Great video, information, procedures, ideas and work! A neighbor hired and an engineer that charged hime about $40,000! I have done a few of these with no engineer. One job, with one helper I removed about 210 cubic yards of dirt, foundation and walls. We supported the house as we dug it out. I did this in one day, it was in good working conditions with no problems. What I use on jobs depending on the conditions is a CAT 1 1/2 yard track loader, Bobcat mini track loader, conveyors and a back hoe. The inspector said this was the best design and constructed job he had seen. I sometimes sub out the concrete work, if it is small I will do it myself. I will not work for someone if they will not install the pex pipe. Before this policy had I too many people call me for a price to tear out their new slab and put in in floor heat!
I started my basement with shovels and buckets. Then I got smart. I bought an electric rototiller for about a hundred bucks. Then I just made piles of loose dirt. And called a company that had a vacuum truck and they suck the piles and took them away.. pure genius..
@@lostintime8651 I picked up an electric dirt conveyor made for basements for $400 and sold it a couple years later for $2000. Had some ledge and picked a ton but a roto tiller would have been great for 3/4s of mine. Definitely an experience in full house remodels I will never forget.
We are waterproofing company in Canada and we put the Delta membrane all the way up to the ceiling not just the lowered section. Also we would run the Delta membrane throughout the floor so it's completely enveloped so that no hydrostatic pressure water would make contact with the concrete slab
@@brotherbill1000 lol 100 year old farm house here with a very high hydro. drilled a 3/4 hole in the floor and had water spouts. 100gal a min sump pumps. good times!!! 6 inch tile from pit to creek did away with all 3 pumps. hand digging craw space now and will be sealing it up properly
Amazing video. I’ve been trying to understand this process to gauge if it was an option for me. I’ve watched dozens of videos of people digging out basements but this was the first to break it down and explain how it’s done step by step so actually have clear idea of what’s involved. Many thanks for the clear walk through.
What an incredible undertaking Darren! Love the idea of the radiant heat in the basement, it's efficient, energy-saving, and cozy for the people who will live there.
I have electric radiant strip heaters (also known as "cove heaters") in my house. They look similar to baseboard heaters but mount up on the wall near the ceiling. The face plates get up to 300 degrees which does a terrific job of warming the floor and other surfaces, including furniture. Gives a very cozy feel similar to a fireplace. The heat pump provides baseline heat most of the time, and the cove heaters give us zoned control. The operating cost hasn't been too bad for the level of comfort.
I am a recently retired building inspector and I would just like to say that I wished every homeowner/contractor did the work correctly as portrayed in this video because my job would have been made so much easier. After all these years I’m really happy to be retired because it seems like every project I had to educate everyone and argue with the ones that were too thick headed to understand! This job was well done and I would pass with flying colors! Let me sign that inspection card!
Gr Delaware::: I don’t know your employer, but I suspect your boss would not agree with your opinion that “This job was well done and I would pass with flying colors!” Notice the new underpinning footings are constructed as several individual piers along the perimeter of the building. First error: the new footing needs horizontal reinforcement steel ( rebars) at top and bottom tying together all the individual footing piers. Second error: each new underpinning footing piers needs vertical rebars tying together the new footing to existing footing. Third error: the new footing needs rebar dowels tying together the new footing to the new slab. Fourth error: the constructed concrete slab had no rebars; it needs at least the minimum rebar density of 0.007. Fifth error: need shear reinforcement placed in each column pad foundation so as to resist punch shear. Sixth error: need perimeter rebars, typically #4 rebars, around an opening in the concrete slab. Seventh error: floor joist supported by masonry wall shall have positive connections each capable of resisting a horizontal force of about 300 lbs/ ft. Possible eighth error: the masonry wall appears to be unreinforced; unreinforced masonry must be reinforced when major structural renovation is made to the building as required in the building code. As to your “Let me sign that inspection card!” The Host of the Apprentice would say, “Your fired!”
@@ubermenschen3636 Some excellent observations. The rebar is in my opinion an absolute must. Really makes a huge difference in strength and tying everything together.
We actually did something like this 40 years ago. We had a 3 story apartment building with 6 …4 room rental apartments. We noticed that the brick had cracked and was moving away from the building. We called a local contractor and he bid the job for $10,000, just to stop the brick from moving. I had a cousin that was this type of engineer in the old country (Poland). He suggested we did the foundation from the outside and pour concrete under the footing. This being an English basement, the footing was only 4 feet below the ground. We dug by hand the west wall for 15 feet and put concrete under the footing that was half exposed. The next weekend we did the north wall the same way. We then put foundation coating (tar) on the new concrete and covered up the hole thing. We used premixed concrete in bags and mixed everything in a wheel barrow. It was hard work. The repair worked and the brick did not move any further. We repaired the brick that had separated. The job cost $1000 and a lot of free family labor. Jim PS…..the reason the wall moved was a dry well that was in the front yard was too close to the house and some settling took place, bad design by…?
