Wood decks are a complicated subject. Almost every house has a front porch or a rear deck that is wood-framed, especially houses built after 1970. So why are wood decks built 30 years ago a lot different from those decks that are built to code standards today? The answer involves understanding a little bit of recent history about the changes that have occurred over that timeframe.

I have another case study for you. Actually, it’s something I had not seen before, or maybe it was the first time I noticed it! I’ve done structural inspections for hundreds of houses and buildings varying in all kinds of conditions. Some are really nice, million-plus dollar homes. Some are Class A, trophy-type office or apartment buildings. And some are houses worth less than zero dollars they are in such bad shape. This photo is of the third type. 

The issue was whether or not a suspected load-bearing wall could be removed on the first floor level. This is a question I get a lot, but the method for sorting out the load-bearing capacity of a particular studwall is far from straightforward. The short answer is that typically I figure out the load path of the structure from the roof and floor levels down to the foundation. Of course, the interior drywall or plaster covering all of the structural framing doesn’t make this easy on me! Many times, I rely on my prior knowledge of what that type of house looks like when it’s been gutted. Admittedly, I see older, pre-WW2 houses gutted more often than newer housing, and this was a 1970’s, two-story Colonial.

I’d like to share a case study of a recent inspection I completed. Recently I was asked by a homeowner to evaluate their rear basement foundation wall and, in addition, to review the five different foundation repair proposals they had obtained from different foundation repair contractors. Their house is a common two-story Colonial with an unreinforced 8-inch thick Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU) wall. When I say unreinforced, I mean that it did not have any steel reinforcing bars (rebar) in the wall like what’s required in new construction today and since the 2000’s. The rear yard sloped towards the rear foundation wall. Because the basement was finished, the wall bowed approximately two inches before they removed the drywall to find the cracked and bowed foundation wall.