Solid Foundation

This Lego image seemed very fitting! (image from tsbmag.com)

Prior to purchasing our home we had a home inspector and a structural engineer examine our home.  It was found that from what could be seen the only major "foundation" issue was the rear addition on the back of the house.  You could see large, visible cracks in the foundation.  So before purchasing the home we got a few quotes on how much it would cost to fix and then we negotiated the purchase price of the home accordingly. 

Cracks on the back corner of the addition

As soon as we moved in we started gutting the basement with hopes of developing a basement suite to help off set the mortgage.  Also, we may be addicted to income property... Does anyone reading this know Scott McGillvray?

Anyway, once we had the basement demoed we discovered a bit of water on the interior, some large cracks in the walls, and numerous cuts in the floor joists.  So, we went to the City of Edmonton's "This Old House" seminar that focused on foundations of old  homes in Edmonton to get some more info.  We spent a great deal of time consulting our friend Google and then we ended up hiring another structural engineer to give us some recommendations.  After hearing his recommendations and getting quotes from 4 different foundation repair companies we were feeling pretty overwhelmed and confused.  All 5 individuals had varying opinions and recommendations and although there was a degree of overlap between some of them there were many differences.  This process along with us wrapping our heads around all the opinions took us a few months to sort through.  We asked a million questions, talked it over with ALL of our friends and family (thanks for all the input), and finally made some expensive decisions!  Which leads us to where we are now... 

Maybe we should cancel the weeping tile and replace with a moat?

Temporary support beams while the footings set

I wonder what lives in the straw...

Temporary support beam under the addition...
That beam is holding up my bathroom!

The company I chose is installing a weeping tile system and sump, pouring new footings and replacing the teleposts in the basement, and installing a frost wall under the addition.  They started about 10 days ago and have been working hard.  I'm relieved that this process has finally begun.