Fascinating video and wonderful to see an older structure renovated and not simply removed for the new build. In Toronto/Mississauga single-family neighborhoods consisting of homes from the 50’s & 60’s, the trend is to tear down and build new that max to the original setbacks. This dwarfs the remaining lovely old bungalows. It is very sad to see the transition.
When I was in my late teens my father got me and some friends to dig out our cellar which extended under the back third of the house. The old ceiling was about 5ft and we dug out about 2ft more to make a decent room. Then we extended under the next third of the house where the ground level was about 2ft below the floor joists, removing about 12 skip loads of earth so he could put in an internal staircase. We actually dug below the foundations of the 1890's house which consisted of the bottom course of bricks corbelled out by a half sitting on about 18" of cinders then put in strip foundations and built up blockwork walls and finally backfilled between the blockwork and the old wall/foundation with concrete a section at a time. That was 40 years ago and there's been no movement since.
Did you mention how they tie the new concrete into the old? Drill and epoxy rebar or adhesive applications? Interesting to see how this is all the rage in city building homes in england because there is no other direction in which to expand...lol.
Since the new foundation is NOT monolithic, rebar should have been installed in the foundation pour with the rebar overlapping at least 24 inches. Currently your new foundation is a series of unattached pier footings.
Disclaimer up front. No engineer here. That said, I was thinking the same while watching the video. Im wondering if the following was considered with the non-use of rebar... Each key's rough and uneven edge provides subsequent pours something to bite into. Also, the ground at each key has supported weight for quite some time, and so it's packed and solid. There's the step (or "bench") at the base with the floor poured up against it. There seems to be appropriate joisting to support weight distribution and it doesn't appear that any specific key stands to be overloaded. I dont know enough to make any of this an argument. Simply asking if the decision not to use rebar was made on any of the above. I'm fascinated by the subject and enjoyed this very well made video and appreciate the work that was done. I do have another question with regard to the use of waterproofing membranes inside the home. Could holding the water behind them compromise the integrity of the masonry (concrete/brick) over time? I've never used them and don't understand how they work. Water moves in the direction of gravity and where's there's the least resistance. It seems that membranes applied against masonry walls would present the outward resistance and slow the movement of that water, keeping it in the brick/concrete longer.
10:26 The “bench footing” is also needed to support the weight of the entire building. It looks to be about 8” thick and 24” deep which is about right to support this building which has brick walls about 1’ thick and is at least two story. Bench footings are all we see in my area though we just call them footings. This is a great video. Learned a lot. Thank you
Good questions. I can't answer most of them, but I can answer about the membrane. If you look closely, you can see it's dimpled. This keeps the vast majority of the membrane away from the foundation, giving water a place to escape. In this case, they have installed a French drain that runs into a sump pump.
The way it is shown here is how underpinning is done. The “hit and miss” way of excavating means that there is no way to overlap the rebar. Depending on the location it may not be necessary, but if you did need to interlock the adjacent underpins then the only way would be to either fully lift and shore the building (to allow for a continuous excavation/pour, or (depending on the loads) you could drill and dowel bars into the primary underpins when building the secondary ones.
I WISH I could get a perimeter underpinning done for $400/ft. I am stabilizing a shifting/cracked (no rebar) concrete foundation in a 65 yo house on medium clay. All accessed from the outside. 210 LF. Should be around $85k. Bids range from $170K- $280k. Going with helical piers might save me about $50k, but half the engineers say it needs to be "capped" (essentially a partial underpinning) before the piers are set or sometime in the future, the foundation between the piers (23 of them!) will settle and the local contractors will need another infusion of $$. As best as I can tell, the "capping" (weird because it's under the existing foundation, I think) adds about $50k, so it's a wash. GREAT Video, btw. Lots of excellent information in less than 20 minutes. (Many arrogant inspectors and contractors have spent more time just telling me how many years of experience they have...)
Yours sound exactly like mine. 800 sqft house with poured 4ft deep foundation with no rebar. cracked due to settling on clay. I planned on doing this once i get an engineer to give me the plans. need a wider base to support the weight of the house. maybe double the width at the bottom. I would over engineer the rebar though i dont want to have issues in the future. need to find me a structural engineer that can let me know if this is viable.
Wonderful video!!!! Very nicely done, well explained and easy to follow along! As a former contractor, this was a great job, done by the contractor. You gained a new subscriber!
I'm wondering too! Also I wonder if they mixed Helix in with the concrete. Helix can do away with the need for rebar but I would think the cold joints would need rebar to keep the individual pours aligned.
I’m doing a similar project but the engineer that’s designing it wants to do horizontal rebar between each poured bay. And so I’m using hydraulic jacks to dig out 6 to 7 foot wide sections at a time even though I’m only coring 3 feet at a time because I’ve got all this lap rebar hanging out.
Well done Darren. I started building in 1997 in Toronto. Started with Single family homes and now have "graduated" to land development and condominium builds. When I used to underpin we tied the Pex pipe to wire mesh. I would love to know why it was not done in the above video.
