need help... backfilling shifted house 1"

[ten_ringer]

I have a new residential construction and I've just made a big problem for myself. It's a ranch home with an exposed basement, so it's essentially two-story. The basement is exposed on the south and east side. The basement is built with treated lumber walls and foundation (green-treat basement). The cement floors are poured. Anyway, I backfilled the north and west basement walls and what do ya know? It pushed the whole house 1" to the south. The bottom of the basement walls stayed stationary as they are keyed in with concrete at the floor. The top of the basement walls moved 1". The first floor, thankfully, did not go out of plumb in any way.

Yea, it's my first house and I'm a complete idiot for not having braced the walls properly. I didn't even bother to build proper sheer walls in the basement. My stupidity aside, I'm looking for a solution. My plan is to pull the backfill away from the basement and then try to pull the house 1" back to the north. After that I'll properly brace the basement before filling again. Does this sound feasible? Do you think it would be possible to ratchet the house back with a sturdy come-along against a stout tree? I thought about just leaving it and properly bracing my sheer walls if this doesn't sound good. Will the backfill eventually settle and no longer apply pressure against the walls?

Thanks for your help. I suck.

Brett

[Don_P]

We need to work on those self esteem issues :). You're out 1" in ~100" of height, that's 1%. OK it's not ideal, but if it's stable and everything is reading within tolerability...
You can force it a little with sloped boards as pushers inside against the walls.

[concretemasonry]

If it is a wood basement with all walls wood and a slab poured after the walls are up, the initial movement may just be the beginning and you could have a "galloping gertie" type foundation.

Was it panelized or built in place? The concept of a wood basement is based on a rectangular structure with even loads to show the wall sections are strong enough for the lateral pressure, but the deflection standards were not very good. Unfortunately, when the structure is unsymmetrical or the loads are not the same on all sides, there will be movement at the top of the foundation.

If you work soon, you may be able to prevent a permanent "set" in the wood. The most effective solution I have seen is the jack out the walls after the backfill is removed, the walls plumbed and the top of the foundation string-lined for straightness and shear walls (usually 8 long) built perpendicular the the foundation walls. If the backfill is not temporarily removed to and the shear walls not built, you can expect more long term movement.

I hope you have good well draining backfill down to the gravel base to keep the lateral pressures on the wall reasonable.

Future monitoring is a bit difficult since checking diagonals an is difficult and measuring wall lengths is meaningless. Checking the exterior wall with a stringline along the length will reveal any bowing in the wall.

Dick

[RTF]

I have got to ask the question, why did you build your underground basement walls out of wood? What are the benefits as opposed to a concrete foundation? Was it based on cost?

I just see more problems with this system as you go forward.

[KCB]

remove the backfill it will probably straighten itself back out.The ground will allways apply pressure to some extent on the walls especially if you push the fill towards it , gravity is allways working against you .Your basically wanting your walls to hold back the dirt when you didnt desighn it to do so