Room Under Garage Question?

[Roger A. Frost]

Good Morning,

I did an inspection the other day on a home that involved a double car garage with cement floor. When I got to the basement I was surprised to find the garage had a full sized room underneath it. The support consisted of plywood decking supported by 2 X 8's with 10' 6" span to steel beam which had one steel center post. My main concern was with the 2 X 8's, which had been notched at the bottom where they rested on the steel beam. This would make them the same as as 2 X 6 because of notch, which according to Ontario building code your not even allowed to do.

My recommendation to the homeowner was to have a structural engineer assess structure if he was going to purchase the home. I was wondering if anybody had come across a similar case and what your finding were. According to Ontario Building Code you are allowed to have cement topping on supported by ceiling etc. but am pretty sure this would not apply to having double car garage?

Thanks

Roger

[Jason A. Sieg, CMI]

I would like to know about this also... Do you have any photo's to share?

[David P. Valley]

Notched Joists on bearing ends are not allowed today.

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Attachment 12867

[Bruce A. King]

Need pictures but it sounds like the wooden parts are just temporary support for the garage floor which should have a metal pan under it with rebar or heavy gauge wire inside the concrete that is properly secured at all edges. Most of this will not be visible for inspecting.

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Hi. Roger;

There was a time in History that this would have been allowed, but todays standard will not permit this anymore in the Building Standard, as Dave Valley pointed out.

There is one thing to consider though, that this type of framing might have been done this way to basically provide a form deck for a poured structural deck above.
Structural decks of this kind would have a reinforced slab with reinforcement as designed by the Structural Engineer in the neighborhood of 6" to 10" depending on the span.
Once poured and cured, the wood framing underneath would be just there and serve no purpose.

Since this scenario would and is basically an assumption, you need to recommend further evaluation on what you see and report as such.

Good job of noting and sharing what you saw.

Marcel
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[Roger A. Frost]

Thanks for your input, confirms my thoughts about structure. Client was not buying home which gave me a warm fuzzy feeling of relieve when he told me a I would not be happy if someone bought a house with the amount of problems this one had, especially after paying good money for a home inspection.

Thanks again, I will see if I can dig up a picture and post it here.

Roger

[Roger A. Frost]

Here is attached file of garage floor and basement ceiling.

Roger

[David P. Valley]

This is how joists should be properly supported on a Steel beam...Today.

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Attachment 12887