Odd steel construction on modular home

[palmettoinspect]

I'm left scratching my head on a few things about this modular home I recently looked at. Home is located in a really bad flood zone, is elevated 14' and has a wood floor system. 2x8s 16" on center from what I can tell with double and triple 2x12 beams. Typical, rectangle ranch style home.

However, then under that is an additional steel framed floor system. "I" beams, not manufactured home stuff. It appears to be sight built then the modular home pieced together over it. It's bolted to the wooded framing, but not the foundation piers which is needed.

The one thing I'm unsure about is the corners at the gable ends and how they're not supported. Should I be concerned? I know there's very little weight here and there's no signs of movement in 10years.

Thanks,

Kiel

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[John Kogel]

Modular construction is very strong. The house sections are designed to be picked up and trucked around, so there is no real danger of sagging at the ends, I don't think.

But, there is no diagonal bracing for those piers, which has me scratching my head too.

Are the concrete blocks filled with rebar and concrete perhaps?

I am picturing that foundation with a river running through, not a pleasant thought.

[palmettoinspect]

Thank you for the reply John.

As for the piers they're 16x16 solid filled piers with rebar from what I understand. I never recall seeing braces on concrete piers, wood pilings yes, but never with concrete piers.

I feel the steel and all is a bit over kill on the home, but there's a lot of over kill. The house has a standing seam copper roof, which isn't a everyday roof in the area this home is located.

[Marc]

Looks DIY to me. The exterior walls don't have adequate bearing area at the ends of the I-Beam. I'd write that one up.

Also, the Atlantic coastline is a hurricane prone area. Check for uplift capacity from top of piers all the way to the wood bands that support the exterior walls.

At some point, I might just write the DIY nature of the construction and recommend that the seller furnish the engineering drawings.

Marc

[Denray]

Seems like if no engineering drawings then recommend a structural engineer check it out. Water current below and a tree stuck sideways on the piers could take it out if not built correctly.