Steel joist from adjacent property 4

[SleeplessEngineer]

During the demolition of the wood building to prepare for a new podium construction, the GC discovered that a steel joist from the neighboring building was encroaching into our property.
It appears the joist with bearing plate just hanging in the air. My guess is it was fabricated to a wrong length and instead of trying to go through modification, the installer just placed it and call it a day. I am not sure how it interfaced with the wood building before razing.
I think we just need to build around it; archi need to consider for water and fire proofing. But architect wants to remove it and arranging a site visit with the neighbor so we can have a look at their framing. Just looking at this picture, I know the framing over there is going to be a mess and going to be difficult support some other way to facilitate removing this. Anyone encountered like this before? Suggestions?
I'm not sure what happened. But I posted this yesterday and apparently it was taken down. I wonder why. I did describe it very briefly in 2 sentences. That was not enough? I have to a write a tech report? weird.

Edit: Pic removed. Sorry.

 

[Aesur]

Celt83, that was kind of what I expected to hear and I understand the pushback, had it recently for a higher risk cat building where the owner was pissed that I needed a 2" joint between new and existing and refused to backdown - they had room on the lot.

 

[hokie66]

I agree with Brad805 that if there is a boundary encroachment, it must be removed, and it is the responsibility of the encroaching owner. And the conclusion that DC is "outside North America" also has validity.

 

[phamENG]

I would not have guessed this was in the US. That is terrible masonry work.

I grew up in Florida, where at least the first floor of nearly every house is CMU, so even after almost 20 years in the mid-Atlantic I can't get over how terrible our masonry is. There are a few good ones out there, but most of it is just bad.

BUT...looking at that wall...I'd guess that's blind work. As in, either the building that was just torn down or the one before it was there first and the mason couldn't access the now visible side of the wall tool the joints. Doesn't explain why that joist is sticking through the wall, but probably explains some of the poor masonry work.

 

[SleeplessEngineer]

Thanks everyone for the input.
I am going to stop updating on this post since I feel like I gave out too much info than originally intended and it is likely going into legal dispute.
Just so I don't leave everyone on a cliffhanger, here are a few pieces of information came out of the meeting:[ul]
[li]GC have pictures before taking down the building which shows the razed wall was setback from the property line (likely to avoid this joist). From the front it looked like they were connected but the side wall was setback [/li]
[li] Based on the larger footings found on site, we believe the original building (the one before the 2 story wood building) was masonry single story structure. Likely the joist was pocketed to that wall. Whoever demoed the original masonry structure decided it is not their responsibility to support this joist[/li]
[li]Joists are not carrying much of load. It is spaced every 18" and spanning 36'. There doesn't appear to be any RTU in this area.[/li]
[/ul]

 

[Celt83]

Be careful with the party wall rules in DCMR and if this condition qualifies, usually works out so that the last one to touch the wall owns responsibility to make it safe.

 

[dik]

See my first posting... You haven't posted anything inappropriate. You've posted enough information that the members can provide you with some good information.

"Depending on the jurisdiction, a lawyer may have to be consulted. "

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[dik]

More importantly, what was supporting the end of the joist? and who removed it?

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[SleeplessEngineer]

last one to touch the wall owns responsibility

Thanks Celt83. The owner is willing to make it right as long as they don't claim anything excessive for business loss in their restaurant or make absurd demands.

what was supporting the end of the joist? and who removed it?

The contractor had pictures of it just hanging in the air before razing the two story wood building. My crude guess is that it was originally supported on much older masonry structure in that place, which was replaced by two story wood structure at some point. We could not figure out why only one of the joist is like this. Now the two story wood structure is also razed, completely exposing the mess. It might have also never been properly supported when installing itself; so we can't the blame the previous contractor who razed the original masonry structure. In short, we could not find the artist of this masterpiece.