PROPERTY DESCRIPTION

The house is a two-story wood-framed structure with brick veneer cladding and a hip roof (Photos 1 & 2). It has a crawl space and attached two-car garage. The main house is 37' long by 31' wide. The garage is 22' long by 30' wide. There is about 2200 square feet of heated living area. The interior floors are hardwood, carpet, and vinyl. The walls and ceilings are sheetrock. There is good slope away from the house on all sides except the front. The ground pitches toward the front of the house at about a 2% grade. The ground along the foundation to the left of the front door is flat. It is possible for surface water to seep into the ground and get into the crawl space at this location.

The house has a pier and curtain wall type of foundation. The foundation walls consist of masonry pilasters spaced about 6' apart around the perimeter and a 4" brick curtain enclosure. The pilasters support 4 x 10 (2 – 2 x 10’s) spandrel girders, which in turn support the first floor and exterior stud walls. The interior part of the house is supported on 4 x 10 girders, 2 x10 joists, and masonry piers. A 4 x 10 (2 – 2 x 10’s) central girder line runs from the left side of the house to the right side (DWG. 1). The girder line is offset about 18" in the center, so the floor joists under the dining room hall span 12.5' while the floor joists under the living room span 14'. This girder line is supported by 8" x 16" masonry piers that are spaced at 3.5' to 9.3' intervals. The kitchen and family room areas are supported by three 4 x 10 girder lines that run from the central girder to the rear of the house. The girder lines divide the rear part of the house into four equal spaces. The joists span about 9'. The girders are supported by 8" x 16" masonry piers, spaced at 4.7' to 8' intervals.

OWNER REPORTED DEFECTS

1. The right rear corner of the house has settled, causing cracks in the brick veneer. The chimney has settled, causing cracks in the brick veneer.

2. The supports on the sides of the garage door opening have settled, causing cracks in the brick veneer. The lintel beam over the garage door opening has deflected, causing cracks in the brick veneer above the opening.

3. The piers that are supposed to support the double and triple joists under the front entry and stairway walls miss the joists.

4. Water has entered the crawl space by the front door and damaged the first floor framing.

5. Areas of the first and second floors over the central load-bearing girder have excessive slope. Vertical displacement of the floors has caused cracks in the walls. The toilet in the half bathroom on the second floor tilts.

6. Some of the girders supporting the first floor are overspanned. Some of the masonry piers are not centered under girders or miss them entirely.

OBSERVATIONS

1. We walked around the main house and observed the condition of the brick veneer on all elevations. We did not observe any cracks in the brick veneer cladding, except at the right rear corner of the main house (Photos 1 –3). Vertical movement has occurred in this corner. The movement is evidenced by a 1/16" wide crack in the caulking in the right jamb of the window on the right elevation. In addition, a 1/32" wide crack extends from the upper right-hand corner of the window to the corner of the house. On the rear elevation, the crack continues for 30" toward the corner of the upstairs bathroom window and peters out (Photos 2 & 3). There are also hairline cracks in the joints between the chimney and house. We also noted a 1/32" wide crack in the caulking in the left jamb of the second story window located to the right of the chimney. Additionally, there is a 5" long hairline crack at the lower left-hand corner of the same window. In a telephone conversation that we had with Mr. Howard, he indicated that the cracks were wider a couple of months ago. There is more weight at the right rear corner of the house than at other locations. The heavier weight results from the higher exterior wall and the weight of the chimney.

2. The ground in the crawl space slopes toward the right rear corner (Photo 11). Water that gets into the crawl space is likely to drain to this corner and seep into the ground. While we did not observe excessive dampness in the corner, Mr. Howard indicated that he has observed water at this location. The downspout at the left front corner of the house discharges onto the garage roof and then onto the adjacent ground. Because the ground does not pitch away from the house, it is a potential source of water in the crawl space.

3. We walked around the garage and inspected the brick veneer cladding. The only cracks that we observed were cracks around the garage door opening. The garage door opening is 18' - 6" wide. A step crack runs from the upper right-hand corner of the garage door opening to the center of the window above (Photos 5 & 6). The crack has been patched with mortar. It appears to be about 1/8" wide. In addition, a 1/32" wide step crack extends from the lower left corner of the window downward and to the left at about a 45° angle. It peters out about 5' from the window. It has not been patched. Also a third step crack starts at the center of the garage door opening and extends upward and to the right at about a 30° angle for about 4', until it peters out (Photos 5 & 6).

4. The brick veneer in the front of the garage is also slightly cracked just below the roof eave at the right corner of the garage (Photos 4). The crack follows the joints in the brick and is about 1/8" wide by 12" long. There is also a crack in the garage floor slab about 4' in from the right doorjamb. The crack is parallel to the wall and extends toward the rear of the garage. It has been patched. There is no difference in elevation across the crack, and the section of concrete from the crack to the corner of the garage does not slope. In addition, there is a crack in the garage floor slab at the left doorjamb (Photo 8). The crack forms a 3' arc with the doorjamb the center of the arc. It has been patched. There is no difference in elevation across the crack, and the concrete does not slope toward the corner of the opening. Mr. Howard removed the wallboard on the inside upper left-hand corner of the door opening to expose the lintel beam (Photo 7). The lintel beam is a wood I-beam. The wood flanges are 3.5" wide by 3" deep. The web is plywood. The overall depth is 16". Although not visible, there is probably a steel shelf angle attached to the lower flange. The shelf angle is needed to support the brick veneer.

