Badly poured foundation?

[smarcus]

Today's basement. It didn't appear to be cracking, but I can't think of a way the form work can deform to create a foundation that looks like this. I think I have seen this on the forum before, but can not remember anything about it. I couldn't see much of the foundation, only parts of two walls adjacent to each other, but not the corner, and a couple of accesses for the gas and water meters. Everywhere I saw similar conditions. The first three pictures are the basement and the next two are the crawl space (converted porch) The only wall that was out of plumb was in the crawl. The home was about 60 years old.

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[Chad Fabry]

Google "cold joint"

[Jim Katen]

As Chad said, they're cold joints. The second two are unremarkable. The first two are interesting. The first one looks like the entire form shifted slightly after the first lift but before the second.

The second one looks like they re-formed and added a few inches to the top of the wall.

It looks like poor formwork and concrete placement, but I wouldn't get too worked up about it.

[smarcus]

I figured cold joints where they were flush in the crawl and some areas where it looks like they didn't vibrate the concrete, but I didn't see how the form could shift in the manner of the first photo. Jim, the second photo is at the base of the wall under the desk as seen from the establishing shot. The wall is sticking out almost an inch in that location.

[John Kogel]

It looks like the first pour was a disaster. They took a day or two to regroup. []

They added to the forms and poured again to fill a few low spots, and the new forms bulged and shifted a bit. What Jim said.

[Jim Katen]

I figured cold joints where they were flush in the crawl and some areas where it looks like they didn't vibrate the concrete, but I didn't see how the form could shift in the manner of the first photo. Jim, the second photo is at the base of the wall under the desk as seen from the establishing shot. The wall is sticking out almost an inch in that location.

Ha! These are fairly mild mess ups.

Go work on a concrete crew for a year or two and you'll see much worse.

I've been present when 8'-tall forms failed. What a mess.

[Charlie R]

Yep to all of the above - cold joints, form failures, change of plans about two minutes too late. Like was said, go work concrete forming for a while and you'll see it, but it is better today with the pre-made forms that pin together and better coordination between concrete truck deliveries/arrivals. Been there for 60 years, does it still have structural integrity? Pretty sure it does. Ugly, oh yeah.