What did an engineer specify for an 80-year-old Tulsa basement house?

Reviewed by Preston, Oklahoma foundation repair consultant · Updated 2026-10-14

Tulsa20142-level timber house with basement and brick veneer, about 80 years old in 2014clay tile stem walls and brick masonry basement walls on spread footings; 2x10 floor joists at 16 in.

In short: A Tulsa house about 80 years old had settled at a dining-room wall and at the corners of its wraparound porch. Its basement stairwell wall had buckled inward and its sump pump had failed ¹. The engineer attributed the problems to age-related settlement, long-term sagging of the wood framing, poor maintenance and basement water. The scope covered 15 exterior steel piers, a rebuilt stairwell wall, new beams and posts, foam leveling under the porch, and basement water control ¹.

What did the house show?

The engineer inspected the house in January 2014 ¹. It is a two-level timber house with brick veneer and a basement. The stem walls are clay vitreous tile, the basement walls are brick masonry on spread footings, and the floor is framed with 2x10 joists at 16 in. on center ¹.

Observed conditions ¹:

• Foundation settlement at the south dining-room wall.
• Settlement at the northeast, north and northwest corners of the wraparound porch.
• Evidence of past foundation repair at the west kitchen wall, with no records found.
• The south basement stairwell wall had failed and buckled inward, and a north landscape retaining wall was rotating.
• Dips in the floors, a living-room floor sloping from east to west, out-of-square doors, a deflected wall, and deflection in the upper floor.
• In the basement, the sump pump was not working, water was seeping in at the walls and floor, and pipe columns had been added at some point.

What did the engineer find was causing it?

The engineer described the movement as age-related settlement plus long-term deflection of the timber framing, typical of a house of this age. Poor maintenance and basement water added to it ¹.

What repair was specified?

The report was a ten-item scope ¹:

• Item 1: 15 exterior steel piers. Verify the foundation construction first, since a supplemental footing may be required. Then lift and level, repair the brick cracks, and remove and replace pavement where needed.
• Item 2: Excavate behind the buckled basement stairwell wall and rebuild it.
• Item 3: Level the wraparound porch with urethane foam.
• Items 4 to 6: Jack, shim and level the basement posts and beams. Add 4x4 treated posts at the stairwell corners and two 1-3/4 x 11-1/4 in. LVL beams on posts. The engineer expected only partial recovery of the framing deflection.
• Item 7: Re-hang doors after leveling.
• Item 8: Install a new sump pump, apply hydraulic cement to the basement walls, and paint the basement floor with epoxy.
• Item 9: Rebuild the north retaining wall.
• Item 10: Replace decayed sill and soffit material.

What does this case show about Oklahoma foundations?

• Old houses need the footing checked before piering. Clay tile stem walls are an older construction type. The engineer made verifying the footing part of the pier scope and noted that a supplemental footing may be required ¹.
• Basement water is part of the structural picture. Building-science guidance for basements says groundwater should be drained away rather than allowed to saturate the soil around the foundation. It also says roof and surface runoff should be collected and carried away, with grade sloping away from the building ². In this house a dead sump pump and seepage sat alongside a buckled below-grade wall ¹.
• Drainage in Tulsa clay has long been studied. A 1972 Tulsa Geological Society volume on the city's physical environment includes a chapter titled "Drainage Problems in Clay Soils Under Buildings in Tulsa; Causes, Symptoms, and Solutions," alongside chapters on soils and construction conditions ³.
• Not every floor problem is a soil problem. Several items in this scope were framing and maintenance items: sagging beams, decayed sills and added posts. They were not pier items ¹.

Related

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