Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
ASK THE INSPECTOR: Three options for fixing porch movement
QUESTION: We have a 1929 two-storey house in Crescentwood. Sometime before we became the owners of it in 1962, a porch had been attached to the north wall of the living room. It's a 10-foot-by-10-foot interior porch, with a gable roof and a door cut through the living-room wall. It has plastered interior walls and an the exterior walls are painted lapped cedar. The porch foundation was done with concrete pads and posts.
For years, the porch did not move much and we had no winter mice. But over the past seven summers, the porch has started to move more and more each summer, and every winter we have mice to cope with. The house itself has never moved, to our knowledge, and we have had no basement cracks and no need for additional basement posts or the resizing of house doors.
Six years ago, we hired a well-known and reputable firm in Winnipeg. They suggested putting two east-west beams, each with two jacks, under the porch. But this seems to have been an inefficient expenditure.
After every recent summer, there are large, three-quarter-inch cracks in the southeast interior wall of the porch. This is, no doubt, the porch pulling away from the house. Granular insulation from the porch attic is falling into the porch. The exterior east side of the porch usually pulls away by about 11/2 inches from the exterior house siding. There are a few very small cracks on the east and west interior sides of the porch.
Every fall, we hire the same firm to go under the porch to adjust the jacks, which now only close the gaps in a minor way. No doubt the recent hot summers and the abundant Winnipeg clay are to blame for the increased porch movement.
We are thinking of selling the house in a few years. We are now both 80 and stairs are always a problem for the elderly. But first we want to fix up the porch foundation problem, if we can afford it. What are the reliable solutions? And how would they differ in reliability and cost?
Roy and Nancy Vincent
ANSWER: Movement of attached porches is a very common problem, especially in very old homes like yours. There are three main options for repairing a supporting structure, to prevent significant movement. We will look at the merits of the options you have not chosen and weigh them against those of your current system.
The two main methods for supporting any residential building with a crawl space are post and pads, like your home, or a grade-beam system. Grade beams are normally constructed of poured concrete and extend somewhat below grade to the underside of the floor joists. This short foundation is supported either on a footing or poured-concrete piers, commonly referred to as piles.
The difference between having a footing, normally less than a metre below grade, and piers is the depth of installation. Concrete piers are normally poured at least three metres deep and often up to six metres down. This provides excellent support and prevents movement due to frost, which can affect footings or concrete pads on grade.
Piers, then, are a superior option and should prevent any future movement of a porch. However, they're more expensive to install and can lead to differential house settlement, which can cause the same issue you are experiencing.
Grade beams are usually poured concrete, due to the durability and strength, but can also be constructed of pressure-treated wood and plywood. This is a less-costly option than concrete and will still provide good perimeter support and a barrier to pests and outside moisture from getting into the crawl space.
Poured-concrete piers are sometimes poured right up to the underside of the beams or joists and a treated-wood skirting is installed rather than a structural grade beam. Both of these options are similar and can be easily insulated and incorporated with summer vents and access panels if the crawl space is to be heated.
The other main option, posts and concrete pads, is often used because of the minimal cost relative to poured piers. I'm glad to hear your contractor installed adjustable posts to counteract the effects of frost and soil-moisture changes on this type of foundation.
As you've observed, frequent adjustments may be required to prevent movement relative to the home. However, I'm surprised at the size of the gaps you're seeing each year and the inability to close them with adjustments. Normally, these gaps will increase or change in size only slightly over the course of a year. It's possible the new beams may be poorly designed and not transferring the load of the building evenly. The most cost-effective option to prevent major annual movement and pest problems may be to modify the existing floor-and-beam structure. Hiring a professional structural engineer to evaluate the current system and design modifications should minimize the frequent problems. The repairs may include moving or increasing the size of the beams or footings. It may also include replacing the precast concrete blocks with poured-concrete footings on grade, to help stabilize the structure without major changes.
The final issue to discuss is differential movement between the foundation of your home and whichever system you choose for the porch repairs.
