Paint bubbling off wood beam DIY help

[Greg Bernhardt]

As you can see from the image a vertical portion of my wall (a wood beam) has developed this vertical bubbling where the paint is being rejected. It spans from the ceiling to floor. First thing I thought of was water damage, but as I chip away at the paint and get to the wood it doesn't seem like there is obvious damage, but maybe it's further in the wood? Any other reasons this is happening? Do I simply keep chipping away, then slab a bit of spackle on the plaster and repaint?

 

[fresh_42]

How young is the beam? Fresh or treated wood could gas out.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

How young is the beam? Fresh or treated wood could gas out.

Almost 100 years old :)

 

[fresh_42]

Strange. It's too late here now to consult my expert. As the bubbles are along the texture (I assume), there must be a relation. Reminds me a bit on a math joke about a correct but by no means helpful answer. Could it be, that moisture from the paint got into the cracks and dried out later than the rest, namely the surface. Now if the paint is old as well, but the bubbles are not, then it's a real puzzle.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Now if the paint is old as well, but the bubbles are not, then it's a real puzzle.

I bought the place two years ago as a foreclosure. I know the coat of paint on there now was done fairly recent from when I bought it. I don't remember seeing the bubbling when I bought it. I'm sure I'd remember it and be concerned.

 

[Evo]

Is it a large area? If not, can you sand it down, make sure it's dry, use a good primer, then re-paint?

What is on the other side of the wood?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Is it a large area? If not, can you sand it down, make sure it's dry, use a good primer, then re-paint?

9x1ish.

What is on the other side of the wood?

The outside, I think either brick or stucco.

I do have lots of cracks and bubbling in plaster walls on my first floor too I am now noticing. You can one is following a plaster seam and the other a crack. I think my summer project will be stripping several walls.

 

[BillTre]

Wood expands and contracts as it absorbs humidity. This can occur seasonally.
More of this kind of size change goes across the grain, relatively little will go the length of the grain or the wood.

I am not sure that I would call your first picture bubble rather than folding up of paint with the underlying wood has shrunk.
Bubbling I have seem has more of a rounded top (due to pressure inside the bubble) while your picture seems to show a series of peaks.

Size changes of wood framing might also explain the cracks at drywall seams if the panels are moving independently.

Where I live there are also movements of the ground as the clay soil expands when it is wet and contracts when it dries out. Depending on how you house is constructed, this kind of thing can move the whole house or parts of it.

 

[Evo]

If you were closer, I would wobble over and help, I love doing this kind of thing. When my first husband was in the Navy, we spent several years in condemned military housing that was built as temporary shelter after WWI. I'll never forget the day the bathroom wall fell off the house. I walked down to the maintenance shed and told the guy, he went to the back and came out with a box of tiles and a bucket of grout and handed them to me. I said, no, you don't understand, there is no wall to put these on. He gave me a crazy look. Locked the shed, and walked back to my hovel with me, we went inside and when we entered the bathroom and there was just a gaping hole he goes "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

My neighbor fell through her living room floor and broke her ankle.

So, it could be worse Greg.

 

[fresh_42]

I think it's due to the usual movements of wood, esp. if there are temperature or moisture differences involved. In German we say "wood works".

 

[Mark44]

9x1ish.
The outside, I think either brick or stucco.

I do have lots of cracks and bubbling in plaster walls on my first floor too I am now noticing. You can one is following a plaster seam and the other a crack. I think my summer project will be stripping several walls.

View attachment 128351 View attachment 128352

What's the material under the surface in these two images? I'm not any expert on plaster, but it seems unusual to have plaster applied directly to a wood beam. The usual substrate for plaster is wood strips (laths) and/or a kind of chickenwire mesh. I'm wondering if the wood beam in the picture in post #1 is picking up moisture from outside, causing it to expand and generate cracks on the inside surface, along the lines of what @fresh_42 said about wood "working." I don't think the moisture would necessarily be in the form of liquid water - vapor could pass though without the wood seeming to be very wet.

Another possibility that might make sense is that the humidity inside the house is a lot less than outside, which would cause moisture to migrate from the wetter side to the drier side. If you heat with wood, the humidity inside can be very low. Where I live (WA state), the humidity in the house was in the low 30% range in our coldest weather.