Thank you so much for this! You're a role-model for the rest of us. I've been interested in basement digouts for years and am contemplating doing the process on two of my properties. ...also, how dare you not show us the finished product?!?! :D
Thank you Darren for clear explanation! Could you please tell me the following: 1) what was the strength of the concrete? How many PSI? Did they mixed concrete themselves or ordered? If they mixed themselves, what concrete bags brand did they buy? Did they used additives to the concrete (fiber, plastificator, extra cement, etc.)? 2) What are the dimensions of the footing and stem wall? 3) Did you used rebars for reinforcement? If yes - how many on the bottom and vertical? Size? Did they used bars to connect between old and new foundation? If yes, how they did it? 4) How did they removed supporting barring wall jacks and installed supportincluding beam?
13:20 was my burning question: What about water seepage? I like the water proof membrane. And I didn’t know you could place drainage tile on the inside. This whole project is awesome! I want to do this to my basement!
Waaw I’m impressed… hopefully I didn’t proceed with the contractor who wanted to this in my basement as I didn’t understand the process… wish to see the project completely done … 5 star ⭐️ buddy
$56,000 for the value add? That's GREAT! Thank you so much for putting this video together! This is absolutely awesome. Liked & subscribed! Thank you Darren. I'm researching how to do this to a property I just brought to flip. This was an absolutely perfect solution.
Great video with ton of information for people like me who has a plan for converting a crawlspace into a basement. I was wondering why I-sections are not used to support instead of many posts.
400/ft. Thank you VERY much. Will use that as a guide to get estimates. 50x20 footprint. If I can get it done for that it would be lots less than I expected. Looking at a quote I got from 2017 for $550/foot. Must be the competition in Toronto.
Anything is possible with engineering. You might not like the bill though. Why do you need an 18ft ceiling? My mind is racing with all the possibilities.
@@DarrenVoros ...thanks, again. i've started by insulating the roof and tweaking a few centimetres out of the plaster under the rafts in the attic flat. got loads of irons in the fire right now and i'm letting all the ideas i'm seeing here gell and take on the form of my to do next list. The family think i'm crazy!!!!
@16:38, notice the concrete slab has no rebar. Slab will develop cracks. Notice also there is no rebar connecting new concrete footing to new concrete slab - not a good design.
At 15:00 - what material is the under floor insulation and what are those clips holding down the pex tubing called? I had a bear of a time trying to route pex under my ice rink liner. This looks like a better solution. 👏👏👍🏻
In NY its min 8 feet apart for the pins. If closer, then the engineer has to provide structural stability calculations to the dept of buildings that is safe
Hi Darren, thx for this great video. It is as far as i am concerned one of the best if not the best video on this subject. Do you by any chance have any videos on how it was finished or can you point me in the direction of someone who does? Keep going, greetings from Belgium.
We put down gravel, a layer of 6 mil poly, then the 2" of rigid foam and then radiant infloor pipes and then the concrete. This area is not known for radon but if it was there are some additional measures that could be taken.
The previous owner of our house did an underpinning early around 2002/2003, but I have seen pictures were they used conveyers to move the dirt out of the basement.
This is the most informative underpinning video I've seen, by far! I own a 1960 brick home in Ohio that currently has 6'10" finished basement ceilings. I am planning a complete remodel of the property in a few years and I am considering dropping the floor to get a 8'6" ceiling height. My foundation is much smaller than this property (basement is about 1000sqft total), but based on the cost of this project, I suspect it would still cost about $25,000 USD to complete my underpinning, which is about 25% of my total budget for the remodel. One thing that isn't clear from the video is whether or not all the waterproofing/management, drainage, sump, etc were included int he price. Also, it doesn't look like you added any rebar to tie into the existing footer. Finally, did you consider using closed cell spray foam to insulate under the slab? I think it's a superior option because in addition to being an excellent insulator it is also an effective vapor, moisture and radon barrier all in one...especially if you run it continuously up the foundation wall into the rim joist.
Doing just that to my aunt's place right now. It is set in a hillside in a split style floor plan with a stepped foundation. There is a walk space of 21'x14' that we are converting to a great room. It was 12' dirt to joist on one side and 8' on the other rising 4' across the 14' depth. We are chosing to frame the floor with a crawl space because bringing in ABC would have been by hand in 5 gal buckets carried up ladders. Framing will be way easier. We are placing in triple 2x8 open cribbing every 2-3' to allow for rebar placement. There is vertical rebar epoxied into the existing foundation wall through the footer in every section. We are pouring a step footing on the interior sides and a straight on the exterior (dirt soil) we are creeping our soil nice n flat like in this video. Where the piers butt joint the is a 2x2 on the form to key lock the pours. In some places we are only adding 8" of footing in others 42".
That is very fascinating. The house has no continuous foundation, but only a thin strip of concrete on which bricked? Furthermore, the new, deeper foundation is not physically continuous? It's basically individual blocks now. Reinforcement would not have done anything because there is a crack between the concrete blocks every time? Our small 1960's house has a continuous wide strip foundation under the walls. I never thought that such a large apartment building could stand on the bare ground. We'd also like to "raise" the basement, but we're afraid there's a reason the basement wasn't dug deeper, and we might hit rock.
