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I checked their standards on the 2/10 warranty, and the defect that triggers repairs is a 1/4" deflection in 32" for floors, and 3/8" in 32" for out of plumb walls. That is the final word. Now, that floor deflection criteria corresponds to a 1/240 deflection.

The builder needs to go by IRC2006 which is state mandated. IRC refers to ACI. How can the HBA standards be less than IRC/ACI?

The argument that the concrete floor in the basement is causing the sloping in the the 2nd floor is bogus because the 1st floor is not as bad as the 2nd floor, therefore, the sloping in the 2nd floor is caused by structural framing problems, such as undersized floor joists to support the...

I did not specify anything for this project. This is an existing new house (18 months old) which I was called to evaluate the cause of floor unlevelness.

It is a basement slab, with walls bearing directly over the slab. Some floors are not level on the 2nd story. The contractor claims it is because the concrete is not level, but still within concrete floor tolerances...Slab level tolerance used to be 1/8" on a 10ft distance according to the...

A residential contractor is telling me that 3/8" differential for a 32" distance on concrete is an acceptable construction tolerance. Where would he come up with something like that? Can someone point me which standard he could be referring to? He claims his concrete floor can have that much...

There is no OSB, there is only a 2x4 at the top as "rim" band at the top of the wall. Basically, the builder used insulation boards INSTEAD of OSB sheathing. OSB sheathing was only used at the corners of the house. Homeowner reported "scratching noises" inside walls, and near corners of...

I inspected the house, and it appears the noises are because the builder used foam insulation panels instead of OSB in most of the wall. Only corners have real OSB sheathing. The house is 2 stories, so slight wind can produce movement, which in turn produces the noise because of the reduce...

What about P-Delta effects, do you use factored loads or UN-factored loads?

The house we are talking is in Georgia. Where is your house?

what brand is the fridge?

I have client describe the following happening at her house: "I have the most disturbing noises inside the walls, it sounds like things are falling not just settling noises, bought the home 1.5 years ago after 5 months I heard strong noises and some are settling but these noises are out of the...

I tried to contact members of the ICC to discuss this IRC code contradiction, but apparently, the only way to talk to an ICC member (They are the ones that wrote the Building Code IRC) is by being a member!!!! For the moment I can't afford being a member of the ICC....

Here is the conclusion of this issue. Since I had given and estimate of between $5,000 and $ 30,000 to do the repairs, the seller had seek another opinion and got this second opinion, AFTER the sheetrock was pulled out: ....The 18-foot garage door opening is framed with a 3-ply 18” LVL. The...

Because the beam is failing, I very doubt a structural engineer was involved. In fact, very seldom a Structural engineer is involved in residential structures...

Mike, I believe they used an LVL or PSL to span 18 ft. However, I think it was not designed to suppport 1.5x dead load => Therefore, the beam has been subject to long term creep. I think LVLs are less subject to humidity conditions, don't they? Anyway, when they uncover the beam header, I will...

Even though the lack of control joint would have contributed to the cracking, the pattern of cracking (diagonal at the edges and vertical in the middle span) indicates to me a cracking due to excessive deflection. What I am a bit concerned now is that apparently wood beam lintels are illegal...

The pattern of the cracking does not indicate a settlement problem.

So, are you all telling that it is necessary to use a steel beam to support a 18 ft span on a residential house, because there is brick veneer? Any conclusions on this?

I would think that either IBC or IRC apply, up to the engineer's judgement, to a residential house.