Since the place was a foreclosure, the bank might have hired someone to make fast, cheap repairs, which might not have included good surface prep or a good primer coat -- the result being that the paint or plaster isn't adhering well to the wood.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

while your picture seems to show a series of peaks.

Yeah that is correct

My neighbor fell through her living room floor and broke her ankle.

lol your post I know wasn't meant to be funny, but I did laugh because it sounds ridiculous

 

[davenn]

can you sand it down, make sure it's dry, use a good primer, then re-paint?

yes and ensure the surface is free of oils... natural from the wood or otherwise

Almost 100 years old :)

OK and how long ago was it painted with this current coating ?
if less than say around 5 yrs since pained then look for poorly prepared surface
if painted much longer than 5 ++ years, then the pain could be failing naturally or because of environmentDave

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I'm not any expert on plaster, but it seems unusual to have plaster applied directly to a wood beam.

The first photo is a wood support beam. The next two are plaster.

If you heat with wood, the humidity inside can be very low. Where I live (WA state), the humidity in the house was in the low 30% range in our coldest weather.

I have water rads with a boiler. The inside humidity was low 30s all winter and still is.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

OK and how long ago was it painted with this current coating ?

I'd say 2 years ago done by the flipper. Yeah I know. I am paying the price for many of the cheap fixes by the flipper.

 

[davenn]

I'd say 2 years ago done by the flipper. Yeah I know. I am paying the price for many of the cheap fixes by the flipper.

the flipper --- isn't a term I'm familiar with here in Oz

Our bathroom has similar problems, pain is peeling badly ... the landlords father repainted the ceiling 5 yrs ago but he didn't clean the old paint surface properly
the new paint was starting to peel in 12 months and then ongoing ingress of steam from the shower and the pain is a total mouldy mess

Every time I try to clean the mould off, more paint just peels offD

 

[Grinkle]

I'd blame it on the painter - probably didn't use any primer, didn't properly sand before painting, and the adhesion was poor, making your paint more susceptible to 'wood works'.

Flipper refers to the investor who bought the house, did a crappy paint job, and sold it to a physicist. ;-)

edit:

I did a little googling, latex over oil is blamed here -

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/ideas/why-my-paint-peeling

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Flipper refers to the investor who bought the house, did a crappy paint job, and sold it to a physicist. ;-)

I'm not a physicist :)

I did a little googling, latex over oil is blamed here -

That is likely. There are many coats and certainly the first few must be oil or some older mixture.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

I grew up in a house over 100 years old and I remember that happening to paint in our house too. Old houses move around a lot, does that wall creak in the wind?

 

[Andy SV]

It looks like poor prep work. Walls can pickup oils and waxes and other stains that will inhibit paint from adhering properly.
The remedy is to strip off the bad paint and wash the walls with trisodium phosphate or borax and repaint.

 

[dlgoff]

http://consolidatedcoatingsinc.com/blog/baltimore-professional-painting/paint-peel/]If[/PLAIN] the paint was applied improperly in the first place, the evidence of this will manifest in the form of chips and peels. The surface may not have been properly cleaned before the paint was applied, or it may have been uneven, both of which cause paint to peel over time. Another possibility was that the wrong primer or paint was used, or that an incompatible coat was applied over an old one, for example, latex-based paint over oil-based paint.

bold by me

What I put in bold was my first thought. Here's a pic from http://consolidatedcoatingsinc.com/

 

[Work Hard Play Hard]

It looks to me like you have a keying (bonding) problem between the base and finish coat. If the base coat is still solid then your best option is probably a liquid key. If possible avoid using gypsum with lime and vice versa. At 100 years your wall is on the cusp and could go either way. Also don't use drywall joint compound. Besides, plaster doesn't stick to a trowel like joint compound and is much easier to use.
http://www.awci.org/cd/pdfs/9310_a.pdf

 

[Work Hard Play Hard]

I'm not sure what happened with the edit but my suggestion refers to what appears to be the plaster delamination and not the paint issue.

For the paint, is it possible the base is too "lime" hot for the paint? If so it will need to be sealed for any acrylic to work. Do a ph test on the wall and paints have a MSDS sheet which should identify their usable ph range.

 

[strangerep]

First thing I thought of was water damage, but as I chip away at the paint and get to the wood it doesn't seem like there is obvious damage, but maybe it's further in the wood?

From your photo, it looks like you've been able to gouge bits of wood away from beneath the bubbled paint? Is that right?

