Permit needed to repair major structural defects missed by code inspector

[Bruce A. King]

I found major structural framing problems in a 20 year old vacant house. Seems kind of ironic to recommend a permit be obtained by the contractor when the original code inspectors missed what they did. Two level basement house with no beam under a load bearing wall and no beam under two load bearing interior columns. Substantial sagging issues present in three areas, textbook structural problems. The total cost would be very high if repaired correctly and the resulting damage fixed. No pictures posted since they really do not show the extent of the problem.

Buyer beware, get a good inspection, this house will be on the short sell/foreclosure market still, I doubt my client will buy it.

[Tim Spargo]

Good Find.

Many times as-built issues like you talk here about here Bruce, will be resolved by the direction of an SE.

As you said too, the resulting ugliness of "after it get's fixed" won't be any fun either if there is substantial sagging. Saving our clients "skin" as you did is what makes us continue to do what we do.

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

Just curious. What what the span of the load bearing wall and how did you determine the need for a beam (discounting the sag present)?

Regarding the column, how did you determine it was load bearing?

[Jeffery L. Haynes]

Originally Posted by bking

I found major structural framing problems in a 20 year old vacant house. Seems kind of ironic to recommend a permit be obtained by the contractor when the original code inspectors missed what they did. Two level basement house with no beam under a load bearing wall and no beam under two load bearing interior columns. Substantial sagging issues present in three areas, textbook structural problems. The total cost would be very high if repaired correctly and the resulting damage fixed. No pictures posted since they really do not show the extent of the problem.

Buyer beware, get a good inspection, this house will be on the short sell/foreclosure market still, I doubt my client will buy it.

Most GC's use code inspectors as a means to insure the work that they are doing is correct............however GC's often forget that they are responsible regardless what the local BI finds or don't find. In structural issues GC's are responsible as long as they are in business..... regardless as to who owns the home.

While there are some very sharp BI's, many will show up at the job site looking for only a handful of items that they common see; take into the account the building boom we had over the last 15 years, many of them are only on the jobsite for about 10 minutes if that..... I have even seen them sign off on deficiencies based upon the assurance from a GC that they would take care of it by the time they come back to do the next inspection. Being that framing inspections are followed by insulation inspections, if a BI failed to recheck a deficiency during the insulation inspection then it get covered by by drywall.

I don't know about you all but it is evident that with the building boom we had during the last 20 years there are more hidden issues waiting for us to find them....... if one is familiar with what to look for.

I had a client call me to do a hail damage assessment on his roof (darn storm chasers still hanging around)..... while there was no hail damage, I found plenty of other issues within 5 minutes of being on the roof......... this coming from a well known upper end builder who typically does quality homes.

good find

Jeff