Historical Winnipeg discussion

[SHOFEAR]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Houses really shouldn't be built on any type of backfill. That's asking for problems. The ground should be excavated down to underside of basement, in situ material compacted in place, then built up from there. Or something like that. Piled foundations are better, but must be done properly and are more expensive.

Compacting of the fill below said houses is key. And from what I see of people in construction, they will do the bare bones minimum. In grading works, they test for compaction. Contractors will literally compact the same area 10 times, then test it and be like " we all good son. we out." Meanwhile the rest of the area is under compacted. This is bad for differential settlement. If it's going to settle, which most likely it will, you want it to settle evenly. Having one area more compacted then another leads to uneven settlement, where you get the issues.

Localizing this to a house foundation, there should be no issues with quality control.

.

Lots of incorrect info.

During the grading design of new neighborhoods, we generally design to balance the site. Material cut from the storm pond is used else where on site. Additionally, we try to bury as much topsoil as possible in back of lot trenches and parks to avoid the cost of hauling topsoil off site. These borrow pits also generate large amounts of common material that can be used in compaction elsewhere on site.

Generally fills below a certain elevation relative to front of lots is considered "engineered fill". This depends on many factors, but the intent is to ensure that basements are cut into material that has been graded and compacted by the developer not the home builder (builders and their trades are too dumb). It's closely monitored by geotechnical consultants and each lift (generally 1ft) needs to pass before they can move on to the next. the top couple feet of the lot doesn't need to be compacted the same way.

Grading has so many factors...material balance, depth of cover of utilities, major overland flow toward the storm pond...etc...large engineered fills are far easier to deal with by comparison and as a result we don't really think twice about it.

[bomberjet]

Well that's good to hear.

My comments, though, still stand. Placing 4' of fill below a house foundation, I do not want that for my home in Winnipeg. Edmonton is not Winnipeg.

Also, seems the original poster plrh clarified that the house was not on fill, just the ground surrounding the house from my understanding.

[Biff]

Originally Posted by Riverman

Would they be poured in tubes or right into the hole (hence friction)?

Thanks for the edmucation!

Our house is exactly on this, 16 - 20 foot friction piles. They use about a 18" section of tube at the top then pour right in the hole with rebar.

[SHOFEAR]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Well that's good to hear.

My comments, though, still stand. Placing 4' of fill below a house foundation, I do not want that for my home in Winnipeg. Edmonton is not Winnipeg.

Shitty old inner city neighbourhoods are far worse. They don't have storm ponds, they don't have proper surface drainage with overland flow to a series of storm ponds or creeks into a river. A spring hailstorm that rips leafs off trees and plugs catch basins can cause major flooding in basements as these neighbourhoods weren't designed with overland flooding in mind.

New neighbourhoods is basically a series of steps. Every municipality is different, but it would be impossible to flood out gutters by more than 0.25 to 0.3m of water until it reaches a spillover point and tips towards the next series of catch basins. As a result, your never going to have a flood on your street that wrecks your car or pours into your basement.

This is only possible because of the significant recontouring that we do when we build neighbourhoods.

[michelleb]

What do you do if your foundation starts shifting *every year* and creating huge cracks in your walls? My parents live in South Winnipeg and it's turned into a nightmare. They can't spend thousands every year to have it repaired.

[drew]

Originally Posted by michelleb

What do you do if your foundation starts shifting *every year* and creating huge cracks in your walls? My parents live in South Winnipeg and it's turned into a nightmare. They can't spend thousands every year to have it repaired.

^ finish the basement and move...

j/k (sort of).

There are many things you can do to a foundation, but all of it requires $$, and lots of it.

At the end of the day, with a house on footings in Winnipeg, you won't be able to stop it from moving. You can just direct water away from the foundation as much as possible in the hopes of minimizing it.

[michelleb]

Originally Posted by drew

^ finish the basement and move...

j/k (sort of).

Well, that's what *I* think they should do. They should have done that after it happened the second time in my opinion. Old and stubborn.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by michelleb

Well, that's what *I* think they should do. They should have done that after it happened the second time in my opinion. Old and stubborn.

Moving is an epic pain when you're young, never mind when you're older. When you consider closing costs, land transfer taxes, real estate commissions and all the other costs and hassles, it might be more attractive and cost-effective to just fix the foundation instead.

[drew]

If you are nearing the end of your home ownership tenure, the foundation fixing costs are probably left to the next person who buys your house, as you will never recoup the costs. Assuming of course you can live with your house cracking and shifting around.

[Riverman]

Originally Posted by Biff

Our house is exactly on this, 16 - 20 foot friction piles. They use about a 18" section of tube at the top then pour right in the hole with rebar.

Thank you!

[Riverman]

Originally Posted by drew

If you are nearing the end of your home ownership tenure, the foundation fixing costs are probably left to the next person who buys your house, as you will never recoup the costs. Assuming of course you can live with your house cracking and shifting around.

The seller has to sign a document there are no known problems with the house. If there are, they must be disclosed.

I don't know if this is a new thing, we had to do it when we sold.

[drew]

^ you do - but if your house is crooked and cracked - well, buyer beware.

I think those disclosures are more in the sense of work completed without permit, water in your basement, foundation wall problems you hid behind drywall etc. etc.

Not so much cracks in your walls.

[dmacc]

It's usually a hard thing to prove the previous owner knew of the issue, it is very unethical though.

[Curmudgeon]

Article about some of Winnipeg's old waterways. Good maps and photos. Not sure if it was posted in the past, the article is from Sept. 2018.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...tory-1.4641823

[trueviking]

OTTAWA, ON, April 9, 2019 – The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and the National Trust for Canada announce that the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg is the recipient of the 2019 Prix du XXe siècle, an annual award that recognizes Canada’s landmark buildings of the 20th century.

https://www.raic.org/news/royal-mani...e-architecture

[esquire]

^ Awesome. A worthy recipient.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Article about some of Winnipeg's old waterways. Good maps and photos. Not sure if it was posted in the past, the article is from Sept. 2018.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...tory-1.4641823

Yes, my parents’ house is right on the edge of the giant Pond in St Vital. I had heard that our area was once swampy — even though my dad, with intense memories of the 1950 flood, having grown up in Riverview, chose it because he thought it was relatively high and safe from flooding.

[bomberjet]

I love those types of articles. Growing up, it was said there was a creek that ran through our old street, and basically right under our house. Looking at the McLeod's creek map, it sure did run RIGHT under our house in Valley Gardens haha. We did have issues with the foundation cracking and getting water inside.

Funny enough, the creek also runs right behind my current house!

[optimusREIM]

Open the old creek beds and streams and create a canal system lol. Maybe they can make that happen by digging out some streets. As unrealistic as it sounds I think it would be sweet. The April fools joke by the forks makes me wonder if it would be possible to open up a few canals around the city strategically.

I can just picture it, "Winnipeg: Amsterdam of the Prairies"

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

Open the old creek beds and streams and create a canal system lol. Maybe they can make that happen by digging out some streets. As unrealistic as it sounds I think it would be sweet. The April fools joke by the forks makes me wonder if it would be possible to open up a few canals around the city strategically.

I can just picture it, "Winnipeg: Amsterdam of the Prairies"

There were once plans for a power generating canal alongside the Assiniboine.

Streams tended to become very polluted and to create conditions for the spread of typhoid and other diseases, so there was a strong public health motivation for burying them.