If so, can you follow a line of too-soft wood inwards, e.g., by scraping with a chisel or other sharp instrument? Do you eventually reach a point where the wood feels hard again?

If not, does that mean the wood felt hard everywhere and the paint was just lifting off the top?

It's really important to do a reliable differential diagnosis to pin this down, since the "solutions" in each case are very different.

 

[Dr Transport]

If your paint isn't adhering to plaster, try wiping it down with muriatic acid, then letting it dry completely. then prime and paint.

Also, is your ceiling plaster and lath?? When the cleaning lady came into the church next door to where I grew up, she found the ceiling had fallen in completely between Sunday night and Wednesday am. the building inspector came in and investigated, he found that the nails used to hold the lath to the ceiling joist had rusted thru and completely failed. This was a one hundred plus year old building, that is why I bring it up.

The best primer I have ever found is Zinsser 1-2-3, it stinks, but it adheres to everything provided you prep it well. If it is bare wood or bare plaster Kilz is almost as good and isn't as volatile.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

If not, does that mean the wood felt hard everywhere and the paint was just lifting off the top?

This is the case, the paint, which is many layers deep after 100 years, is lifting off the wood which appears to me to be in very good condition.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Hmm. Wood dynamically expands and contracts as a function of relative humidity. Higher RH = higher moisture content, MC. Most wood is planesawn, so tangential expansion/contraction, which has the largest coeffiecient of expansion, dominates. Those cracks parallel the grain and are the result of wood movement - tangentially.

FWIW - As a blanket statement, it is not correct to say that using latex coatings over oil-based coatings is always poor practice. The Forest Products Laboratory of the USDA has a series of publications based on extensive experiments.

What Greg has is most likely related to moisture differential between exterior and interior. In the US modern construction uses a moisture barrier (Example Tyvek) to limit this problem. Older construction in the US does not have a moisture barrier. So the source of the problem has more to do with the quality of exterior sheathing, or lack thereof. i.e., moisture migration, if I understood correctly.

Anyway, some of the comments in the thread do not match up with what the FPL research shows. If you have the time, browse and read some articles meant to help coating producers and the people who use the products get great results. And yes, surface prep is important, too.

Wood handbook - Wood as an Engineering Material - from FPL:
https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/products/publications/several_pubs.php?grouping_id=100

Bump around on the site and you can find all sorts of interesting papers, especially on exterior exposed surfaces.

 

[strangerep]

This is the case, [...wood hard everywhere...] the paint, which is many layers deep after 100 years, is lifting off the wood which appears to me to be in very good condition.

A telltale sign is that the bubbles in your pic seem to be following grain lines (or gum/resin lines?) in the wood. Is that right? (I can't quite tell from your pic.) You seem to have gouged out a few mm below the surface of the wood where you've scraped the paint.(?)

If they are resin lines,... well,... I learned years ago that they're a bad thing in the long term. For visible sections, I'd always dig out the resin and refill it with an epoxy. E.g., epoxy grout, or fiber glass resin thickened with fine sawdust or the ultrafine white "balloon" powder that some epoxy suppliers provide.

For 100 yr old wood you also have another phenomenon at work: the natural substances in the timber gradually oxidize over the decades, making it harden and shrink (which is why very old timber is far harder and more stable than new wood). But the gum/resin lines will probably shrink at a different rate from the cellulose in the main body of the timber.

Anyway,... before starting any serious repair work, I'd want to know what's happening on the other side of the beam. (IIUC, you can't access the other side?) You can probably buy an inexpensive moisture detector like https://www.jaycar.com.au/pocket-moisture-level-meter-for-wood-building-materials/p/QP2310 to find out if there's moisture deep inside the beam, without having to cut it. (That url is for an Australian shop, but I daresay you have similar outlets in your part of the world.) These devices are also used by termite inspectors to detect the presence of pests in wood (since their presence elevates the moisture level).

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Anyway,... before starting any serious repair work, I'd want to know what's happening on the other side of the beam.

New update, it's not a beam, but a hallow wood encasement that encloses a radiator pipe. I still don't see any sign of water damage.

 

[strangerep]

New update, it's not a beam, but a hallow wood encasement that encloses a radiator pipe. I still don't see any sign of water damage.

Oh, well that changes things completely. Now I'm wondering whether you'd be able to lever off part (or all) of the encasement, and replace with something non-timber, e.g., a piece of CFC (compressed fibre cement) sheet.

