I have always known the slab foundation of our house was sinking; it was pointed out to her when she bought it. She installed concrete around the house to get water away from the foundation, but knew at the time that this wasn’t a total fix. We’re in a single-story Eichler house, a solid building by all accounts, but built on what should be marshland.
I had a foundation repair company come and assess it recently as we’ve noticed cracks in the wall getting worse and doors not closing. The quote to lift the foundation using piering was eye-wateringly high.
I’m wondering if parking our car elsewhere could stop the problem from progressing. According to the assessment, the garage and the garage side of the house was much more sunken than the other side. Would there be any significant value to parking our car elsewhere, given that our car is the heaviest thing we own?
The foundation guy suggested the sinking may have accelerated so much recently owing to our last two very wet winters. While eventually I’d love to figure this out with more professional opinions, right now I’d like to just not make this worse in our upcoming rainy season, if that’s in my hands.
My wife and I have always known the slab foundation of our house was sinking; it was pointed out to her when she bought it. She installed concrete around the house to get water away from the foundation, but knew at the time that this wasn’t a total fix. We’re in a single-story Eichler house, a solid building by all accounts, but built on what should be marshland.
I had a foundation repair company come and assess it recently as we’ve noticed cracks in the wall getting worse and doors not closing. The quote to lift the foundation using piering was eye-wateringly high.
I’m wondering if parking our car elsewhere could stop the problem from progressing. According to the assessment, the garage and the garage side of the house was much more sunken than the other side. Would there be any significant value to parking our car elsewhere, given that our car is the heaviest thing we own?
The foundation guy suggested the sinking may have accelerated so much recently owing to our last two very wet winters. While eventually I’d love to figure this out with more professional opinions, right now I’d like to just not make this worse in our upcoming rainy season, if that’s in my hands.
We had our foundation redone a few years ago and our patio rebuilt after the foundation work. It's... a lot, financially, logistically and emotionally. I understand.
If I were you, would I stop parking a standard-size car in the garage? No. Would not parking it there actually stop the foundation from shifting? Almost certainly no. Can not parking the car there potentially slow the shift? Perhaps, maybe.
I think I would ask myself which is more of a hassle: parking the car outside for the next 5 years, or just parking it in the garage and dealing with the foundation in 4 rather than 5 years. (Adjust accordingly based on how severe the foundation crew thought the issue was.)
posted by eschatfische at 6:18 PM on October 29
If I were you, would I stop parking a standard-size car in the garage? No. Would not parking it there actually stop the foundation from shifting? Almost certainly no. Can not parking the car there potentially slow the shift? Perhaps, maybe.
I think I would ask myself which is more of a hassle: parking the car outside for the next 5 years, or just parking it in the garage and dealing with the foundation in 4 rather than 5 years. (Adjust accordingly based on how severe the foundation crew thought the issue was.)
posted by eschatfische at 6:18 PM on October 29
I doubt it will help slow the sinking, but as my grandfather would say, "It can't hurt."
What I don't know is what are the ramifications of parking outside. Crime? Severe weather?
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:15 PM on October 29
What I don't know is what are the ramifications of parking outside. Crime? Severe weather?
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:15 PM on October 29
Many years ago we had a professional crew completely change the land contours around our home to avoid water entering our home through the side door of our family room and part of the garage also. They created swales, and redirected all four down spouts off our roof into underground PVC pipe with "pop-ups" near those swales. They also created retaining walls partially to give us a side patio and also to avoid water coming from the rear of the house to the side. This was done with heavy equipment to create this new contour.
This has solved the problem for us. Recently there was a thunderstorm that parked over our subdivision and dropped 7 inches of rain in one night. We got a small amount of water which just needed a mop. However, our 1970s development was not marshland per se, just the normal kind of sandy/clay New Jersey land you find far from the coastline.
I suspect (???) if the answer to your problem was as (relatively) simple as the project described above, your professional probably would have mentioned the possibility (???).
posted by forthright at 9:27 PM on October 29
This has solved the problem for us. Recently there was a thunderstorm that parked over our subdivision and dropped 7 inches of rain in one night. We got a small amount of water which just needed a mop. However, our 1970s development was not marshland per se, just the normal kind of sandy/clay New Jersey land you find far from the coastline.
I suspect (???) if the answer to your problem was as (relatively) simple as the project described above, your professional probably would have mentioned the possibility (???).
posted by forthright at 9:27 PM on October 29
The quote to lift the foundation using piering was eye-wateringly high.
Have you looked into resin injection?
posted by flabdablet at 9:33 PM on October 29
Have you looked into resin injection?
posted by flabdablet at 9:33 PM on October 29
Well, it certainly can't hurt, but I doubt very much the car being there is the cause of the sinking and removing it is unlikely to make noticeable difference. Parking your car out in the weather may make a noticeable difference to your car, though.
posted by dg at 11:15 PM on October 29
posted by dg at 11:15 PM on October 29
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Your car probably weighs about 2 tons (give or take a ton). A small house weighs around 100 tons, and a large house weighs several hundred tons. Even the garage alone is likely to weigh about an order of magnitude more than your car.
So moving the car might reduce the weight on that side of the house by a few percent, but I wouldn’t expect it to stop the foundation from sinking.
posted by mbrubeck at 6:15 PM on October 29