This is amazing!! Indeed. Would be really helpful to know how the main wall support beam/wall was built, then removed the support pole. Any idea how? Thanks!
All of the bearing walls were removed with temporary shoring post and beams. Support on either side of the load bearing wall and then remove the structure. Once that's done, you can reposition the load bearing temp walls to make it easier to work around them. Hope that helps.
Hey! Question for you, sorry if you mentioned and I missed it. I was looking to do my own relevelling, and support correction for my 120 yr old east coast home... but now wondering about lowering and making a full modern basement. Could you shed light on a average cost to do just the depth excavation and new pour? Appreciate any ball park figure for reference. My crawl space is about 5 feet in height, no concrete floor. All exposed soil. Some of the foundation is cinterblocks, some in stone and mortor.
Thank you thank you for such incredible teaching - I am looking at a project like this sooner or later, and this makes us feel like we have a much better sense of what's going to be involved!
Thanks for the great narration and pictures. I’m going the same thing in my cabin in Tahoe. Do you have videos of them digging, forming and pouring the concrete for the underpinnings? Thx Joe.
Tried to do this in my 1859 brick farm house. Im six two so needed a few inches for comfort. No problem as the fieldstone three feet thick foundation went far lower than the dirt floor. Found a large brick tunnel, evedently it was a wibe cellar (used to be a winery) and was used as part of the underground railroad where they would hide slaves crossing the Ohio to freedom. . Ive been chopping away at the old grape vines and they are very productive now. I prefer brewing so. I may make some wine and beer.
7:02 "I digged this by hand..." How long did that hand-digging take? How many feets of wall did you underpin? Would you do it again or would you use machines, despite the costs? Thanks!
Great video, information, procedures, ideas and work! A neighbor hired and an engineer that charged hime about $40,000! I have done a few of these with no engineer. One job, with one helper I removed about 210 cubic yards of dirt, foundation and walls. We supported the house as we dug it out. I did this in one day, it was in good working conditions with no problems. What I use on jobs depending on the conditions is a CAT 1 1/2 yard track loader, Bobcat mini track loader, conveyors and a back hoe. The inspector said this was the best design and constructed job he had seen. I sometimes sub out the concrete work, if it is small I will do it myself. I will not work for someone if they will not install the pex pipe. Before this policy had I too many people call me for a price to tear out their new slab and put in in floor heat!
Just as informative as This Old House. Whoever you hired did an impeccable job.
Can you do more construction videos?? The way you elaborate and explain things in detail is very clear
Thank you. I appreciate the kind words.
It's a good idea to put rebar pegs between the sections to pin them together.
I’m honestly surprised that wasn’t required. Those underpinned sections will now settle independently.
Yeah, really surprised the see a general lack of steel.
I started my basement with shovels and buckets. Then I got smart. I bought an electric rototiller for about a hundred bucks. Then I just made piles of loose dirt. And called a company that had a vacuum truck and they suck the piles and took them away.. pure genius..
I would have opted for key ways that would help on keeping the water from bleeding thru the wall later.
@@lostintime8651 I picked up an electric dirt conveyor made for basements for $400 and sold it a couple years later for $2000. Had some ledge and picked a ton but a roto tiller would have been great for 3/4s of mine. Definitely an experience in full house remodels I will never forget.
We are waterproofing company in Canada and we put the Delta membrane all the way up to the ceiling not just the lowered section. Also we would run the Delta membrane throughout the floor so it's completely enveloped so that no hydrostatic pressure water would make contact with the concrete slab
As a flooring installer, I like what what your are saying! Not enough builders/engineers consider hydrostatic pressure.
@@brotherbill1000 lol 100 year old farm house here with a very high hydro. drilled a 3/4 hole in the floor and had water spouts. 100gal a min sump pumps. good times!!! 6 inch tile from pit to creek did away with all 3 pumps. hand digging craw space now and will be sealing it up properly
Amazing video. I’ve been trying to understand this process to gauge if it was an option for me. I’ve watched dozens of videos of people digging out basements but this was the first to break it down and explain how it’s done step by step so actually have clear idea of what’s involved.
Many thanks for the clear walk through.
What an incredible undertaking Darren! Love the idea of the radiant heat in the basement, it's efficient, energy-saving, and cozy for the people who will live there.
We're using it as our main heat source throughout the house not just the basement. I'll have to do another video on that soon.
@@DarrenVoros that sounds like a good idea, it would be definitely interesting
I have electric radiant strip heaters (also known as "cove heaters") in my house. They look similar to baseboard heaters but mount up on the wall near the ceiling. The face plates get up to 300 degrees which does a terrific job of warming the floor and other surfaces, including furniture. Gives a very cozy feel similar to a fireplace. The heat pump provides baseline heat most of the time, and the cove heaters give us zoned control. The operating cost hasn't been too bad for the level of comfort.
