30 Engineering ‘Nightmares’ And ‘Miracles’ Discovered During Structural Inspections By This Company
For those who do not see the least bit of entertainment in the procedure called ‘structural inspection,’ we may prove to you it can be as intense as watching a world cup finale. Especially if we’re talking about the findings made by California-based Alpha Structural, Inc.
These guys have seen it all—from rotting decks to crumbling foundations, falling walls, and very ingenious “we have it at home”-type of solutions. But that’s the job of these experts who are used to running into structural disasters where instead of cement holding it all together, you get pure luck.
So buckle up and scroll down for Alpha Structural’s most recent discoveries that will make you sigh, gasp, and even emit one or two swear words. And after you’re done, be sure to check out our earlier articles about Alpha Structural, Inc. here, here, here, and here.
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This is one of the craziest things that we've seen during our inspections. This owner had undermined almost the entirety of his home by digging underneath the slab and excavating around the piles. There had been a minor mudslide and they decided it would be a good idea to create more space underneath... The grade of soil used to be up to the concrete slab above. Believe it or not, the property had not yet been red-tagged.
The owner must be an idiot! What did they think would hold the house up. Air?
Somebody was preparing for the zombie apocalypse or something!
Here is one of our Senior Structural Assessors, Kyle, inspecting a failed retaining wall. You can see the tie-backs used to hold the retaining wall upright didn't work out too well.
If you don't know what termite damage looks like, here is a great example. If you notice this around your house, I would call a termite guy right away.
This was a crazy bridge structure we saw across from a home we inspected. Many of the supporting posts are bending as the soil erodes and the structure above begins to move.
Phhhh, it's been like this for years, what could possibly go wrong.....
Please watch your step!
I think I'd rather spontaneously evolve the ability to fly than use those stairs. Lamarck, here I come!
Do not jump on this deck if you enjoy living. Don’t even walk for that matter.
This floors enforces social distancing AND diets... two people within six feet will surely get swallows, or any person over 200Lbs.
The column was barely hanging together with just a small portion of the top and bottom staying connected.
This is a cripple wall that is bowing outward, causing movement in the units above. This is dangerous and could end in a collapse if not handled properly.
This needs very urgent attention given the recent building collapsing in Florida.
This was a home we inspected with two sets of rotted stairs and plenty of interior cracking.
Thank God you guys are professionals! Us laypeople would've never guessed these stairs were unsafe! (Sarcasm meant only for silliness, not derision... I enjoy these posts much.)
I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your piers down!
"We call such piers "Morgan". However unstable he looks, however much nobody can come up with something good, he's still around."
This was a gnarly river rock foundation that was falling apart. Some say this is a rock-solid foundation, but those people must be stoned.
I really dig your riveting puns, but I see no concrete evidence for your complaints.
Here we have some damage dealt to a garden wall by a local FedEx driver.
At least it exposed the wall as being fragile and hollow. We'll be proposing a new wall here that will be properly done with concrete and steel reinforcement. It does hold back a sizable slope, after all.
This deck system has some bad rot and we are almost ready to start the repairs! There are some beautiful views of DTLA from this home as well. Luckily it had just rained so most of the smog was cleared.
I would not count anybody above or below that deck as lucky until the job is finished
This pier missed the mark and is now floating. To be fair, the expansive soil caused a ton of movement and the pier began to sink a long time ago.
I think this is the original.
She's smiling because every time someone opens the window it tickles her armpit.
The concrete porch area has some major cracking and is slowing pulling away from the house.
This failing retaining wall was bowing quite a bit and it didn't help that it was connected to a section of the basement wall. This needs some attention asap!
I guess the contractor who installed these didn't know left from right, or up from down.
Here's a rubble wall that is supposedly holding up that corner of the home. Well, that corner is now sinking since the wall holds very little structural value.
Some good ol' termite damage.
Termites are rotten to the core. They eat away at my confidence in my home.
No no, we do that with big spiders. With termites we simply set the neighborhood on fire.
Load More Replies...Here we have an eroded concrete pier that will more than likely be gone within a year or two.
A mousetrap was placed here just in case any of those pesky buggers managed to slip through the cracks!
This stilted deck has multiple rotting members holding up and you can see the warping and rotation where some of the lumber connects.