5. We entered the crawl space and observed the supports under the front corridor, stairway, and wall between the corridor and dining room. We photographed the piers and girders and established their locations with measurements. The front part of the stairway is supported by three 6 x 10 beams that run from front to back. Two of the beams are supported at their midpoints with masonry piers (Photos 12, Piers 5 & 6 on (DWG. 1). The piers are barely under the beams. We did not observe any water in the crawl space by the front door or places around the front door where water could penetrate.

6. We did not observe any cracks in the interior walls on either the first or second floors, other than a 6" long hairline crack in the tray ceiling in the dining room. The crack is in the corner of the dining room by the door to the kitchen. The interior walls are in good condition .

7. We operated most of the interior doors on the first and second floors and did not find any that bind in their frames. We also did not observe any door frames or openings that are out-of-square.

8. The floor of the corridor leading from the front entry to the kitchen slopes noticeably from left to right (Photos 9). The toilet in the bathroom over the corridor tilts. In addition, there are ripples in the hardwood floor by the entry way. The ripples indicate that the floor in this area is under stress. In addition to the slope in the corridor floors, we observed slopes in various places of the kitchen floor. The unevenness in the kitchen floor is especially apparent at the passageway between the kitchen and dining room. The floor surfaces in other areas of the house are satisfactory, in our opinion.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

1. In a 10-year old house, some cracking in the brick veneer is to be expected. The main house has fewer cracks than average. The only cracks that we observed were the small cracks in the right rear corner that we described above. The relative absence of cracks is an indication that the house has a solid foundation and sits on stable ground. In our opinion, only a small amount of vertical movement has occurred at the right rear corner. Underpinning of the corner of the house or the chimney is therefore not necessary.

2. The movement in the right rear corner was probably caused by one or both of the following factors: (1) More weight on the soil in this part of the house, and (2) expansion and contraction of the soil under the corner footings. There is more weight on the soil at the corner because of the higher exterior wall and large chimney. The weight compresses the soil and causes differential settlement. In addition, the evidence indicates that water is periodically saturating the soil around the corner footings. When clay soil gets wet, it swells. When it dries out, it shrinks. The change in volume is a likely cause of the foundation movement.

3. We did not observe any evidence that the wall sections on either side of the garage door opening have settled. In our opinion, underpinning these walls is not warranted. Settlement of lintel supports is normally accompanied by diagonal shear cracks at the supports. We did not observe any shear cracks. The small step crack at the roof eave over the right support is too far removed, in our opinion, to have been caused by settlement of the right lintel support. Instead, we think that the crack was caused by lateral or rotational movement of the building corner. In addition, the cracks in the concrete floor at the corners of the garage door opening do not have settlement characteristics. In our opinion, they are shrinkage cracks.

4. The step cracks over the center of the garage door opening indicate a failure of the lintel beam. We compared the strength of the beam to the imposed wall load. Our analysis confirmed that the beam is not strong enough. The wall load imposes a bending moment of 19,000-ft. lbs., while the beam has a resistive capacity of only 9400-ft. lbs. Because the beam is overloaded, it has deflected excessively and caused the brick veneer to crack. The beam needs to be replaced or reinforced.

5. Piers are not needed under the beams that support the front entry and stairway walls. The beams consist of 3 - 2 x 10’s. Since they only span 14', they are strong enough to support the walls without intermediate support. Besides, there is no indication that the stairway walls have deflected.

6. We did not observe any evidence of water damage to the first floor framing by the front door.

7. The reason the walls are not cracked is that the displacement in the floors occurred during construction, before the walls were finished. This evidence rules out long-term settlement and points toward overspanning as the cause of the sloping floors.

8. We measured elevations of the first floor with a laser level (Photo 10), and created a contour drawing (DWG. 1). The contours indicate that the corridor floor slopes downward ¾" toward the wall between the corridor and dining room. The wall is not a load-bearing wall, but it has much weight because it extends to the attic and is a bathroom wall. Proper support was not provided under the wall. Consequently, the floor under the wall has deflected, causing the ¾" slope. The problem can be corrected by installing a double joist under the wall, with a pier at midspan. The pier is needed because the floor will have to be jacked up to level it.

9. The contour drawing also shows that the floor at the passageway between the kitchen and dining room slopes downward toward the dining room ¾". The slope can be attributed to two causes: (1) inadequate support under the wall between the dining room and corridor, and (2) overspanning of the central girder at this location. In the above paragraph, we explained what needs to be done to properly support the wall between the central girder and front of the house. Since the floor joists between the central girder and rear of the house run from side to side rather than front to back, strengthening of the support under this end of the wall will require the installation of a dropped beam and two piers. After the dropped beam is in place, the floor will have to be jacked up to level it. The central girder spans 9' from point A to point 4 (DWG. 1). The 9' span is excessive for the heavy wall and floor loads. An intermediate pier needs to be added to reduce the span to 4.5'. The central girder will have to be jacked up after the pier is installed to level the floor. In our opinion, the other unevenness in the kitchen floor is within acceptable quality tolerances.

Respectfully submitted,

William A. Stanton, P.E.