Hello! I am a home owner and I had an InterNACHI inspector come in at the behest of a buyer. The inspector claimed that there are no footers under my permanent adjustable columns and spooked the buyers so bad that they immediately canceled their contract without even bothering to ask for a structural engineer to inspect.
When I bought the house, my inspector said they were perfectly fine and my Realtor had her inspector take a peek and he didn’t see anything wrong with them either. I further had a family member who is a structural engineer say that there was no reason to believe that the columns didn’t have footers and that there really would be no way to tell unless we excavated/drilled which would be impractical. He also said that the inspector who made that claim was not backed by evidence considering there were zero cracks/sinking in the entire basement slab.
So anyway, I suppose my question is do any of you see some reason to believe that there is a problem here? I would really prefer not to lose out on another buyer for this reason if there was something I could do. Thanks!
He literally wrote footers - I know the term to be footing after research, but I figured I should say it the way he wrote it. Haha. Okay, here’s the text of in his report we received verbatim.
“Permanent type screw jacks have been used for supports in the basement. Proper installation would include proper footings, disabling of the screw section and fastening at the top and bottom. There does not appear to be a proper footing under the columns. Recommend structural engineer to evaluate the
supports and give recommendations for correcting”.
I called him prior to receiving the report and he told me directly I would need to have the supports moved, the slab excavated, and put footers in. That he had been building for 30 years prior to being an inspector and that since the bases aren’t under the concrete, that there were no footers.
Thanks, Mr. Griffin. Actually, we had met with the buyers on an impromptu visit that neither of our realtors were a fan of. They had brought their whole family on a random night without scheduling and were just ecstatic about the house as I chatted with them. Their realtor was conversing back and forth with ours about how worried they were about the structural issues in our house after the inspection the next day and that is what led them to cancel. So it really did come down to that. Everything else in the inspection was minor.
Thus why I wanted to get some more opinions as we relisted so I could fix something that might trigger any other home inspector. I even talked to their home inspector and his reasoning was simply that he made the statement because the bases weren’t buried in concrete.
I don’t see anything to indicate that there would be no footing. I also don’t see anything to indicate that there is a footing. Are these posts original to the house? If they are, then the footings would be shown on the original plans. If they are not original, there should have been a permit pulled, and they will be shown on the plans associated with that permit. There should be some documentation someplace. It’s not uncommon to pout the footing below the grade of the slab, and then place the slab over them for a clean continuous looking slab. Something like this…
A question about this particular instance. If footings were installed after the house was built, wouldn’t there be some sort of footprint indicating it?
If you dig a hole to set up a footing wouldn’t there be something like a round/square shape of different concrete under the column? The bases where these columns sit look very smooth, not even small settling cracks.
I have seen drawings where the slab is thickened and reinforced under support posts and it is poured all at once…but, that thickening method has, typically, been used to support bearing walls, and depends on varied site conditions, from my experience.
Stephen Alan
a simple end all test…all may not be lost
hammer drill at least one hole at each flange
the basement slab would be max 6" in most cases as the masonry bit goes deeper you/they would then have a bit more confidence assuring footings were present
make sure you use the right size bit to install anchor w/adhesive upon completing this testing
you can rent and purchase all at the local big box
i’d hammer drill with a 1/2" x 12" bit at least one hole at each flange
the basement slab would be max 6" in most cases as the masonry bit goes deeper into concrete you/they would then have a bit more confidence assuring footings were present…if you hit dirt at 4"~6" your beef with the inspector is over and he made a lucky wag
make sure you use the right size bit to install anchor w/adhesive upon completing this testing
you can rent and purchase all at the local big box
all may not be lost if you can possibly get the prospect purchaser to return to view you demonstrating your proof
