Have you ever seen a basement ACTUALLY pushed in like this?

Thanks for all the Input yall.

I am TRAQ, and after reading all of these comments, my feeling it that y'all are correct. It is likely just crumby construction.

Thanks again yall for your thoughts!
 
guymayor said:
"what percentage of chance of failure would you think is acceptable risk?"

If you can assign %, you should be in Vegas, or on Wall Street. But the basic point is, the owner decides acceptability, not the arborist.
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when I have the chainsaw, I MAKE THE CALL! Of course I won't cut a tree without the owner's say so, but he can't make me do it..
 
Sorry but this sounds more like sack-swinging nonsense, shooting judgments from the hip, or an orifice nearby.
"when I have the chainsaw, I MAKE THE CALL!" After a qualified assessment, and with full knowledge of client goals and values, and being assigned to do so, you will be qualified to make those decisions.
If you saw one tuliptree fail, and that instilled a generalised species bias, and that makes you recommend tuliptree removals without basic information, that seems like unqualified advice, aka hack consulting.

TRAQ was designed to describe the process for more qualified, and defendable, opinions. I highly recommend it for you!
 
The deflection of the wall that you pointed out is of similar shape to what a typical single span structural element would experience under load but of course the magnitudes would vary with load and strength of the element.

Think of a horizontal beam or joist; of course there is no deflection at the supports (columns, walls, etc) and greatest deflection at midspan (middle of length).
Now turn that picture 90 degrees so the span is vertical and the supports for the wall are the basement floor/foundation and upper floor which tend to hold the wall from being pushed in.
A basement wall is designed in that manner.

If a horizontal crack occurs, midheight might be an expected location as, in addition, to maximum deflection the maximum bending stress occurs at that general location. Masonry is not strong against certain types of stresses including tension that will occur on the inside of a basement wall due to bending but a crack generally indicates some type of failure.

Normally basement walls have horizontal loads on them from soil pressure and water if the soil is not well drained.
Picture a sand pile in a quarry; it slides down and sluffs off. That type of action is what pushes against basement walls even though the soil is not a pile.
Then think of a lake against a dam. Water exerts pressure in all directions including horizontally against the dam; or potentially a basement wall if not drained away.
Also a much greater force occurs from ice or frost action if not well drained. I've seen ice lift a 2 story building 3" when it was being built.

That being said, how would you know if the wall in question was properly designed or constructed against those normally occurring loads in the first place?
An inadequate wall would possibly show exaggerated symptoms.
You pointed out reinforcing in an area of the wall that seems to be a distance away from the tree seeming to indicate that something else may be a contributing factor (too?).

That's not to say that the tree is not at fault or contributing.
All vertical surcharge loads placed on soil are also partly translated into horizontal loads so the weight of that large tree might have an effect depending on how close it is.

Soooo, if you're removing the tree you may not want to make any promises that could be construed as meaning it is absolutely going to be the end of their woes or you might end up with more responsibility (and cost) than you bargained for.
Have the owner hire a professional engineer and/or absolve you of all responsibility in that respect.

That being said, I'm just offering some theory related to basement walls for educational purposes and not offering any diagnosis for the specific job; consider this my disclaimer.
 
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"Soooo, if you're removing the tree I wouldn't make any promises ...
Have the owner hire a professional engineer and/or absolve you of all responsibility in that respect"
Or, don't make the recommendation, assuming liability, in the first place!

IME, professionals like this are unlikely to absolve anyone of all of anything.
 
guymayor said:
"Soooo, if you're removing the tree I wouldn't make any promises ...
Have the owner hire a professional engineer and/or absolve you of all responsibility in that respect"
Or, don't make the recommendation, assuming liability, in the first place!

IME, professionals like this are unlikely to absolve anyone of all of anything.
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The point is that it is unlikely that the author of the thread has liability insurance that protects him from claims that homeowners are capable of bring against him if he oversteps his profession by making ANY recommendations about items outside of his own profession such as the building foundation. If there's doubt on that he can call his business insurance agent and see what they may have to say.
Obviously he is uncomfortable about the situation shown by the fact that he asked for help on a forum.

As an opinion I would think that if anything related to the foundation is asked 0f him he might want to suggest that the owner hire a licensed insured design professional (Structural Engineer) for that specific aspect and he should make it clear that it is not his field nor his responsibility to speculate about what is causing the distresses that he has observed. Just the act of seeing the situation may have put him in harms way if something happens down the road and he didn't clarify his position now.
The hired Engineer would be expected to render an opinion and assume responsibility for it.

I'm not implying that anyone's ideas are not valid; Just suggesting caution because such matters carry financial exposures.
Residential customers can be a risk because they often don't know the where responsibilities begin and end and may have unrealistic expectations that can end in an unpleasant way.
 
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CreTree said:
Better chance that it is from the ground freezing and pushing that wall in. Window wells like that along with a block foundation are a bad combo.
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I commented on his video .. and that's more along with what I suspect. That is a big tree, but it's not really huge. And the roots are even smaller.
 
What I AM saying here is that a tree that is big enough to kill someone by going through the roof of their house, or is potentially a killer to pedestrians or motorists on well traveled roads must be treated differently than a tree that has little chance of doing anything other than property damage. Does your TRAQ make that distinction Guy? If they do that's great. If they don't then they have something to learn from me.
 
Murph, it's not my TRAQ. Yes, they emphasize target rating, very much!

When you take the course you will learn to sort it out with rational information. I have >40 trees big enough and close enough to potentially squash my house and kill me, but I'm not going to overreact to that remote likelihood.
 
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