While you may think your house is stable and not moving, that may not be the case. Homes frequently are subject to the same forces that are causing your porch to shift. While the changes may be more subtle, you should be cautious when choosing a support structure like poured piers. While this is a superior system that should completely eliminate any movement in the porch, it will do nothing to prevent continued movement of the home. There could still be seasonal movement that creates gaps, but it would be the home moving instead of the porch.
For that reason, a better-designed beam system, with adjustable posts, may be the proper choice for your home.
Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and president of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors - Manitoba (www.cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be emailed to the address below. Ari can be reached at 204-291-5358 or check out his website at www.trainedeye.ca.
trainedeye@iname.com
Renovation & Design
SOLUTIONS: How to lure critters away from the garden
QUESTION: We have a problem with red squirrels and chipmunks digging in our potted plants and flower beds. They dig up the plants as well as the soil. Any suggestions as to how to make them leave our plants alone? Carol, Winnipeg
ANSWER: What works for one will not necessarily work for them all, here are the most effective solutions to try. Begin by distracting your furry friends with a bowl of store-bought food made specifically for them. Place the bowl far enough away from the pots but close enough that they will see their food. Wrap chicken wire over plant pots and make holes for the plants. They are unable to chew through the wire. Or secure large rocks over the soil making sure that they cannot lift the rocks. Human hair, blood meal, dog fur and fox urine seem to lose their effectiveness after a few weeks.
QUESTION: I recently removed the filter from my dishwasher to clean it. It was hopelessly caked with dried-on soap scum, so I tried many things to dislodge the scum without success. Finally, I used CLR, which did the trick. Unfortunately, I used my stainless-steel kitchen sink for this cleaning exercise, and I now have a rainbow-colored ring around the sink where the CLR/water was. Is there anything I can do to remove this stain? Erin, Winnipeg
ANSWER: Put the plug into the sink and fill it with hot water and half a cup of washing soda. Leave for 10 minutes and then drain. Rinse well with water, and dry. Polish with olive oil.
QUESTION: My three-year-old son got scribbled with a pen on our new recliner. It is blue ink on fabric upholstery that is mostly light grey. What can I use to get the ink off? Thanks so much. Julie, Winnipeg
ANSWER: Although I don't know the type of textile that you are referring to, my favourite place to begin when it comes to ink on upholstery is by rubbing shaving cream onto the upholstery and scrubbing it with a light-coloured cloth.
QUESTION: What kind of food is recommended for freezing and which foods should be avoided? Amber, Otterburne
ANSWER: With the exception of eggs in shells and canned foods, many foods are freezable. It is important to note some foods do not freeze well. Some foods that change in taste, consistency and texture are; mayonnaise, cream sauce, cream cheese, creamed cottage cheese, sour cream, fried foods, cake icing made with egg whites and raw veggies such as lettuce lose their crispness.
QUESTION: In a previous article you stated that setting plush toys outside and allowing them to freeze for 24 hours kills bacteria. I believe freezing is how laboratories preserve bacterial specimens for research. Also, if that is true, all the meat that we keep in the freezer would become sterile and we would not have to worry about E. coli.
I am writing this because after reading this article, moms would now think freezing plush toys would make them safe. Elizabeth, Winnipeg
ANSWER: You make great points! Some single-celled organisms are harmful to humans and animals while other bacterium is integral in sustaining our everyday lives. Many bacteria organisms require two essentials in their environment; oxygen and moisture. While this is not the case for all bacteria, it is the case for some. The meat you mentioned is rich in moisture and therefore freezing meat will not allow bacteria to die. Furthermore toilet seats, for example, harbour fewer bacteria than cellphones due to the accumulation of moisture on mouthpieces and moist hands.
If you're concerned and would like to take further action to clean stuffed toys, you may opt to wipe them with the use of chemicals such as Lysol wipes or sprays or take them to a professional drycleaner. Heat is also a great way to kill bacteria but not always an option, since the fibers of many stuffed toys shrink with heat and ruin them.
Slimy Tip of the Week
*Get rid of slugs. Open a can of beer and pour half into a plastic container. Place container near damaged plants at dusk. Repeat every evening until slugs are gone.
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