I didn’t think it could get worse but I think it has, but we should get used to future disappointments and keep a stiff upper lip, right Winston?
This happen a while back and maybe something I didn’t want to post right away. If you can remember the portrait that our builder Thomas found, see Our last great find.
Aimee was taking our photograph with us either side of the portrait when the wall behind collapsed. Luckily it just dropped and didn’t topple. It felt like an earthquake was happening, strange noises like rain drops hitting glass and a shower of dust from the roof. Aimee and I were a bit shocked and I think Thomas was a little too. Luckily the ceiling above had been shored up, otherwise it could have been a lot worse.
There were numerous reason it collapsed:
- There are no footings on this house, just foundation walls.
- This was mud room and the previous owners had removed all the soil so exposing the bottom the foundation walls and as the soil is very sandy, it tended to fall away, leaving the foundation walls unsupported in places.
- Our groundhog had made a few tunnels under the walls.
- Thomas and Matt had removed further soil to enable then to underpin these walls.
This gallery doesn’t really do a good job at showing all the above but hopefully it gives you a taste. Note that the bottom of the wall is where the wall ends, no footing underneath just sitting on soil and you can see that the earth is very, very sandy, in fact it’s almost sand. At one point the wall was unsupported for about 6′ with no support at all at one end. The first shot show the chimney stack.
These are the photos of the collapsed wall, luckily it didn’t topple.
