Guide to Structural Condition Assessments 1

[gte447f]

Can anyone recommend a good guide for performing structural condition assessments? A few resources that I am aware of, but am not familiar with are ASCE/SEI 11-99, "Structural Condition Assessment" by Robert Ratay, and "Property Condition Assessments" by Sam Kubba. Can anyone provide any feedback on the usefulness of these resources or recommend any others? Thanks.

 

[msquared48]

If this is insurance work, the insurance company has its own guidelines and set of questions to address.

FEMA 310 - Handbook for the Seismic Evaluation of Buildings: It may be somewhat helpful, but man not be what you need. Good to have though as a reference.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask

 

[conceng]

The American Concrete Institute ACI 364 "Guide for Evaluation of Concrete Structures before Rehabilitation" would cover most any concrete building or issue. It will also reference other sections of the "Manual of Concrete Practice" that are too numerous to mention.

Greg

 

[Ron]

The ASCE guide is good for structural assessment. Use ASTM E2018 "Standard Guide for Property Condition Assessments: Baseline Property Condition Assessment Process". Both of these are legally defensible if you follow them and they give you both technical and qualifications requirements.

If you are doing this as part of a real estate transaction, then use either or both. If you are doing this for a condominium conversion, run like hell.

Make sure that whomever you assign to this is appropriately qualified to make the assessment in the field.

This is an area of high litigation, so approach carefully.

 

[gte447f]

Thanks Ron. I am interested mostly for real estate transactions, both commercial and residential. I am guessing based on the length of the documents that ASTM E2018 may cover mostly procedural issues, and that ASCE 11-99 may have more materials specific and structural system specific details. Is this correct?

Have you read either of the texts that I listed in the original post?

 

[Ron]

gte447f...I have not read those texts; however, I've been doing structural assessments and property condition assessments for over 30 years. ASTM E2018 has become the "standard" for real estate transaction PCA's. For a typical PCA, I would only go as far as E2018 dictates. I would not go into the ASCE level, since that is typically beyond the scope of a common real estate transaction survey.

If the client requests the ASCE level of assessment, be sure to charge more for it as it requires a different level of surveyor and carries a greater liability.

Ron

 

[DaveAtkins]

ASTM E2018 is the standard most of us follow. However, it is so thorough that no one ever does everything listed.

You must discuss with your client what level of assessment is desired, and balance that with the fee he is willing to provide. There are a lot of questions to ask: Does the client want an ADA evaluation? Does the client want the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems evaluated? Are you looking at the condition of the roof? Are you evaluating the parking lots? And so on.

DaveAtkins

 

[JedClampett]

Got this this morning.

https://secure.asce.org/ASCEWebSite/WEBINAR/ListWebinarDetail.aspx?ProdId=15693

Can't vouch for it, but at least it's not from a pdh factory.

 

[steve1]

I received a copy of ASCE 11-99 "Guideline for Structural Condition Assessment of Existing Buildings" when I attended a seminar of the same name. The guide will not tell you have to determine load capacity but will help in determining what information you need, how to obtain it, and how to use it.

 

[gte447f]

Thanks for all the responses...some good information. I got a copy of E 2018 and reviewed it, and it appears to be a reliable standard as far as process and content of a property condition report are concerned. Does anyone have any recomendations for resources of a more practical nature for use in actually performing walk-through surveys? Perhaps something that addresses the specific things to look for based on building type or material type. I won't go so far as to say a "checklist", but something along those lines? 11-99 is a much longer document than E 2018; does it contain this type of information?