I remember in one of my bathrooms (from 3 homes ago), there was a panel in the wall to allow access to the sewer downpipe coming down from from higher apartments. The panel was made of particle board and, (even though painted), it had started to degrade in an unsightly way. So we replaced it with CFC sheet, and things were much better after that.

 

[OmCheeto]

Ha! We've currently got a "bubbling off" problem here in town, that makes your problem seem, um, kind of trivial.

[ref]

ps. Contact @phinds . He's knows wood.

 

[Wes Tausend]

As you can see from the image a vertical portion of my wall (a wood beam) has developed this vertical bubbling where the paint is being rejected. It spans from the ceiling to floor. First thing I thought of was water damage, but as I chip away at the paint and get to the wood it doesn't seem like there is obvious damage, but maybe it's further in the wood? Any other reasons this is happening? Do I simply keep chipping away, then slab a bit of spackle on the plaster and repaint?

Greg,

I have an argument, biased perhaps. Food for thought.

It takes a bit of thinking, but much of paint-peeling is likely due to the vapor pressure of water. It is quite powerful in it's effect, note the power of steam which is just a vapor, a rather hot vapor. A steam engine is a water vapor powered machine that depends on temperature differences. Certainly the applied heat is faster in such an engine, but cooler vapor pressure can easily slowly lift a weak-toothed paint at much lower temperature differences. That is why it often looks blistered. It doesn't naturally curl that way, it is ballooned by thermodynamics. If it just flakes off, it wasn't bent or ballooned because it didn't stick at all.

I'm not sure where you live, but in your case, if you are in California, it may have been quite wet (and warm) outside this year. Contrast that to the low, comfortable humidity you have tried to maintain within your home. Vapor pressure in buildings vs. outside is often described as the pressure between low and high humidity. Water likes cold. If high outside humidity migrated through your porous wooden beam from the warm outside, seeking cool, it would hit a barrier when it "bunched-up" (by partially condensing) right behind the AC-cooled difficult-to-penetrate-film of oil paint. That is because most oil paints naturally have a very low permeability rating (to water vapor). Low permeability means that the vapor can only most slowly migrate through a substance.

If, for some reason, the interior temperature rises (sunlight ect.), the water vapor cannot quickly "back-up", that is escape back through the wood beam, and a relentless vapor pressure develops. Note this method is quite successful in removing wall-paper. One soaks the wall, then quickly heats the paper with an iron. The heated moisture cannot all escape quickly enough through comparatively slow migration and expansion literally lifts the paper off the wall in a hurry. The same process sometimes lifts the paper off the wall in a slower manner without human help. Paper and paint don't always just fall off; they are often pushed.

Properly protecting homes is different in the north vs. the south. Wall cavities (including a solid beam, or 2x4) can accumulate moisture in two ways. In the south, warm outside humidity tries to permeate towards the AC cooled interior. In the north, the inside human-created humidity tries to permeate from the warm, moist interior to the cold, dry exterior. Somewhere in the middle may lie the Dew Point where wet forms. The secret to control is to apply a vapor barrier (usually translucent polyethylene sheet) to the warm side of the wall where the humidity is still dry (not condensed). In the south this is often right under the exterior siding, stucco or brick. In the north this barrier belongs directly under the plaster lath, or more commonly, drywall (ex: Sheetrock brand). Either way the humidity is not allowed to reach the cool core where the dew point resides. The reasoning is that all humidity is actually dry. When it cools and reaches the dew point, it becomes wet; ready to warm up, re-vaporize and lift a coating.

SOME TRIVIA:
As an example, prior to 1974 fuel was cheap and plentiful, many homes had little insulation and leaky doors and windows. At the same time most of the financing used to be provided by the Fed; FmHA (Farmers Home Administration) and FHA (Federal Housing Administration). Likely because of the close government relationship, homes became forcibly spec'd with much better sealed doors and windows.

The vapor problem then became pandemic in the northern climes after the 1974 oil crisis hit and homes were suddenly spec'd to be sealed better and more fuel efficient. Suddenly expensive home heat was retained -- but so was home moisture -- laundry, floor cleaning, cooking, bathing and plain old human respiration. I have read reports of humidity estimated to be a release of about one gallon of water per person per day, a huge quantity that no longer accidentally dissipated harmlessly outside. Excess humidity has since damaged ceilings, walls, windows and wall cavities with mold and rot. It has lifted exterior paint off the surface. But for the record, overall it is a good thing. Modern northern homes are starting to be built with whole-house air interchangers, a type of venting that retains heat while replacing stale, moist air. Indoor humidity is kept at more moderate, safer levels.

