Residential Contractor Foundation Install 4

[UofAGrad]

Hey guys, a little background on the situation that was brought to my attention today. Last fall I was approached by a homeowner who bought a property with a home on stilts (12 L4X4X1/4 on 12"X12"X12" footings). The supporting footings if you want to call it that were way undersized, access under the home was limited, I brought a contractor to the site to discuss construct-able solutions. Long story short I did an evaluation of the structure and provided repair sketches for new spread footings and cripple walls to support the home.

The contractor recently did the install of the spread footings and failed to call the county out to do a pre-pour inspection, the county stopped work and told him he needed to get me to sign off on the install. I met with him today and reviewed the photos he has. He captured alot of pertinent information but not all, so I told him I cannot sign off on it. I'd like to help him and the homeowner out, but I'm not sure what all of our options are? Can I:

Demo a footing to verify install was done correctly?

Verify dimensions and locations of footings then state that what was visible is correct and the contractor is liable if rebar was not placed correctly? Would this be acceptable?

(preferred) Evaluate the footings as if the rebar wasn't installed at all and propose install of adjacent footings where needed?

Are there other options I should be considering? TIA!

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

I discussed this with the contractor and he felt it would take as much work to access these locations as it would to install new ones. I wasn't going to argue.

I figured this would be the case. Oh well, as long as the contractor approves it's a good solution.

Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL) Structural Engineer (IL, HI)