This Doesn't Look Right To Me

[CHI]

Now, call me paranoid but when I saw the 21 year old come out of the crawlspace with a sawzall in a new home I was a little suspicious.

It appears he cut the bottm chord and web of the truss system in the crawl to accomodate the seismic retraint rod. Quite a bit of damage was done. Can this be strapped or should an engineer be called?

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[hausdok]

Hi,

I don't think the 21-year old did it; if he did, where's the sawdust? No point in strapping that I can see but there should have been a couple of jack studs added on either side of the rods.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[CHI]

Hey Mike,

Sounds like a good solution. There was a small amout of saw dust, I even looked under the vapor barrier for it. I saw him enter the crawl with the threaded rod, then heard about 15 minutes of the unmistakeable sound of a sawzall chewing through wood. They knew I was there and were acting very sheepishly. The buyer was an elderly woman and was quite concerned with what she was observing.

Thanks for the input.

[hausdok]

Hmm,

So, they forgot the rods and then went down to do them afterward? Interesting. Wonder where the local code guys were napping during construction?

OT - OF!!!

M.

[hausdok]

Hah,

For the uninitiated, I knew I had a graphic of these someplace.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Richard Moore]

Originally posted by CHI

Hey Mike,

Sounds like a good solution. etc, etc

With all due respect Mike, pictures 2 and 3 show some hefty laminated strand lumber chopped into separate pieces, as an afterthought! I don't think I'd be comfortable making any recommendations other than telling my client to get an engineer and/or the architect involved.

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by CHI

Now, call me paranoid but when I saw the 21 year old come out of the crawlspace with a sawzall in a new home I was a little suspicious.

It appears he cut the bottm chord and web of the truss system in the crawl to accomodate the seismic retraint rod. Quite a bit of damage was done. Can this be strapped or should an engineer be called?

Where are the trusses?

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Chad Fabry]

All I see is a cripple wall that's been sawed through and from the photos it looks like Mike's suggestion would work fine with the addition of a plate or some plywood to reconstitute the shear values. For the record though, what Richard said: I'd disown it.

[charlieb]

So, in about 15 minutes they made the cuts and installed the rods from top plate to the foundation. How long were the rods the kid was carrying? Would not some sort of a turn buckles be needed after the fact? Or could the rods the kid installed simply extend up into the wall a short distance? Did you shake them?

Get it? seismic..shake

[hausdok]

Hi Richard,

Well, after sleeping on it, I think you're right. I can't think of any way that one can add the bottom rod to the ATU system after the fact without opening up the interior wall to be able to install the nut on top of the bottom takeup device. It would be really interesting to hear the builder's explanation of this. How serious it is depends on whether this was only one ATU path or all of them. Perhaps a call to the local code guy explaining what he saw and voicing the possibility that maybe the code guy had missed this and the system isn't continuous might spark some movement.

More info: http://www.strongtie.com/products/ats/intro.html

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Richard Moore]

Me again...

The point I was trying to make (clumsily as usual) was that my client has the right to expect his new home to be constructed according to a set of engineered plans. It may not turn out to be a big deal but, when structural components have been obviously hacked like this, it's not my job to either give it a blessing or to design the solution.

When the house re-sells in 10 years time, and the new HI has the same WTF?! moment, it would nice for my client to have some paperwork signed off by a PE.

[CHI2]

Sorry for being out of touch for several days. Had to buy a new computer and transfer all information. Internet and email down for a couple of days...fun stuff.

The rods were tight and my thought was the same as Mike's, how did they get tightened. I didn't how they installed them and could not view beyond where they went through the top plate. I recommended strapping, jack studs and inspection by an engineer as desired by the client. I too don't believe it will ever amount to much, however they should not have been cut in that manner.

Thanks for the advice on this one.