FYI, dry humidity is lighter than air. Composed of a single oxygen atom and two puny hydrogen atoms, the dry water molecule "weighs less", I believe rather is less dense per volume than O₂ or N₂ which composes 99% of our atmosphere. O₂ is usually found as a heavier bound pair and the same for N₂. Consequently the dry water molecule "floats to the top" -- rises -- after evaporating. Finally clouds form as the humidity cools, but not clouds of dry water. Clouds are actually small wet, water droplets that are still apparently still lighter (or as light) than ordinary air as long as they stay small. Fog, nearer the ground, is identical -- tiny wet droplets. When the droplets coagulate to drops, it rains. Or in the case of condensation inside a wall, the water often semi-dissolves some solids like plaster. If the wetted substance is heated the least, a dry vapor pressure is again formed out of wet water. Hot steam, cold steam, tepid vapor -- they are all dry by nature -- and powerful.

I once read that Egyptians drove a wood wedge in a crack in stone. When water was added, the wood expanded and the stone cracked. I have witnessed moist wooden Fink ceiling trusses lift a center wall up off the centerline of a house. The power of water.

I spent about 25 years self-employed as a subcontractor, usually plaster, drywall and paint. I was that guy that people blamed when it didn't go right. I spent a lot of time studying and explaining what really happened as best I could. This may post be long but it is by far the short story.

Wes
...

 

[Rive]

New update, it's not a beam, but a hallow wood encasement that encloses a radiator pipe. I still don't see any sign of water damage.

Temperature changes does the same as humidity changes. Wood contracts then expands, and the (far too old, thick and rigid) paint sandwich develops cracks, then peels off.

It is often enough to paint over, but at some point you will have to get rid of all the previous layers first.
Not as if the new layer won't develop cracks too, but at least it is not so visible if it is just one layer ---

 

[Wes Tausend]

Temperature changes does the same as humidity changes. Wood contracts then expands, and the (far too old, thick and rigid) paint sandwich develops cracks, then peels off.

It is often enough to paint over, but at some point you will have to get rid of all the previous layers first.
Not as if the new layer won't develop cracks too, but at least it is not so visible if it is just one layer ---

I can attest to the fact of temperature change problems you've mentioned also.

This type question may be particularly perused by homeowners searching for answers to fractures (cracks) and adhesion failures well into the future, so if no one minds, I'll add more info on moisture too because it goes hand-in-hand with temperature and climate. In a way this post may better fit under a landscaping and/or foundation thread prefix.

Regarding temperature, in some cases home developers in my area decided to try saving time or money by building soffits formed with only particle board to hide exposed ductwork, in some types of basements. Their plans were usually to have a company like mine use paper drywall tape to cover the joints and then finish directly over the wood product like what would be done over a wall/ceiling. There were two major downsides to this and I highly recommended against doing this. One downside is that paraffin wax is added to the oatmeal-like board mix during manufacture, possibly to semi-resist water. Consequently, the low adhesion of water-based mud compound (plaster) used to apply the tape, did not stick well to the wood because of the wax. The other downside is that these boards expand in all directions (since the fiber is random and the resin is a type of plastic) and apparently expand more than the paper tape (also wood fiber), a common characteristic of most plastics.

The installed paper tape seemed to pop off the wood surface after the first heating season similar to a flake. Since the tape didn't appear to blister, the loss of adhesion seems uniform, a shear. Still, there is also the very real possibility that humidity caused some pressure, driven from the hot core, presenting another case of moisture expansion lifting the weak, waxed, adhesive point; the plane of wood to compound. The paraffin itself can also have gassed or a multiple combination of volatiles ensued. Under the dry, protected temperate conditions where the paper tape works as intended, I have read it will hold about 25 pounds of tension per lineal inch of joint, still not much considering all the possible forces of defeat.

