This Raytown homeowner called us after noticing their basement wall had bowed inward far enough to see the curve with the naked eye. A horizontal crack ran the full length of the wall about four feet up — the classic pressure crack you see when clay soil pushes hard enough to flex a poured concrete wall.
On top of the structural problem, water was seeping through the crack and pooling on the basement floor after every rain. Jackson County clay holds water like a reservoir, and this wall was taking the full force of that saturated soil with no drainage system to relieve the pressure. The homeowner needed both the structural bow fixed and the water stopped.
We excavated the full length of the affected wall, used hydraulic equipment to press it back toward plumb, and installed steel wall anchors to hold it in position permanently. The anchors extend through the wall into undisturbed soil beyond the excavation, creating a tension system that resists future inward pressure.
With the wall open, we applied a full waterproofing membrane across the exterior face before backfilling — addressing both problems in one mobilization rather than two separate projects. This combined approach saves the homeowner significant cost versus tackling each issue separately. See our Kearney full wall rebuild for what happens when a wall goes too far to straighten.