"Jack-lift the house" they said. "It will be cool" they said.
Well, technically, the jack has more structural value than that flimsy bit of wood. I don't know why people in the US insist on building houses like this, because this is the structural equivalent of putting high heels on your house - instead of dissipating the forces, they are concentrated in single points and you absolutely will have uneven settling sooner or later, which means that the house itself will sag differently at different points. The flexibility of wood can help mitigate this effect a bit, but it only goes so far. Besides, what's with all the untreated pine used for structural purposes? Pine is probably the wood that rots the fastest, so you're just making sure you have to replace bits all the time or have the house rot out from under you.
This was a slab crack that spanned all the way from the garage to the kitchen floor. It had lifted and cracked many tiles in the kitchen as well. So much so that the assessor was able to stick his pen in between the two sides of the concrete.
Finally, somebody with good Jenga skills.
There was a doubled joist acting as a beam in the center of the sub-floor. It was pretty rotted and was separating from the other joists.
I have bad eyesight that looks like the girl from Ring huddled in the corner
These elevated grade beams are breaking apart and you can see how badly rusted the beam saddles are.
Some major support joists just a tad bit off of their original place.
Breaking apart a brittle foundation with just a pair of hands is a bad indication that your foundation needs some work!
Here's some pretty significant rot damage to the main beam that is holding up a second story.
Much of the original metal connection hardware was rusted and bolted into what is now rotted wood supports.
They also poured the concrete with different mixes and at different times. What a mess.
All sorts of wedges, shims and jacks were used to help support the framing, but that did very little to help the situation.
Snake vs. lizard matchup. You can probably guess who won this battle.
Once I saw a snake eating another snake. But then I do live in Australia.
This was another contractor's attempt at a sister foundation. It's completely missing proper footings and much of the forming was left in place. Just another reason not to go with the cheapest option.
We shared the original photos of this leaning building a while back, but now we are doing extensive repairs! I'll be doing a full story post on this project tomorrow! Over many decades, pervasive termite damage took place and the entire apartment structure began to lean as the wood was eaten up.
Here's another concrete slab patio that has pretty significant cracking all over.
I think we will just add layers until it's eventually higher than the Eiffel Tower.
Here's some of the cracking inside the home. This place was sitting on a bed of expansive soil. The foundation itself was in fairly good condition, but the home has moved so much that the interior began to pull apart.
Poor little guy got stuck.
This was a home that sat at the top of a steep slope. The concrete patio in the back started to sink due to the movement in the soil below. The creep of the soil eventually caused stress cracking to appear and the fencing to lean as well. A good amount of work is needed here.
The "pier pressure" is too much.
Here’s some interesting jacks holding up an old concrete float that is supporting the subfloor of this home.
Here's a concrete pier that is riddled with cracks. This is usually caused by a bad concrete mix, compression and lack of steel reinforcement.
A soil shelf underneath a home. This will continue to erode over time and potentially cause some settlement issues.
A runaway pier. It will never escape.
Here's a leaky pipe that has caused some instability and rot damage in the surrounding subfloor.
Here's one last shot of the crawlspace access where you can see the framing has rotated outwards significantly. The concrete there is basically dust.
Allow me to pen this slab crack into my structural notes.
A new member of our assessor team, Carlos, doing an inspection of some rotted framing.
This is normally what spall damage looks like before the concrete has broken off.
We are tearing up the concrete and perimeter drainage on this property to install proper waterproofing. Tons of rotted out framing was discovered after ripping open a few areas.
Most of the hardware holding this place together was fairly corroded and we recommended that the owner should explore replacing most of it.
When in doubt, shim it up.
And leave the beer can there so the wife won't find it and know you were drinking on the job.
Two ends of a girder sitting on a compressed and sunken post & pier.
We come across these rubble walls quite often around LA and they're usually all in a similar condition as this one.
Waterproofing of a retaining wall that was done backwards. This material is supposed to be on the backside of the wall, not the down-slope section.
This is actually a large retaining wall right next to the property we were brought out to inspect. It had a large vertical crack going all the way through and one side was severely displaced.
The ivy couldn't even hide it from us.
