30 Engineering ‘Nightmares’ And ‘Miracles’ Discovered During Structural Inspections By This Company (New Pics)

I don't know about you but I would want to park the furthest away from this wall...

The brick and mortar piers are literally turning into dust. Not something you want holding up your entire house.

Anyone want to step foot on this balcony?

"How do you know if your wood is rotting?" This is how.

You are looking at the worst framing rot that we have ever come across on an inspection.
You can't even touch this wall without the whole thing falling apart. Just look at the insulation around it!
You know it's really bad when the studs begin to look like fractured vertebrae.

I guess they wanted an open floor plan? They took the brick wall separating the two rooms down. No permits, no contractor, just a man and his trusty hammer.

Another failing railroad tie "retaining wall" that should be replaced soon. You can see how far it has begun to lean towards the street.

This is a pretty wicked stilt home we inspected this past week. Retrofitting these for earthquakes is one of our many specialties.

I think one more shim should do the job.

There should not be a space here. Never good news when you see stem walls separating at the corner.

We weren't able to perform a proper torque test on this bolt... but something tells me we didn't have to.

Here is a brick pier that's sitting dangerously close to a big hole in the ground. Something tells me the homeowner will start to feel some dipping in the floors soon!

It's always nice when I don't have to crawl into a crawlspace but, these stairs are pretty frightening.

Here's a concrete pier practicing for its role as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Whole lotta issues with this...
Just slightly separating from the structure...

Who knows what's going on here?

These photos are from a home we inspected that was built in 2009. You would think that because it's newer construction the home would be a good shape. Well, this should give you a better understanding of how damaging water leaks can be if they go undetected. Nearly the entire subfloor is rotted from water damage and multiple joists are hanging down from rot.
It took less than a decade for this to occur, so not all homes with significant damage are 100 years old.
Large puddles of water had to be avoided during the crawl as well. (Image 3)
Here you can see two joists hanging down after snapping in half from water damage. (Image 4)
This is probably the nastiest of all the damage. That is not paint. It's possible that the entire subfloor needs to be replaced. (Image 5)

Wood should never crumble away like this.

The old lathe and plaster ceilings are sagging, looking like it's about to collapse.

And for my next trick I will levitate this post...

These photos are of severe spall damage underneath an old concrete structure in Los Angeles. This kind of structural flaw occurs after water penetrates the concrete, causing the steel to rust and expand. This breaks apart the concrete and reduces the strength of the area or possibly the entire structure.
We shared these because we wanted owners and managers of these types of buildings to be able to recognize the potential damages that could compromise their structures.
Recently we have been inundated with calls from building owners who are fearful that their buildings could collapse like the condos in Miami. The issues seen in these photos are similar to what was discovered in Miami, among other things.
Whether it's in the ceilings, walls, floors, or columns, and either in the interior or exterior of the structure, these are all signs of significant structural flaws and should always be approached promptly with properly engineered solutions.

Here we have some expansive soil, clearly affecting the foundation already.

A customer called us in because of this crack running off the corner of their door, which is never a good sign and points in the direction of foundation problems.

This is what no steel in the concrete and moving soil will do to your foundation.
Someone placed a few shims in there to level it all out.

These balconies have seen better days. As you can see, the wood framing of these balconies is experiencing some deflection. This is why The Balcony Bill exists. The Balcony Bill, formerly known as California Senate Bill 721, was signed into law back in 2018. This bill requires the inspection and possible repairs on all balconies, decks, and stairs that rely in whole or in substantial part on wood structural support in multi-family residential buildings with three or more dwelling units.

Some of the piers weren't even in contact with the posts.

There appears to be a cave system leading down underneath this home's foundation.

This failing retaining wall won't last much longer. Some movement over the years has taken place and has caused the wall to lean into the sidewalk.

Omelets anyone?

Here is yet another brick foundation we inspected this past week. We want to get as many of these replaced, or at the very least, sistered before the next major earthquake in LA.
The external foundation walls of this building are bowing, and many of the bricks are falling out of place. (Image 2)
Not only that, but the framing is in really bad shape and a lot of it needs to be replaced as well. (Image 3)

Here is an early 1900s home with a very brittle brick foundation. These large interior cracks likely formed after years of settlement and degradation of the foundation.

Here's a brick foundation where the mortar has degraded almost entirely. Only a small section (in the middle of the brick wall) has solid mortar. Replacing or sistering this foundation would be the only solution for this homeowner.

Somebody had previously attempted to fill the cracks, but this only further harms the concrete and can cause spall damage. If this goes unhandled, it will create a big problem for the owner and the residents!

This wooden post seems to be sitting on a bed of shims, connected to a rusting baseplate.

Here is a retaining wall that's partially supported by piles. The wall is now separating at the exact spot where they omitted to put more of them. Now the wall is sinking and leaning down the hill.

This two-story home is being supported on one layer of brick... one layer of brick.

Here is a leaning retaining wall that is breaking away from a garage structure. Notice the large wooden beam that is wedged in there to help hold the wall back.
You can see large cracks at the bottom of the wall where the initial fracture took place. (Image 2)
Here's an image from the inside of the garage. The roof is also rotting and is just falling apart as the wall leans outward. (Image 3)

When the retaining wall is built of concrete blocks, the cracks may look like stair-steps. Stair-step cracks are a sign that your block retaining wall is failing. Improper drainage could be the culprit of this crack. The soil behind the wall is soaked with water and this applies pressure to the wall.

Here we have a column that's settling downward, dragging the iron fencing with it.

Don't underestimate the power of tree roots.

Here's some gnarly spall damage on the underside of a large condo building in LA.

Here's an undermined concrete foundation that a plumber couldn't resist taking advantage of.

I think the L stands for load-bearing.

This illegal addition was in really bad shape.

Was it opposite day when this was installed? This is a long concrete pier with a wooden shim acting as its post... Pretty strange.

Has anyone seen any of the many videos of balconies failing? This is one of the main reasons. Spalling is when the rebar inside of reinforced concrete has started to rust and expand due to water penetrating the concrete over a large period of time. This is not only dangerous for the people who step on the balcony but the people beneath as large chunks of concrete can fall off of at any moment. Spalling significantly decreases the structure's ability to safely carry its intended loads. Wood rot is another one of the main reason for balcony failures.

Here's a concrete masonry retaining wall that is beginning to fail. I'm sure that one more winter full of heavy rainfall would cause this sucker to come down.

Follow me into my office.

This cripple wall is rotating away from the home.

Lots of earth-to-wood contact under this home. Let the termite feast begin.

A portion of the retaining wall has separated from the rest of the wall. This will only get worse as time goes on if not fixed. Here you can see how much the wall has been pushed away from the top portion of the wall.

This is a concrete and brick structure with visible spall damage on the exterior.
It's also causing some structural cracking on the outside where the concrete isn't as exposed. This will be a good one to document and share if we do the work!

Make sure to hold the rai... irrigation pipe on the way down.

Larger cracks like this found outside the home may mean the foundation has shifted or sunk. Cracks wider than one-quarter inch could indicate problems with the home’s structural integrity. Once the structural problem is fixed, homeowners can make the cosmetic repairs. Looks like the stem wall has a large crack and is separating from the rest of the stem wall and is starting to rotate away. Time to be replaced!