Structural assessments of residential buildings

[CANeng11]

I'm in Canada and I've been asked to perform a structural assessment of an existing building that was constructed without a building permit years ago. Is there a standard to follow for assessments of this nature? How in depth does one need to go? Do you need to rip off drywall to look at beams and columns and check their capacity; model all the trusses; dig down to confirm the foundations?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[r13]

The linked continuation education paper may be used as a guide for the evaluation of varies types of buildings. Link

 

[NorthCivil]

I used to work almost exclusively on alterations. Most engineers in my office hated the work, much preferred new design. Myself, I love dealing with the unknowns and challenges of modifying existing structures.

Things I always said to clients. If I can't see it, I can't sign off on it. If you don't open it up, I can't see it. Then the next step was, we have gutted this and stripped it down this far. We *might* be able to get away with leaving this as is, but we are here now. Why don't we upgrade? If this was my building, I would do >this.

Maybe I loved this sort of work because it was never cut and dry, and there was always lots of educating, negotiation, and middle ground to be found with clients.

 

[Brad805]

You need to establish what is required and whom wants which pieces of paper. How you go about this will be drastically different depending on what the goal is. It can vary from a general walk through by a structural eng, to a detailed evaluation that includes destructive testing.

 

[Craig_H]

I haven't quite jumped into a mess that big myself, so I can't provide much learned experience. There is a PEO Guideline Link that might be somewhat helpful; it's based on condition assessments rather than a full structural evaluation, though.

In situations where I've evaluated buildings with (small) portions that were constructed without permits, I've had to get in the mindset that I can't be sympathetic to the owner's situation. There's always a sob story around why they didn't get permits, and sometimes a plea to help them out. It can be tempting to do less than is really necessary to determine whether the building is safe, paper over that with a flimsy disclaimer, and send something worthless into the AHJ. I've seen reports like that, and that's not right. When I do end up in a somewhat similar scenario, I make sure that I am absolutely exposing every darn structural component and inspecting it. Fly by night contractors have a habit of not following standard building practices, so I don't make any assumptions of what's behind the finishes.

 

[Ron]

ASCE has some guideline documents that cover this. Check their publications.

 

[ldeem]

Lots of liability in this type of work. I don't know about Canada but down here in the states I would be hard pressed to imagine a project fee coming anywhere near the liability exposure.

 

[PropertyGuy67]

I do residential assessments several times a week. I stay away from detailing the repairs, though, for the liability. I have a local firm that I refer the design work to. So I go out, identify the issue, recommend a course of action for the client, and if he asks for a design plan, I refer him over.

 

[msquared48]

Ask the local building department what they require, and go 100 yards further...

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)