As an arhitect, this kind of thread on BP always gives me more anxiety than entertainment, especially in the light of that recent condo collapse in Florida that killed more than 160 people (don't get fooled by the fact they're still only listed as "missing" - there is no way they survived the way that building collapsed - they simply haven't recovered the bodies yet). These are exactly the warning signs of structural collapse that should have been heeded long ago, but somehow people ignore for years on end until it's much too late. So, for the ever loving love of Pete (Conrad), take care of your house before it falls on you!
There are three shows that Mike Holmes produces/makes. One is called "Holmes Inspection" ohmygawd, I cannot believe the "cover-ups." Then he has one called Holmes makes it right, or something like that. We watch him all the time. Mr. Holmes is a really good guy. The show is based in Canada, but we are fortunate enough to get to see him on DIY and HGTV. That is about the only show I watch any more. Fortunately, where we live, it is impossible to have basements in homes as the ground here is way too unstable. So we don't have to deal with failing walls or unsound basements or "sump pumps." Most of the houses here are either on solid foundations or pier and beam. Yes, there are basements in office buildings, but that is a whole different construction program.
My dad's company gets houses ready for sale - repairing minor damage, cleaning, etc. You wouldn't believe the structural things he's seen. He was in an upper class neighborhood, VERY expensive homes, and yet the two-story high back deck was being held up by a wing and a prayer. No structural support, most of the main anchoring nails holding it together were 3/4 of the way out, you name it. The instant he looked over it he the forbade anyone to set foot on it - and the home inspector had already passed it!!
I think what’s scarier is that some of these super unsafe building things actually somehow last a long time. Until they spontaneously cause the side of an entire condo building to slide down.
Load More Replies...Sometimes the USA present themselves like a third world country. How is it even possible that those building nightmares exist? The recently collapsed building in Florida may become a regular occurence in the future
Why not going back to old, reliable bricks? What's wrong with US builders? Besides they would do a Lot of good to Woods and ecology.
It’s not as bad as these, but the last house I lived in had a terrible old stone staircase to the front door. It was clearly sinking, you could tell by where the crackers were. The top step was like half a foot steeper than the other steps. The landlord’s wife kept insisting it was fine (she wasn’t even in charge though??) until one of her friends fell off the staircase (she was fine, I think just got a bruised ego). We got a beautiful wood porch with stairs, but they were placed OVER the crumbling stonework. Not great! But not as bad as leaning retaining walls.
There are three shows that Mike Holmes produces/makes. One is called "Holmes Inspection" ohmygawd, I cannot believe the "cover-ups." Then he has one called Holmes makes it right, or something like that. We watch him all the time. Mr. Holmes is a really good guy. The show is based in Canada, but we are fortunate enough to get to see him on DIY and HGTV. That is about the only show I watch any more. Fortunately, where we live, it is impossible to have basements in homes as the ground here is way too unstable. So we don't have to deal with failing walls or unsound basements or "sump pumps." Most of the houses here are either on solid foundations or pier and beam. Yes, there are basements in office buildings, but that is a whole different construction program.
My dad's company gets houses ready for sale - repairing minor damage, cleaning, etc. You wouldn't believe the structural things he's seen. He was in an upper class neighborhood, VERY expensive homes, and yet the two-story high back deck was being held up by a wing and a prayer. No structural support, most of the main anchoring nails holding it together were 3/4 of the way out, you name it. The instant he looked over it he the forbade anyone to set foot on it - and the home inspector had already passed it!!
I think what’s scarier is that some of these super unsafe building things actually somehow last a long time. Until they spontaneously cause the side of an entire condo building to slide down.
Load More Replies...Sometimes the USA present themselves like a third world country. How is it even possible that those building nightmares exist? The recently collapsed building in Florida may become a regular occurence in the future
Why not going back to old, reliable bricks? What's wrong with US builders? Besides they would do a Lot of good to Woods and ecology.
It’s not as bad as these, but the last house I lived in had a terrible old stone staircase to the front door. It was clearly sinking, you could tell by where the crackers were. The top step was like half a foot steeper than the other steps. The landlord’s wife kept insisting it was fine (she wasn’t even in charge though??) until one of her friends fell off the staircase (she was fine, I think just got a bruised ego). We got a beautiful wood porch with stairs, but they were placed OVER the crumbling stonework. Not great! But not as bad as leaning retaining walls.