I am a recently retired building inspector and I would just like to say that I wished every homeowner/contractor did the work correctly as portrayed in this video because my job would have been made so much easier. After all these years I’m really happy to be retired because it seems like every project I had to educate everyone and argue with the ones that were too thick headed to understand!
This job was well done and I would pass with flying colors! Let me sign that inspection card!
That's amazing insight. Thank you for sharing. Are you sure you don't want to come out of retirement? We could use some good inspectors in T.O.
Gr Delaware::: I don’t know your employer, but I suspect your boss would not agree with your opinion that “This job was well done and I would pass with flying colors!” Notice the new underpinning footings are constructed as several individual piers along the perimeter of the building. First error: the new footing needs horizontal reinforcement steel ( rebars) at top and bottom tying together all the individual footing piers. Second error: each new underpinning footing piers needs vertical rebars tying together the new footing to existing footing. Third error: the new footing needs rebar dowels tying together the new footing to the new slab. Fourth error: the constructed concrete slab had no rebars; it needs at least the minimum rebar density of 0.007. Fifth error: need shear reinforcement placed in each column pad foundation so as to resist punch shear. Sixth error: need perimeter rebars, typically #4 rebars, around an opening in the concrete slab. Seventh error: floor joist supported by masonry wall shall have positive connections each capable of resisting a horizontal force of about 300 lbs/ ft. Possible eighth error: the masonry wall appears to be unreinforced; unreinforced masonry must be reinforced when major structural renovation is made to the building as required in the building code.
As to your “Let me sign that inspection card!” The Host of the Apprentice would say, “Your fired!”
I was wondering why he wasn't using reinforcing Rebars? pouring concrete on a dry section. What is your thaughts? Thanks
@@ubermenschen3636 Some excellent observations. The rebar is in my opinion an absolute must. Really makes a huge difference in strength and tying everything together.
@@ubermenschen3636 The host was fired!
very informative and well communicated. thanks!
We actually did something like this 40 years ago. We had a 3 story apartment building with 6 …4 room rental apartments. We noticed that the brick had cracked and was moving away from the building. We called a local contractor and he bid the job for $10,000, just to stop the brick from moving. I had a cousin that was this type of engineer in the old country (Poland). He suggested we did the foundation from the outside and pour concrete under the footing. This being an English basement, the footing was only 4 feet below the ground. We dug by hand the west wall for 15 feet and put concrete under the footing that was half exposed. The next weekend we did the north wall the same way. We then put foundation coating (tar) on the new concrete and covered up the hole thing. We used premixed concrete in bags and mixed everything in a wheel barrow. It was hard work. The repair worked and the brick did not move any further. We repaired the brick that had separated. The job cost $1000 and a lot of free family labor. Jim
PS…..the reason the wall moved was a dry well that was in the front yard was too close to the house and some settling took place, bad design by…?
This is by far the best video explaining underpinning I’ve watched on UA-cam. What area do u work in?
Thanks Matt. I'm an investor based in Toronto, ON.
The walk through was much appreciated.
Glad you liked it.
Fascinating video and wonderful to see an older structure renovated and not simply removed for the new build. In Toronto/Mississauga single-family neighborhoods consisting of homes from the 50’s & 60’s, the trend is to tear down and build new that max to the original setbacks. This dwarfs the remaining lovely old bungalows. It is very sad to see the transition.
Very informative. The editing was great. Very well put together! Thank you!
Wow , you did such an excellent job explaining the phases, and everything, and good flow bro, excellent camera man
When I was in my late teens my father got me and some friends to dig out our cellar which extended under the back third of the house. The old ceiling was about 5ft and we dug out about 2ft more to make a decent room. Then we extended under the next third of the house where the ground level was about 2ft below the floor joists, removing about 12 skip loads of earth so he could put in an internal staircase. We actually dug below the foundations of the 1890's house which consisted of the bottom course of bricks corbelled out by a half sitting on about 18" of cinders then put in strip foundations and built up blockwork walls and finally backfilled between the blockwork and the old wall/foundation with concrete a section at a time. That was 40 years ago and there's been no movement since.
This is the best video I had ever seen of this process I whish I could fo this to my house, great information good job
Another extremely informative video Darren! 🎉
Thanks Evan!
Did you mention how they tie the new concrete into the old? Drill and epoxy rebar or adhesive applications?
Interesting to see how this is all the rage in city building homes in england because there is no other direction in which to expand...lol.
Since the new foundation is NOT monolithic, rebar should have been installed in the foundation pour with the rebar overlapping at least 24 inches. Currently your new foundation is a series of unattached pier footings.
Was going to ask about this exact thing.
Disclaimer up front. No engineer here. That said, I was thinking the same while watching the video.
