- Located in Knoxville, Tennessee
- "The Foundation Specialist"
- Call: (865) 693-5366
- Office Location 1104 Laura Lynn Circle, Knoxville, Tennessee 37923
- Repair bulging & cracked basement walls.
- Floor leveling, repair & build retaining walls, & waterproofing.
- 39 years experience
- Signs Your Foundation Walls May Be In Trouble Pushing in from dirt/water
- Bowing, showing curvature
- Cracking in the block or mortar joints
- Standing water in the basement/crawl space
- Groundwater in water-saturated soils being pushed into the basement by hydrostatic pressure
- Common Corrections for Foundation Walls Build pilasters for bracing and fill with steel re bar and concrete.
- Tear out damaged section of the foundation wall and replace the section of the foundation wall using steel re bar and concrete reinforcements every other void.
- Water-proofing using Damtite or black tar on the inside wall or tar on the outer wall below grade level.
- Foundation Contractor
- Builder & Contractor
- Remodeling & Restoration Contractor
- Licensed, Bonded, & Insured
- Located in Knoxville, Tennessee
Foundation Walls
Foundation walls are walls that extend below grade and rest on a footing. The foundation wall must be able to transfer the weight (load) of the exterior walls and first floor to the footing and withstand the lateral forces applied by the exterior soil.With modern construction, foundation walls are usually 8 to 10-inch-thick, poured reinforced concrete or 8 to 12-inch-wide concrete masonry units (CMUs or concrete blocks). The thickness of the wall is determined by the weight (vertical load), depth below grade (lateral load) and the material used. Other materials that are used include brick, stone, cinder block, clay tiles and wood. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Hydrostatic Pressure Explained
Hydrostatic pressure is what is exerted by a liquid when it is at rest. The height of a liquid column of uniform density is directly proportional to the hydrostatic pressure.The hydrostatic properties of a liquid are not constant and the main factors influencing it are the density of the liquid and the local gravity. Both of these quantities need to be known in order to determine the hydrostatic pressure of a particular liquid.
The formula for calculating the hydrostatic pressure of a column of liquid in SI units is: Hydrostatic Pressure (Pa, N/m2) = Height (m) x Density(kg/m3) x Gravity(m/s2) The density of a liquid will vary with changes in temperature so this is often quoted alongside hydrostatic pressure units e.g. inH2O @ 4 deg C. The local gravity depends on latitudinal position and height above sea level.
For convenience the most common standard for hydrostatic pressure is meters or inches of water at 4 deg C (39.2 deg F) with a standard gravity of 9.80665 m/s2. The density of pure water at 4 deg C is very close to 1000 kg/m3 and therefore this has been adopted as the standard density of water. Another reason for the significance of choosing 4 deg C is that it is very close to the temperature that water reaches its maximum density.
In practical terms hydrostatic pressure units are rarely absolutely precise because the temperature of any liquid is not always going to be 4 deg C. You will also come across another temperature standard of 60 deg F (15.56 deg C). This can lead to confusion and inaccuracies when the temperature is not labeled alongside the hydrostatic pressure unit. For most applications these differences are not significant enough to influence the results since the reading accuracy is often much wider than the difference in the pressure unit conversion factor at these 2 temperatures.
In summary hydrostatic pressure units are a very convenient method for relating pressure to a height of fluid but they are not absolute pressure units and it is not always clear what density/temperature has been assumed in their derivation, so be very cautious when using them for high precision level measurements. In fact some institutions are discouraging their use because of the very reasons mentioned above.