Evidence of Damage to a Post Tension Foundation in Chandler Arizona

This is probably earliest that I can show you start coming up the wall this is indicating that there’s a little bit of movement over here

I’m looking up a little high and then right here by this back door right up in here at this corner there’s a little itty bitty tiny crack up there so all of this is indicating that there is a little bit of settlement going on and the post tension cables are tightened to 27 to 30 thousand psi

Now we’re outside all of this rain water coming off of this area in this area and the other one is all just pounding this area here and we have a sidewalk basically a dam holding all of this moisture in and when this moisture gets held in it’s going to go in between this entry and that foundation slab there and it’s going to evaporate up leaving a fluorescent salt deposit left behind from evaporated moisture chewing into the concrete

That is the same thing that’s happening all the way around this house

The paint’s painted down to the top of the dirt the dirt gets wet below the paint line the moisture goes in and evaporates up leaving the salt deposit

The moisture is a transportation of this salt deposit and this cycle continues until choose into the concrete enough to the laminate the paint

This is happening all over this foundation however

I will be going over here on this side and this is a post-tension foundation and what I’m looking for are these two rust dots

This is patch material right back behind there is the cable with two half moon wedges holding that 27,000 psi

The rust however on these two pins it takes moisture oxygen and steel get together causes oxidation

Oxidation has a low voltage current so there’s moisture and oxygen going through here

Back behind here is a hairpin the hairpin is number four rebar which is half-inch and it will grow to two and a half inches in diameter and will eventually break this whole side and this is going on all the way around this house at these post tension cables

So the repair would be in is in dire need of patch repair waterproofing in painting dirt grading at an elevation brings this moisture away from the foundation and rain gutters all the way around the house

Where the rainwater comes down and disperse that rainwater over top of that sidewalk so it has its best opportunity to go down into the valley gutter where it’s supposed to be

So dirt grading patch repair paint and waterproofing and exterior house paint is going to stop the oxygen and moisture from getting to this rebar that will assess abate on the inside breaking out this entire wall

That’s where this is going to and it’s starting so this would help slow down and even stop this from continuing to assess abate itself

Also because post tension and it says right here and usually all garages will have that stamped in it post tension foundations are only 12 to 14 inches tall where it sits on top of the dirt

Well the dirt gets wet below the vertical wall of this foundation and then it’s kind of like a 10-pound bowling ball on top of mud it’s gonna sink causing vertical breaks

These vertical breaks look just like that they are vertical break which means that this monolithic foundation post-tension it broke there

So that means that this side is going down slightly and there are a few sever ones across here which this side that side over there and then the opposite corner are all three moving down causing the stress in the roof causing the crack in the ceiling drywall where we were just inside viewing