Im wondering if the following was considered with the non-use of rebar... Each key's rough and uneven edge provides subsequent pours something to bite into. Also, the ground at each key has supported weight for quite some time, and so it's packed and solid. There's the step (or "bench") at the base with the floor poured up against it. There seems to be appropriate joisting to support weight distribution and it doesn't appear that any specific key stands to be overloaded. I dont know enough to make any of this an argument. Simply asking if the decision not to use rebar was made on any of the above.
I'm fascinated by the subject and enjoyed this very well made video and appreciate the work that was done.
I do have another question with regard to the use of waterproofing membranes inside the home. Could holding the water behind them compromise the integrity of the masonry (concrete/brick) over time? I've never used them and don't understand how they work. Water moves in the direction of gravity and where's there's the least resistance. It seems that membranes applied against masonry walls would present the outward resistance and slow the movement of that water, keeping it in the brick/concrete longer.
10:26 The “bench footing” is also needed to support the weight of the entire building. It looks to be about 8” thick and 24” deep which is about right to support this building which has brick walls about 1’ thick and is at least two story. Bench footings are all we see in my area though we just call them footings. This is a great video. Learned a lot. Thank you
Good questions. I can't answer most of them, but I can answer about the membrane. If you look closely, you can see it's dimpled. This keeps the vast majority of the membrane away from the foundation, giving water a place to escape. In this case, they have installed a French drain that runs into a sump pump.
The way it is shown here is how underpinning is done. The “hit and miss” way of excavating means that there is no way to overlap the rebar. Depending on the location it may not be necessary, but if you did need to interlock the adjacent underpins then the only way would be to either fully lift and shore the building (to allow for a continuous excavation/pour, or (depending on the loads) you could drill and dowel bars into the primary underpins when building the secondary ones.
You answered every question I didn't know I had! love(d) seeing every phase so clearly & concisely laid out!
This was very informative and extremely appreciated. Thank you.
Just what I needed to watch. Thank you. Subscribed!!!
Awesome! Thank you!
hi, i enjoyed your underpinning process! very informative and encouraging
Wow what an informative video. I’m from Toronto as well.
Thank you for the insight!
Glad it was helpful!
I WISH I could get a perimeter underpinning done for $400/ft. I am stabilizing a shifting/cracked (no rebar) concrete foundation in a 65 yo house on medium clay. All accessed from the outside. 210 LF. Should be around $85k. Bids range from $170K- $280k. Going with helical piers might save me about $50k, but half the engineers say it needs to be "capped" (essentially a partial underpinning) before the piers are set or sometime in the future, the foundation between the piers (23 of them!) will settle and the local contractors will need another infusion of $$. As best as I can tell, the "capping" (weird because it's under the existing foundation, I think) adds about $50k, so it's a wash. GREAT Video, btw. Lots of excellent information in less than 20 minutes. (Many arrogant inspectors and contractors have spent more time just telling me how many years of experience they have...)
Yours sound exactly like mine. 800 sqft house with poured 4ft deep foundation with no rebar. cracked due to settling on clay. I planned on doing this once i get an engineer to give me the plans. need a wider base to support the weight of the house. maybe double the width at the bottom. I would over engineer the rebar though i dont want to have issues in the future. need to find me a structural engineer that can let me know if this is viable.
Fantastic!! I learned something new today. Another bullet in my bandoleer. Thank you.
Superbly executed, and highly educational. Thank you.
Wonderful video!!!! Very nicely done, well explained and easy to follow along! As a former contractor, this was a great job, done by the contractor. You gained a new subscriber!
Thank you very much!
Highly Valuable. Thank you Darren :)
Excellent video, very clear details.
Cheers
That was amazing, very cool and insightful. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video! But I am wondering why you didn't use rebar in any of the new concrete you poured?
I'm wondering too! Also I wonder if they mixed Helix in with the concrete. Helix can do away with the need for rebar but I would think the cold joints would need rebar to keep the individual pours aligned.
I guess it's no different than an old stone foundation... But why not use rebar?
Fantastic job explaining this process - Thank You!!
You're very welcome!
great explainer. I'm inspired for my own basement project!
😁
Great video, perfect actually. Thank you Darren!
Glad you like it.
I’m doing a similar project but the engineer that’s designing it wants to do horizontal rebar between each poured bay. And so I’m using hydraulic jacks to dig out 6 to 7 foot wide sections at a time even though I’m only coring 3 feet at a time because I’ve got all this lap rebar hanging out.
Great and informative video! Thanks for posting!
Glad it was helpful!
This is great, but what about the reinforcement? Would like to have seen the cages.
Well done Darren. I started building in 1997 in Toronto. Started with Single family homes and now have "graduated" to land development and condominium builds. When I used to underpin we tied the Pex pipe to wire mesh. I would love to know why it was not done in the above video.
Really informative video. That is the neatest and tidiest building site I've ever seen! I subscribed.
Thank you so much for this! You're a role-model for the rest of us. I've been interested in basement digouts for years and am contemplating doing the process on two of my properties.
...also, how dare you not show us the finished product?!?! :D
Radiant in floor heat is so worth it! Did it in our own house. Great video Darren! Looking forward to more videos on your channel!
