tmckeehan
05-17-2010, 09:16 PM
I purchased a house that had a bowed cinderblock wall (about 1.5 inches in at the center). The wall was bowed from water/soil pressure since the house is on a fairly steep grade. The previous owner had backfilled behind the wall with crushed stone, but I wanted to stabilize it. The basement is narrow, so internal supports were not desired, and I didnt want to bring in a backhoe for adding external plates. So I purchased two 14 inch Earth Anchors from American Earth Anchors and threaded them onto an 8 foot section of black iron pipe (home depot). I then bought a cement hole saw, cored two holes about 2 blocks apart and then manually threaded this anchor horizontally in until there was only a few inches of the pipe showing. It went in fairly easily. I then attached a threaded rod to the end and used a nut to tighten it against a 3 foot section of pressure treated wood. The wood has two anchors and the assembly appears to be putting about 1500 pounds pressure on the wall. It hasnt moved in 4 years, so I believe it has helped. The cost was fairly low since I was able to do it myself. While I wouldnt recommend it for a badly distorted wall, it seems to be a relatively low cost improvement. I only used one pair of anchors, but on a longer wall I would think you could use a pair every 5 feet or so.