When hydrostatic soil pressure causes concrete basement or crawl space stem walls to bow inward in Olympia homes, older remediation methods required intrusive measures: heavy, floor-space-consuming steel I-beams bolted into floor slabs, or tearing up exterior landscaping for massive tieback anchors.
Modern structural engineering has embraced advanced composite materials developed for aerospace and civil bridge reinforcement: carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP). Carbon fiber is ten times stronger than structural steel in tensile strength, impervious to rust, and virtually zero-profile.
The installation begins with diamond-grinding vertical 12-inch wide chases into the concrete wall face every 4 to 5 feet, removing paint, efflorescence, and laitance to expose clean aggregate. Structural hairline cracks in the wall are injected with high-strength epoxy or polyurea to restore compressive integrity.
Next, we apply a high-tensile structural epoxy matrix and embed continuous-strand woven carbon fiber straps directly onto the concrete. The strap is secured at the top using heavy-gauge steel bracket assemblies lag-bolted to the house rim joist, while the bottom is pinned into the concrete footing using carbon fiber dowel anchors.
Once cured, the carbon fiber becomes an integral structural part of the wall. Because carbon fiber cannot stretch, the wall is physically incapable of bowing inward any further. The straps measure less than 1/8-inch thick, allowing basements to be framed, drywalled, or painted over with zero loss of valuable living space.