Further Comments:
FYI, plywood worked a little better, but I usually encouraged the use of proper framed gypsum sheet anyway. Gypsum (otherwise known as plaster of Paris) is the standard self-hardener for all interior plasters, with portland cement being preferred outdoors. The gypsum sheet is safer than wood products because it is fire resistant, unlike wood which is fuel. Also note that all the water used in mixing gypsum, is released when gypsum is heated to the boiling temperature (This boiling-off must be done to the raw mined product to prep it for consumer use). Then just like a kettle of water, the outer sheet surface can therefore get no hotter than about 212⁰ F (100⁰ C) even if a much hotter flame is right behind the inner surface... that is until it runs out of water. So this suspended transition state is true of a boiling kettle or gypsum wall. The resulting retarding effect then suppresses flashover, slows home and industrial fires and has made a world of difference in saving lives, especially when it was finally also applied to mobile homes. Gypsum should therefore always be applied behind wood decorated walls just to slow fire from blowing through the entire building, room-to-room. Gypsum is a dry built-in sprinkler system.

In my experience of a variety of home troubles, I have grown to believe a main culprit is the vague action of water molecules, hidden behaviors that are not so obvious. To give him credit, jim mcnamara had earlier mentioned (post #27) the migration problem and I mostly agree with him.

One other point to add: Tyvek is not really a general moisture barrier... it is a specific barrier to condensed, wet water... but not dry water vapor. This outer-house-wrap serves the identical purpose that GoreTex does, only for home "socks", not foot socks for people. The Tyvek resists water leaks that may occur around windows, doors and other breaches on the outside. Just as importantly it resists wind-pressure air movements that tend to make the walls breathe too much and defeat loose fill insulations. But any humidity that accidently gets past the low permeable interior moisture barrier (generally polyethylene sheet, Visqueen brand for example, NEVER Tyvek) can migrate outside through the Tyvek with ease and continue to dissipate without creating wall cavity moisture build-up. The Tyvek "perspires" the vapor away... just as Gore-Tex does for sweaty human feet. Yet like Gore-Tex, Tyvek keeps wet water out. The common trick of both is tiny perforations, big enough for single vapor molecules, too small for condensed water droplets.

Story:
Yesterday I watched an OR video in an adjacent room as my wife underwent cataract surgery. In the room was an attendent, an elderly (more elderly than me) lady who, when I responded to her questions on what types of work I have done, immediately mentioned she recently had developed a mysterious cracking problem with her home.

Since the lady mentioned it seemed random throughout her house and included interior walls, I suggested the home foundation was probably moving, which has given me many headaches over the years. Her eyes lit up and she then offered that, to repair the floor covering, her husband had already ground parts of the old basement floor back to level after it recently bulged.
Have any here ever wondered and thought about why their basement floor not only bulges (aha, the old blister effect) and occasionally even leaks water?
In her case there is a possibility that her newly installed sprinkler system is contributing to the issue. One has to understand the home history to know the likely cause.

After a foundation is dug, first the footings and later the concrete walls are poured. Any foundation must be at least four feet deep in cold country, hopefully below the frost line. Because there is a real fear of the yet unsupported open-top soft green walls caving in, the hurried landscaper oh-so gingerly pushes the clay back around the outside edge so that framers can conveniently work and add a sturdy flooring deck across the top... which then helps support the center top of the walls from caving in from soil pressure. Even then, sometimes an untimely rainstorm will be too much for the not-fully-cured cement..

Cave-in is a traumatic thing. Unfortunately, because of the cave-in fear and the hurry, the clay fill near the foundation is often never packed well, so it naturally settles later. If this flaw is not specifically corrected, it can become a major problem later. This scenario would mean that the newly established landscape "clay pan", the natural barrier to water which acts as the yard sub-drain system, now funnels water toward the foundation. Of course to compound this case, when the sandy, loamy topsoil is added, the dip near the foundation is often hurridly leveled with this more porous black soil -- not good. Problems from this arise during rainy seasons and sometimes from new sprinkler systems. The cure is to correct the entire base angle of drainfield away from the home. Hard work and quite pricy if not DIY.

BillTre hit the nail on the head in post #3. Water can be nefarious. As the climate changes, water tables also change over the years and homes nearly a century old can start moving because the clay layers that the foundation sits on, may slowly absorb water and swell. Unfortunately the lady I met is alone now and, if this condition is true, this type fix is to laboriously install drain tile near the footings and then install a sump pump in a collector... which can also be rather expensive if one cannot DIY.

Wes
...