1930's era Beam/Pier House Foundation stones.

[RickyTickyTavi]

I'm doing a charity project in the city of houston will be doing some minor structural engineering to save these 1930's era homes. Buildings are in really bad shape. I mostly do renovations and repair design for commercial and industrial buildings but I came upon something I had not seen. The houses are about 1000 sq feet, working class 1930's era houses. Wood frame on piers. No original drawings. Houston, TX, USA.

https://i.imgur.com/cwPcfHy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yGY20hw.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wZD6bWp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UJLkL7l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pXhXRDs.jpg

The foundation stones/blocks have an imprint on them I can't quite make out. This doesnt matter to me too much structurally but was curious if anyone was familiar with this imprint? Some long gone specification (or still existing). Several of the blocks have been replaced with modern era CMU, but was speculating these were the original.

Anyone see these before?

 

[phamENG]

Can't quite make it out, but I'm guessing it's a manufacturer's mark. I've seen them on clay bricks before. Some would just be a date, one church had the builder's name and the date on a brick in one pier.

 

[dik]

Can you run across it with a nearly dry paint roller to see if you can 'raise' the lettering. Judging from the concrete colour, it looks like low strength, maybe somewhat less than 20MPa. They may have been precast piers? I wouldn't guess that strength is an issue and like the other repairs CMU 'pier' blocks or regular CMUs would likely do the job. Make sure you isolate the wood from the concrete... done like a dinner.l

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[RickyTickyTavi]

@dik

Thats not a bad idea. Not my property but I can stop by. I was using blu-beam was tracing the lettering. My rudimentary googling wasnt finding anything useful. Might be a local fabricator thats long gone.

Pre-cast piers was my assumption as well.

 

[JStephen]

One looks like 1936 to me, in which case it'd likely be a date. All the steel beams from that era had the dates rolled into them.