Can You See It?

Can you see it?

Look closely.

Where the walls meet in the corner, in the brown area. See it now?

No?

The wood shingles for the siding have fish-mouthed. And, if you look above the shingles, you'll see the barge rafters at the edge of the roof have separated.

This, unfortunately, gets the home inspector excited and you don't want me excited - you want me bored, bored, bored. Boring houses are good houses.

The gaps above are signals and the place to trace that signal is back to the foundation.

That roof segment is connected to a column connected to a masonry wall that also supports the deck/wraparound veranda. That wall is moving.

I say 'is' because an attempt at repair was made made for the deck - and failed. Newer movement broke a part of the repair.

The mortar for the masonry wall that was cracked has been repaired - and re-cracked.

We have an ongoing, slow-moving problem. It won't fall down tomorrow, but the systems aren't working, they're failing.

What's the solution?

A good structural engineer. I know one and, for stuff like this, I refer him. That's what I did here.

All things are fixable. The only question is who gets to pay. Part of my job is for you to have that question answered up front.

There's nothing worse than you moving in and discovering a year later that you're the deep pocket that will fix a structural failure.

Wait - Your Inspector Didn't Say Anything About Anchor Bolts?

First, a little history lesson. We tend to think that modern standards are inherently superior to the ‘good old days’. That may be so, but that does not mean that an older foundation is unsafe or needs a full retrofit. Many of our old foundations (in this region) are doing just fine. Many of those do not have a single anchor bolt, either.

Washington State began requiring anchor bolts on a statewide basis in about 1973 though many of our 1950s and 1960s Pullman and Clarkston homes have them. Prior to that, the state mandated them in the Puget Sound region due to earthquake potential.

Anchor bolting is installed to handle seismic and wind forces that have the potential to knock a home off the foundation. The Northridge quake is a case in point. The manner in which we installed them changed after that quake and the design of the washers was modified to limit damage.

Anchor bolts are not always visible - finished basement will prevent access - but it pays to have your inspector making the effort to identity if they are present or not. I do so in my reports on a separate line. If they are missing, the client gets a nice explanatory paragraph.

It’s a fairly common defect to find that the anchor bolts are present but missing washers and nuts. When this happens, it becomes a repair issue. If they are not spaced correctly, it becomes a judgement call - is it worth the cost to retrofit versus the risk. On this side of the state, our earthquake risk is minimal compared to Seattle. Most people don’t retrofit, but they always appreciate the information.