It's the best kind of heat. Thanks for the kind words Kory. I follow your content as well. A great compliment coming from you.
This guy is an alien, didn't blink once. 👽
Awesome project and explanations! Y
Thank you!
Extremely valuable to assess how realistically feasible something like this is.
This was awesome. Nice job, and Thank You!!😊😊😊
Thank you Darren for clear explanation!
Could you please tell me the following:
1) what was the strength of the concrete? How many PSI? Did they mixed concrete themselves or ordered? If they mixed themselves, what concrete bags brand did they buy? Did they used additives to the concrete (fiber, plastificator, extra cement, etc.)?
2) What are the dimensions of the footing and stem wall?
3) Did you used rebars for reinforcement? If yes - how many on the bottom and vertical? Size? Did they used bars to connect between old and new foundation? If yes, how they did it?
4) How did they removed supporting barring wall jacks and installed supportincluding beam?
Great video! Awesome to see all that progress. I am curious about rebar in the footings and slab, and seeing it all tied together though.
Thank you, Darren, for the best underpinning video on UA-cam!
13:20 was my burning question: What about water seepage? I like the water proof membrane. And I didn’t know you could place drainage tile on the inside.
This whole project is awesome!
I want to do this to my basement!
Terrifically done video. Thanks for putting this together. Very informative.
Waaw I’m impressed… hopefully I didn’t proceed with the contractor who wanted to this in my basement as I didn’t understand the process… wish to see the project completely done … 5 star ⭐️ buddy
Amazing explonation thank you
You are welcome!
$56,000 for the value add? That's GREAT! Thank you so much for putting this video together! This is absolutely awesome. Liked & subscribed! Thank you Darren. I'm researching how to do this to a property I just brought to flip. This was an absolutely perfect solution.
Glad it was helpful!
Great video with ton of information for people like me who has a plan for converting a crawlspace into a basement. I was wondering why I-sections are not used to support instead of many posts.
400/ft. Thank you VERY much. Will use that as a guide to get estimates. 50x20 footprint. If I can get it done for that it would be lots less than I expected. Looking at a quote I got from 2017 for $550/foot. Must be the competition in Toronto.
Great job the best explanation I been looking for to do my basement bless thank you so much for share
This is extremely helpful and just plain cool!!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks Ibi!
Great video. How deep can you underpin? Looking for an 18ft depth basement.
Anything is possible with engineering. You might not like the bill though. Why do you need an 18ft ceiling? My mind is racing with all the possibilities.
@@DarrenVoros I want to add a indoor basketball half court in the basement. It’s a large basement. I would need the extra height.
...brilliant, a great help for me in the job i'm looking forward to completing!
Glad it helped. It's a fun process to go through.
@@DarrenVoros ...thanks, again. i've started by insulating the roof and tweaking a few centimetres out of the plaster under the rafts in the attic flat. got loads of irons in the fire right now and i'm letting all the ideas i'm seeing here gell and take on the form of my to do next list. The family think i'm crazy!!!!
@16:38, notice the concrete slab has no rebar. Slab will develop cracks. Notice also there is no rebar connecting new concrete footing to new concrete slab - not a good design.
Vow. What a great piece of Civil engineering
Right! The brilliant people who think these things up are amazing.
At 15:00 - what material is the under floor insulation and what are those clips holding down the pex tubing called?
I had a bear of a time trying to route pex under my ice rink liner. This looks like a better solution. 👏👏👍🏻
Did same job on grandpas 1875 house in Stillwater. Whole house redo. Next to park. Nice.
Great video thinking of doing this on an old house creati g a 9ft basemen5 for more living space
9ft ceilings in the basement doesn't even feel like.a basement anymore.
@@DarrenVoros yep that's the idea
Thanks Darren for the video! Is it possible to still live in the house while the underpinning is going on?
Ya 100%. People do it all the time.
Excellent video Darren!
Thank you very much!
I’m doing a research project and am able to use this as an example for my presentation
Ya go for it!
In NY its min 8 feet apart for the pins. If closer, then the engineer has to provide structural stability
calculations to the dept of buildings that is safe
Why is there no rebar hanging out of form 1 to connect to form 2 when poured?
Hi Darren, thx for this great video. It is as far as i am concerned one of the best if not the best video on this subject. Do you by any chance have any videos on how it was finished or can you point me in the direction of someone who does? Keep going, greetings from Belgium.
what steps do we need to take to deter radon from entering the house home? Thanks you! Your videos are amazing and helpful! Thank you!
We put down gravel, a layer of 6 mil poly, then the 2" of rigid foam and then radiant infloor pipes and then the concrete. This area is not known for radon but if it was there are some additional measures that could be taken.
Do you include steel bars in the concrete ?
Wondering the same thing. 🤔
depends on the engineering regulations in your area, this being Ontario, the regs are pretty strict, I would assume there is rebar.
this is a very complete work! thank you sir
Thanks for watching and for the kind words.
