Piers

[Peter Foxe Smothers]

I have never seen a pier that was made of both brick and cinder block in this area. Everything is either all brick or all cinder block. Every pier under this 2 story house was like this. Is this common in other areas of the country?

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by psmothers

I have never seen a pier that was made of both brick and cinder block in this area. Everything is either all brick or all cinder block. Every pier under this 2 story house was like this. Is this common in other areas of the country?

You've never seen that in Louisiana?
Those folks are the most creative at using whatever is available to do whatever it is they want to do at any time they want to do it, usually right after a hurricane, or after a hurricane. I sometimes find similar stuff out in the beach communities, but they weren't designed by any engineer.

[thejnicki]

No brick and cinder block around here, unless its a mobile home..Mainly conrete piers and wood columns, or metal jacks.

[rwand1]

Anything is possible; dependant of course on the skills of the builder. Your picture does not seem to indicate the pier is in distress.

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

I've seen it and don't think there's anything wrong with it if there is a footing.

[Peter Foxe Smothers]

There were footers under the piers and all of them were in shape, I guess they were trying to save a dollar by using some cinder blocks and not all bricks.

[Doug Edwards]

I have seen everything from concrete filled paint cans to cypress stumps. As thing go that pier would not concern me greatly. It appears to be doing the intented job and been in place a very long time. Often we find someone has installed concrete blocks with the voids positioned horizontally and then they wonder why they crushed.

[Russel Ray]

I wasn't aware of those type of red bricks being approved for structural support.

[Doug Edwards]

We have thousands of home here with nothing BUT piers made from red clay bricks. Many of the very old homes have problems with them crumbling apart because they would often use beach sand (because it was free and plentiful) instead of builders sand for the mortar. You can rub mortar joints out with your fingernail. Over time the salts and minerals leach out and the mortar joints are little more than sand stone.

[gbeaumont]

Hi to all,

As others have said I se nothing much wrong with that pier, but I do wonder how they got them all so nice and level without any shimming?

Unlike this one from my inspection yesterday!!

Regards

Gerry

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Gerry you always come up with the good ones. ha. ha.

Brick on top of the concrete masonry unit is actually better than just CMU, in this case due the density capacity of the brick transfers the weight to the weak link in this case the CMU.
Not having shims would explain that it was set to elevation before the framing, which would mean, it has been there for a long time. Looks good to me.

Marcel

[Larry D. Kage]

Originally Posted by mcyr

Looks good to me.

Same here.

[David A. Andersen]

Beats the heck out of wood shims that compress with load and time.

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by mcyr

Brick on top of the concrete masonry unit is actually better than just CMU, in this case due the density capacity of the brick transfers the weight to the weak link in this case the CMU.

I'll have to disagree with that statement. As I stated earlier, I'm not aware of that type of brick being approved for structural support, while CMU, when installed properly, can be used for structural support. So the weak link here would seem to be the brick. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because the brick is smaller, and has smaller holes, that its "density capacity" is greater than that of the larger-with-larger-holes CMU. Such might not be the case, depending on many, many factors.

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by dandersen

Beats the heck out of wood shims that compress with load and time.

Brick does the same thing, which is why it's not approved for structural support.

Wood, and wood shims, actually are very versatile and last quite a long time under load, depending on conditions. Obviously, something in a moisture environment or eaten up by WDP&O won't perform the appropriate job.