Hi team MMM,
Thanks in advance for your advice!
Currently living in my first home in Colorado for about three years, where clay soil abounds. Our initial inspector (and me of course) missed some foundation issues, including minor water seepage in two of our foundation corners and some bowing in the foundation wall. The foundation is cement with a slab floor. The floor has heaved a bit in one corner (~1 inch). House was built in 1985. No sump pump.
Since we've lived here I have installed a french drain and improved the grading along the wall in question with tarp and gravel. I also injected the hairline cracks from the exterior and patched with tar after that to prevent the seepage. Then I painted the interior walls with Dry-loc.
Last year I tried to sell the house before repairing one of the exterior cracks, which I specified in the release and disclosure. This caused the buyers to back out.
After finishing the repairs on that last crack I had a structural engineer come look at the whole foundation for his two cents. He said my repairs are good, but the foundation wall has bowed in more than is acceptable by current building code (he estimated it's bowed inward about 2 inches). He said that is technically deemed structurally "unsafe" but that it is not in current danger of toppling over or anything drastic. For a permanent fix, he said he would probably have two cement piers installed on the exterior of the wall to counterbalance the bowing wall (our neighbor's house is too close to do floating piers). I've had estimates from other basement businesses that were about double of this guy. For a temporary measure, he said you could monitor the wall to make sure it isn't continuing to bow inward.
My goal is to avoid problems when I try to sell again (possibly this year) while also being honest in the release and disclosure. I'm considering two options:
1. Sell "as-is" with everything in the release and disclosure, with the contact info of the structural engineer I talked to most recently in case potential buyer wants to hear what he said in more detail.
2. Do the permanent repairs with the piers and then sell.
What do you all think? Are there any other options that make more sense?