The previous owner of our house did an underpinning early around 2002/2003, but I have seen pictures were they used conveyers to move the dirt out of the basement.
Amazing job done
Very informative!
This is the most informative underpinning video I've seen, by far! I own a 1960 brick home in Ohio that currently has 6'10" finished basement ceilings. I am planning a complete remodel of the property in a few years and I am considering dropping the floor to get a 8'6" ceiling height. My foundation is much smaller than this property (basement is about 1000sqft total), but based on the cost of this project, I suspect it would still cost about $25,000 USD to complete my underpinning, which is about 25% of my total budget for the remodel. One thing that isn't clear from the video is whether or not all the waterproofing/management, drainage, sump, etc were included int he price. Also, it doesn't look like you added any rebar to tie into the existing footer.
Finally, did you consider using closed cell spray foam to insulate under the slab? I think it's a superior option because in addition to being an excellent insulator it is also an effective vapor, moisture and radon barrier all in one...especially if you run it continuously up the foundation wall into the rim joist.
Great video!
No rebar? Shouldn't each section be tied to another?
Great video- Question- Is there some type of underpinning for a house that has a dirt floor basement. ( 8 foot at end and 4 foot at other end ? )
Doing just that to my aunt's place right now. It is set in a hillside in a split style floor plan with a stepped foundation. There is a walk space of 21'x14' that we are converting to a great room. It was 12' dirt to joist on one side and 8' on the other rising 4' across the 14' depth. We are chosing to frame the floor with a crawl space because bringing in ABC would have been by hand in 5 gal buckets carried up ladders. Framing will be way easier. We are placing in triple 2x8 open cribbing every 2-3' to allow for rebar placement. There is vertical rebar epoxied into the existing foundation wall through the footer in every section. We are pouring a step footing on the interior sides and a straight on the exterior (dirt soil) we are creeping our soil nice n flat like in this video. Where the piers butt joint the is a 2x2 on the form to key lock the pours. In some places we are only adding 8" of footing in others 42".
thanks for all the great info!!
Glad you liked it!
So clear and helpful, thank you!
You're so welcome!
Good stuff mate!
Glad you enjoyed it
That is very fascinating. The house has no continuous foundation, but only a thin strip of concrete on which bricked? Furthermore, the new, deeper foundation is not physically continuous? It's basically individual blocks now. Reinforcement would not have done anything because there is a crack between the concrete blocks every time? Our small 1960's house has a continuous wide strip foundation under the walls. I never thought that such a large apartment building could stand on the bare ground.
We'd also like to "raise" the basement, but we're afraid there's a reason the basement wasn't dug deeper, and we might hit rock.
Amazing video thanks so much!
You're so welcome!
This is amazing!! Indeed. Would be really helpful to know how the main wall support beam/wall was built, then removed the support pole. Any idea how? Thanks!
All of the bearing walls were removed with temporary shoring post and beams. Support on either side of the load bearing wall and then remove the structure. Once that's done, you can reposition the load bearing temp walls to make it easier to work around them. Hope that helps.
Amazing job done!
Thank you
Good communication and information
Thank you Robert.
Hey! Question for you, sorry if you mentioned and I missed it.
I was looking to do my own relevelling, and support correction for my 120 yr old east coast home... but now wondering about lowering and making a full modern basement. Could you shed light on a average cost to do just the depth excavation and new pour? Appreciate any ball park figure for reference.
My crawl space is about 5 feet in height, no concrete floor. All exposed soil. Some of the foundation is cinterblocks, some in stone and mortor.
Pouring a new slab should run you anywhere from $7-$10/sq ft.
Thank you for sharing the video.
My pleasure Frymzim!
Nice. Good educational video how it should be done.
Wow! Looks great!
Thank you! The project is coming along.
Thank you thank you for such incredible teaching - I am looking at a project like this sooner or later, and this makes us feel like we have a much better sense of what's going to be involved!
Glad it was helpful. Thanks for watching.
Immensely helpful, thanks.
I'm having a lot of trouble finding a contractor that does this, any pointers?
Very nicely done.
Thank you very much!
Thanks for the great narration and pictures. I’m going the same thing in my cabin in Tahoe. Do you have videos of them digging, forming and pouring the concrete for the underpinnings? Thx Joe.
@Kyle White yes. It will be a great diy project
@Kyle White hi Kyle. Sounds great. I’ll be start work again in the late spring. Lots of snow up here. I’m sure you got your fill too.
Tried to do this in my 1859 brick farm house. Im six two so needed a few inches for comfort.
No problem as the fieldstone three feet thick foundation went far lower than the dirt floor.
Found a large brick tunnel, evedently it was a wibe cellar (used to be a winery) and was used as part of the underground railroad where they would hide slaves crossing the Ohio to freedom. .
Ive been chopping away at the old grape vines and they are very productive now. I prefer brewing so. I may make some wine and beer.
7:02 "I digged this by hand..." How long did that hand-digging take? How many feets of wall did you underpin? Would you do it again or would you use machines, despite the costs? Thanks!