David Barwacz
Member
My father recently passed away and I assumed the responsibility of the trustee of the estate.
I listed his house for sale and immediately had several interested buyers. The house is about 100 years old and has brick outer walls.
I accepted a decent offer and as is customary the buyer or his realtor had a "home inspector" check the place out.
There were some cracks in the brick which I just assumed were normal for 100 year old brick.
The inspector immediately assumed that the cracks were the result of a sinking foundation and recommended a company called Foundation Systems of Michigan, a foundation repair contractor.
Realizing that any repair they might recommend would be expensive, I decided to hire an independent structural engineer to determine exactly what might be causing the problem and just how serious it might really be.
An appointment was scheduled with what I thought was an independent engineer, I inspected the cracks myself.
The cracks were all stemming from glass blocks windows my father had put in several years earlier.
Upon close inspection it was clear that the contractor who installed the glass blocks had removed the header below the sill plate.
The span was 32 inches and each window that had cracks associated with it had at least two floor joist supported by nothing but sill plate and some mortar that the installer use to set the windows.
The sill plate was noticeably sagging above the windows. See picture attached. In the picture I held a 28 inch level flush to the bottom of the sill plate and the other end of the level had about a 1/2 inch gap to the plate.
Other windows on perpendicular walls where the joist ran parallel to the sill plate had no cracks in the brick wall above them.
I felt confident that this had to be the problem and repair would certainly be far less costly than any form of foundation supports.
When the engineer came out he immediately diagnosed foundation settling and recommended, guess who, Foundation Systems of Michigan.
To add insult to injury he didn't even recommend any particular fix but just said that Foundation systems of Michigan would handle everything.
I called the engineering company that he worked for and spoke with the owner and pleaded with him to come out and at least look at the glass block windows.
he accused me of questioning his intellect, said he stood by their report and hung up on me.
I have another engineer coming out next week who has agreed to look at the windows during his inspection.
My question is, assuming that the new engineer agrees that these sagging sill plates need some reinforcement, does anyone know an inexpensive way to do so. The top of the plate is completely accessible.
I listed his house for sale and immediately had several interested buyers. The house is about 100 years old and has brick outer walls.
I accepted a decent offer and as is customary the buyer or his realtor had a "home inspector" check the place out.
There were some cracks in the brick which I just assumed were normal for 100 year old brick.
The inspector immediately assumed that the cracks were the result of a sinking foundation and recommended a company called Foundation Systems of Michigan, a foundation repair contractor.
Realizing that any repair they might recommend would be expensive, I decided to hire an independent structural engineer to determine exactly what might be causing the problem and just how serious it might really be.
An appointment was scheduled with what I thought was an independent engineer, I inspected the cracks myself.
The cracks were all stemming from glass blocks windows my father had put in several years earlier.
Upon close inspection it was clear that the contractor who installed the glass blocks had removed the header below the sill plate.
The span was 32 inches and each window that had cracks associated with it had at least two floor joist supported by nothing but sill plate and some mortar that the installer use to set the windows.
The sill plate was noticeably sagging above the windows. See picture attached. In the picture I held a 28 inch level flush to the bottom of the sill plate and the other end of the level had about a 1/2 inch gap to the plate.
Other windows on perpendicular walls where the joist ran parallel to the sill plate had no cracks in the brick wall above them.
I felt confident that this had to be the problem and repair would certainly be far less costly than any form of foundation supports.
When the engineer came out he immediately diagnosed foundation settling and recommended, guess who, Foundation Systems of Michigan.
To add insult to injury he didn't even recommend any particular fix but just said that Foundation systems of Michigan would handle everything.
I called the engineering company that he worked for and spoke with the owner and pleaded with him to come out and at least look at the glass block windows.
he accused me of questioning his intellect, said he stood by their report and hung up on me.
I have another engineer coming out next week who has agreed to look at the windows during his inspection.
My question is, assuming that the new engineer agrees that these sagging sill plates need some reinforcement, does anyone know an inexpensive way to do so. The top of the plate is completely accessible.