SLIPPIN' & SLIDDIN'
A L.K.Q.S.S. COMPLIANCE & REGULATORY RULING
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SLIPPIN, & SLIDIN’
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Take your average home with a view that was built here in the Lower Mainland on a hillside.
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Now add a few years, say 20 give or take a few, with the original owners still living there except that if they walked through the house from the front door to the back door they got sea sick. If nothing was on TV that night, they would drop marbles on the floor and chase them around the house. Here’s why.
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CAUSE OF THE DAMAGE
·???????BUILDERS WHO CAN NOT THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!
·???????MINIMUM CODE REQUIREMENTS!
Mainland Concrete Lifters Inc. completed an Elevation Survey by their consulting department. Then their cost consultant was brought in to provide a scope of repairs, and an assessment of restoration. The Elevation Survey revealed the following:
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·???????The Scope of Repairs included selective demolition, excavation, Kevlar staples, crack fill, Ram Jack piers, underpinning, drainage systems, back fill, benching, new deck and concrete walks, staircases, and other exterior remedial work under the direction of a structural engineer and a geotechnical engineer. This work was completed by Mainland Concrete Lifers Inc. and there was still interior remedial work left to do. This portion for stabilization of the residence is more than $100,000.
Piering placement was completed along the rear elevation foundation wall, along the right foundation wall from the rear to the chimney chaise, and along the left foundation wall from the rear to the middle of the garage pad foundation.
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The residence is tiered down a hillside by the basement being below ground in the front to above ground in the rear. It is virtually built on a rock shelf. Because the builder built following the plans and minimum code requirements to the letter to have the municipality pass inspection quickly and quietly, his actions caused grief and expenses to the owners later. All that would have been required, would be a little more forming and concrete to take the footings right down to bearing strata (in this case the rock shelf) and start from there.
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领英推荐
Instead, the footings were formed at the height described in the plans on top of the approved fill of the day. All that was required would have been to form down to the rock and the footings poured a little more thickly in spots. We are only talking 6” to 24” more along less that 50 % of the exterior perimeter plus the interior bearing wall footings. Now couple this with the approved fill of the day which incidentally washed away when wet, and add Big O drain tiles that ran above the footings and it is a recipe for disaster.
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To correct this, excavation was done to the north and east elevation and 25 % of the south elevation, new double PVC drain pipe was installed, including 100 % of the south elevation, along with selective clean outs along the way and new drains in walkways, cracks were filled and sealed, cracks were stapled then parged, bench underpinning along the upper north and south exterior walls, proper drain rock and back fill rock was installed, benching was done to the landscape on the north elevation, a new deck was constructed on the north elevation, and new concrete sidewalks and staircases were installed.
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Oh, did we mention that the sequence of events that lead to the demise of the foundation was just this simple.?
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Need an independent Compliance & Regulatory Ruling or Review email us at [email protected] with the following information.
·???????Your name
·???????Your email address
·???????Your phone number
·???????A synopsis of the situation