mjr6550 Posted November 18, 2015 Report Posted November 18, 2015 I was hired by an owner to evaluate various cracks that they were concerned about. All of the cracks were typical shrinkage type cracks. Most of the cracks were hairline cracks in block foundation walls-and I mean hairline. It took me a while to convince the owner that the cracks were not a concern. When I went around the back of the house I took one look at the deck and told her that it could collapse at any time. she told me the deck was very sound. Even after showing her the concerns I had a very hard time convincing her that this was serious. We walked up the deck steps and I looked over to the bad side. She immediately walked right over the that area. They have owned the house 21 years and the deck was already built, so it was not like she was trying to defend someones work. Hard to figure out some people. Click to Enlarge 44.66 KB Click to Enlarge 28.73 KB Click to Enlarge 67.76 KB Click to Enlarge 45.88 KB
Marc Posted November 18, 2015 Report Posted November 18, 2015 Sometimes all you can you is write it up to cover your liabilities then walk away. Marc
kurt Posted November 18, 2015 Report Posted November 18, 2015 wow..... She's not hard to figure out. She's not particularly bright. You're right. That baby's going down.
Jim Baird Posted November 18, 2015 Report Posted November 18, 2015 Looks like about four inches of fall back toward the house too. We might guess there has never been a crowd on it.
Steven Hockstein Posted November 18, 2015 Report Posted November 18, 2015 If she does not want to fix the deck at least tell her to move the wheelbarrow. No reason to crush a nice wheelbarrow when the deck falls.
mjr6550 Posted November 18, 2015 Author Report Posted November 18, 2015 Looks like about four inches of fall back toward the house too. We might guess there has never been a crowd on it. Good call. I did not mention that, but I thought someone might point it out. The deck actually dropped very little at the house. It looks like the footings heaved out of the ground. Click to Enlarge 80.41 KB Click to Enlarge 77.16 KB
ejager Posted November 18, 2015 Report Posted November 18, 2015 Why do people hire experts and then disregard all the advice they paid for and the stuff they got as a bonus? Any thoughts on what liabilities would be if you had not 'looked around the corner' and seen the condition of the deck? I hope we are all using good contracts when we are doing 'targeted or focused' inspections and list specifically what we will be looking at and the exclusions.
mjr6550 Posted November 18, 2015 Author Report Posted November 18, 2015 Why do people hire experts and then disregard all the advice they paid for and the stuff they got as a bonus? Any thoughts on what liabilities would be if you had not 'looked around the corner' and seen the condition of the deck? I hope we are all using good contracts when we are doing 'targeted or focused' inspections and list specifically what we will be looking at and the exclusions. As a structural engineer I am in a little different position than a home inspector. I often get called out to evaluate specific concerns. while present I sometimes see other things. In a case like this I obviously had to bring this to the owners attention. Since I often do not know the extent of my inspection before the inspection I handle the limitations in the report by stating that I was hired to only evaluate the conditions listed in the report. Disclaimers are never a sure thing, but being clear about what you did or did not inspect is very important.
Scottpat Posted November 19, 2015 Report Posted November 19, 2015 Yep, that one will make the nightly news pretty soon!
John Kogel Posted November 19, 2015 Report Posted November 19, 2015 Looks like about four inches of fall back toward the house too. We might guess there has never been a crowd on it. Good call. I did not mention that, but I thought someone might point it out. The deck actually dropped very little at the house. It looks like the footings heaved out of the ground. Click to Enlarge 80.41 KB Click to Enlarge 77.16 KB I think it's time to celebrate the life of that deck with a dance and a BBQ. []
Jim Baird Posted November 19, 2015 Report Posted November 19, 2015 That would never happen here, where the frost line is nominally 12" but is in fact zero. I thought those were the cute little truncated cement "booties" that were real popular here with deck scammers till only this year the state adopted deck design codes. Before, they were only by reference to a deck manual, sort of like the pirates' code, just "guidelines". Looks like about four inches of fall back toward the house too. We might guess there has never been a crowd on it. Good call. I did not mention that, but I thought someone might point it out. The deck actually dropped very little at the house. It looks like the footings heaved out of the ground. Click to Enlarge 80.41 KB Click to Enlarge 77.16 KB
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