A pile of rocks.

So I found out that part of my foundation is essentially just a pile of rocks.

I knew it was a bad area, because one corner of the kitchen had sunk several inches. My attempts to jack it up were futile until I laid a pad of concrete in the crawlspace that I have to work in. (Note: part of the '33 basement is crawlspace).

I got it jacked up about 2", but after a few weeks I realized that the wall wasn't moving, just the floor. Logically, if I continue to lift the floor I would end up breaking the floor boards when the pressure became too great. To only good option at this point is to take the jack outside and attach it to the wall. Being spring I didn't want to tear open a hole in my wall to get to the structure until the chances of rain go down. So I decided to fix the foundation first.

Some of the cracks in the foundation are large enough to stick your hand through to the basement. So I started by clearing the debris. Then while widening a hairline crack in some newish mortar I came to a startling discovery. The last owner had just stuccoed the joints. He hadn't dug them out! I only ended up opening two more large holes, and had to use about 60lbs of mortar on the outside. Then I went inside.

Inside the vacuuming didn't go so well. I realized that shopvacs are built to move stuff...not to filter the air!

I ran out of my basement choking using my shirt to try to breath.

I decided to use the rest of the 20lbs on the cleanest/worst joints.

After I got done with that, I realized that the foundation is so far gone in some parts that I'm going to fill in with concrete next...then I'll mortar some more.I should clean it more, but I'm not particularly interested in choking to death.