Greatone76
Structural
- Feb 2, 2006
- 64
I'm working as an owner's rep on a project. I didn't design this project. After forms were removed from the foundation wall I noted a significant bow out in the foundation wall. This a typical foundation stem wall. It sits on a 12" thick footing and is 56" tall from the footing to the underside of the slab that goes over the wall. I measures across the building and got an extra inch and an eighth of width from design on the building. Using ACI 117-06 I used 3.2.2 Foundations supporting masonry Horizontal deviation of the as-cast edge shall be the lesser of ±2% of the foundation’s width or ±1/2 in. (13 mm). I asked for the contractor and CM to investigate based on it not appearing to meet that spec requirement. After further investigation it was seen that both side of the building foundation are at max .6 inches out of place, but also the wall is out of plumb by 1" from top to bottom in several areas. The out of plumb and location of the wall waves in an out along the length. I have section of wall that are both leaning out and leaning in significantly. Really crappy supporting of the Symons forms. The contractor and CM submitted a sketch to the designer. Where they want to form the slab that extends over the wall back to be in the correct location. So form the last 12" of height as much as 1" in 12" out of plumb. I am being told that the designer of the project has approved this. Am I wrong to be bothered by this wall having such poor craftsmanship and being accepted? This building is a simple 1 story 8" block masonry wall building, so it shouldn't have any unrealistic loads. But it does have significant loads from the weight of the masonry. I have also been using ACI 117-06 Section 4 to state that the 1" out of plumb far exceeds the 0.3% allowable. Am I right to use that reference? I can't find anything that applies in the Section 3 Foundation Section. Help me out. I feel industry standard tolerances apply and feel they should be met, but what do you do when an engineer signs off on something out of spec? Any good specific arguments about this situation that would help my point?
