My parent’s house is a split level "Ocala Block" house. My grandfather built it in 1960. It’s an extremely well built house. Sometime in the 80's my grandmother had water softener installed with half of the tank below ground. Some part of the piping or tank leaked and salt damaged some of the block work below grade. A repair was attempted 15 or so years ago but all the repairer did was smear tar all over the wound.

Anyhow, I'd like to repair this before the monsoon season.

I was thinking that I could dig out the surrounding area down to the foundation, build some forms, put in some rebar, and dump a bunch of cement in there.

Would this suffice? I'm only thinking of cement maybe 4" out from the wall. The wound is several feet in height and 12 or so feet in length. I figure pouring cement on it will adhere to any cracks that may be present.

E_dAvId

I agree I don't think you have to worry about rebar so much as bonding the new and old together. There is plenty of good bonding agents out there...check with your local masonry supply store.

Believe it or not but applying tar to a wall below grade is one of the best remedies. Pouring concrete outside the problem will only make your repair more difficult to repair in a later day. If your block has deteriorated because of moisture you will need to look at the block to see if it (damaged block) can be replaced. Most walls built under grade level are reinforced with a bond beam block. This means that rebar has been laid horizontally then (it should have been) grouted solid with concrete. If this is the case, you shouldn’t have to worry about it to much except to make sure the tar was applied correctly. Can you notice any damaged (if visible) on the inside of the house?