Originally Posted By: ccoombs This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I would recommend further evaluation by an engineer/soils engineer.
There is some type of movement. If the post is directly below the lump I would assume everything settled except for the post. There is the option is that the post moved up. This seems like a less likely option, in my opinion.
Originally Posted By: kshepard This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
When they pour a slab around existing posts, often the area around the posts will be high spots in the slab. If at some point a post is removed the floor winds up with a hump where the post was.
Originally Posted By: rcloyd This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
David,
I concur with Curtis. Recommend a structural engineer that utilizes the services of a geo-technical engineer. Something is going on under that slab probably expansive soils.
Originally Posted By: rfarruggia This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I konw that there is no way to tell, but sometimes in these older houses they would find a really big rock right in the middle of where they are digging the foundation. Maybe it was just too much for them to dig or blast out with their steam shovels or horse-drawn sleds or whatever they had back in those days, and it just wasnt worth the effort just to get a smooth floor in the basement and they just left it there. Eventually, it got a layer of concrete and there you go.
The column in the second picture is definately not from the 20's. Were the columns installed to correct sagging and those wall cracks you saw on the upper floors?
I know all about CYA, but it may be an unnecessary expense to have the buyer spring for a structural engineer and/or a geotechnical engineer to look at a lump of concrete. If the concrete floor is not cracked and does not appear to have been recently repaired, I would lean toward saying something along the lines of "there is a hump in the basement floor" and leave it at that.
Unless the hump is directly over a buried cast iron waste main. Then you need to whip out the old see-snake.