Not really shop related but I thought I might tap into the collective anyway...
My crawlspace has a concrete block foundation with two gaps where mice can
enter. One is where the sewer line exits, the other is a largish hole that
appears to be where the builder planned to run the sewer line but later
changed his mind.
Now, I know the standard method of patching gaps around a pipe is to pack it
with expanding hydraulic cement. But for a hollow concrete block foundation,
that's probably not good enough since each hole thru the block is actually
two holes (one thru the inner wall and one thru the outer wall). So just
patching the gap on the inner side still leaves an entry point on the outer
side. And since the blocks are hollow and unfilled so far as I can tell,
a rodent/bug/snake can enter through the hole in the outer face and climb up
thru the inside of the blocks and exit into the crawlspace at the sill plate
(the sill plate does not appear to completely cover the top of the blocks...if
it did, I think this whole issue would be moot)
I realize the best solution is to dig down on the outside of the foundation to
where the pipes exit and patch the gaps in the outer block face. But in my
case, there are a number of nearby trees and I'm sure that area is one big mess
of roots so this option is a non-starter.
I'm thinking an alternative might be to
A) patch the inner face with hydraulic cement, and
B) fill the channels of those concrete blocks within a couple feet of the
gaps from the bottom up by squirting a thin concrete mix from the openings
at the sill plate down into the channels.
(I figure at least some of the channels in the block must be filled with
concrete
so that the sill plate could be anchored to the block but a cursory
inspection has shown at least some that are empty or are only partially
filled.)
The idea being that if a rodent found the gap in the exterior block face, it
wouldn't be able to climb up through the blocks because they'd now be filled
with something it can't gnaw thru.
Now, there's no vertical room to manipulate a concrete vibrator so the mix
would
have to be pretty thin to make sure it flows all the way down...probably
cake batter consistency. I realize that too much water will result in weak
concrete and shrinkage but I'm only looking to solidify the blocks...
Has anybody done this sort of thing? Is there a better alternative?
JM
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