Is a structural engineer neded for this??

[Sean Fogarty]

Two guys that were contracted to fix this house up for the bank called me and wanted me to come look at this home. I asked who brought the gas..

I figured a sinkhole. The other homes around also had visible cracks in the foundation. This by far was the worst home I had ever seen.

[Russell J. Hensel]

I think a bulldozer is needed more than an engineer

[Wayne B. Wilson]

Wow it just another fixer upper that needs a little TLC a great starter home for some young family . what bunch of deal killers lolololol

[Michael Larson]

Structural engineer, foundation contractor, or demolition team.

[Kenneth R. Brittain]

proper slope for drainage 6" over 10' Oh wait that's for outside the house! Maybe that was the lot where the buried all the tree stumps.

[Joseph Hagarty, CMI]

PE not needed for review as the deficiency is obvious.
Recommend RA or PE to specify repair.

[Randy L. Mayo, PE]

Sean

A structural engineer would be my second call. I would start by recommending a geotechnical engineering firm to do soil borings first. That is way beyond normal settlement.

[Jeffrey R. Pope]

Originally Posted by rmayo

I would start by recommending a geotechnical engineering firm to do soil borings first.

Exactly.

[Bruce A. King]

Normally a soils test would be first for most houses but this sounds like a vacant bank owned house that would be worth very little even without this major problem.

I would recommend an appraiser and contractor get together first to see if its even worth investigating.

I bet the bank never spends the money on any engineers.
They will just sell it to someone for a little over the value of the lot which is probably too much.

[Sean Fogarty]

Originally Posted by bking

Normally a soils test would be first for most houses but this sounds like a vacant bank owned house that would be worth very little even without this major problem.

I would recommend an appraiser and contractor get together first to see if its even worth investigating.

I bet the bank never spends the money on any engineers.
They will just sell it to someone for a little over the value of the lot which is probably too much.

Thats the sad part. It really should be condemned and torn down. THe whole lot was in a hole. I can only hope when they do fix it I may be fortunate enough to get to inspect it again. I think its sad to think the bank could try to push this onto someone else "as is".

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

Originally Posted by sfogarty

Thats the sad part. It really should be condemned and torn down. THe whole lot was in a hole. I can only hope when they do fix it I may be fortunate enough to get to inspect it again. I think its sad to think the bank could try to push this onto someone else "as is".

Perhaps this is one of thoses times to make a call to the local AHJ. They may need to get involved to prevent someone from getting hurt. You just know that no permits are going to be involved in the fix!

[Barry Adair]

permits mean nothing except someone paid a "tax" for a legal right to build, install a system or component, ymmv

contacting a local media resource could be spun into some creative marketing, jmo

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

Originally Posted by badair

permits mean nothing except someone paid a "tax" for a legal right to build, install a system or component, ymmv

contacting a local media resource could be spun into some creative marketing, jmo

True dat, but my point being that the AHJ wouldn't see what was happening if the permit process was bypassed. I like the media idea, but that wouldn't insure someone in authority (that could legally prevent a catastrophy from happening) would act on it in time. It could be covered up long before then.

[Wayne B. Wilson]

The problem that his example is only the tip of the iceberg here, try driving down some rural mountain roads , Some places do not even have a building inspector..
What Sean showed can be more typical than you even want to know.And there is even worst out there .
Media will show it for one day then it is over why you ask ? Because it is a common thing here.
We still have people dumping sewers into ditches, building with floor joist in contact with the dirt. and so on.

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

So, what's the solution Wayne?