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Not so common wood failures

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jerseyshore

jerseyshore

Structural
May 14, 2015
711
Went to a mess of a deck earlier that has the front half separating from the back half (bad piles & foundations). This little block of wood was added at some point to try to tie the two parts together. Clearly that didn't work and I got this great shot of cross-grain tension failure.

So I'm interested to see what other not so common wood failures you have seen (photos encouraged).

I ask because I had a builder last week try to tell me that they can lap plywood halfway on a 2nd floor rim joist and omit the strapping (all the houses around here have to have straps from floor to floor or an actual full plywood lap). I said of course not, but they didn't believe me that cross-grain tension is a thing, even though I even sent them the image from the Simpson high wind catalog explicitly denouncing it. Feel like sending them this photo as a nice told ya so.

20230331_154833_pvntqh.jpg
 
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Don't have any word failures to add off hand, but there is something to the sheathing lap. Requires specialized nailing patterns and/or blocking details. Check the last sections of chapter 4 in the SDPWS.
 
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Yes the architect called me because the builder installed the sheets vertically on the first floor and I guess wanted to save $100 by not putting in the strapping and just lap the 2nd floor sheathing on the rim board. You're lucky if the nailing specified is even close to what is installed so I try to avoid doing anything remotely 'special'. In general really I try to avoid anything in wood construction that isn't very typical. I've seen my fair share of common failures and don't want to be the guy with the weird ones (like my deck above).
 
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Not sure this wood failure is super rare, but the structure itself was noteworthy. It was an old refrigerated warehouse being converted to self storage. The current owners were just opening the worm can and finding many things like this.

photo_13_27-10-2022_13-23-51_azrk6o.jpg
 
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That right there is a mess. Looks like pretty old framing. Don't recall I've ever seen steel angle ledgers before like that on every joist/beam. Always interesting to see the million different ways wood to wood connections were made prior to hangers, especially since most are failed or failing in some capacity.
 
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This came to mind. Got to see a built-up column failure. It wasn't a big deal, the contractor just tried to support the steel beam of a suspended garage slab with a few 2x6 and they failed. No consequences though, they just swapped out for some LVL and poured just fine. It was temporary anyway.
IMG_20190408_084713_bfy7u9.jpg
 
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"The lady that lives here has her tea on the deck every morning, so its OK right?"
(3) 2x8 crushed down to around 2"

Deck_Crush_reigpr.jpg
 
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kissymoose said:
This came to mind. Got to see a built-up column failure. It wasn't a big deal, the contractor just tried to support the steel beam of a suspended garage slab with a few 2x6 and they failed. No consequences though, they just swapped out for some LVL and poured just fine. It was temporary anyway.
Click to expand...

That's a great shot. That could be right out of a textbook.

port125 said:
"The lady that lives here has her tea on the deck every morning, so its OK right?"
(3) 2x8 crushed down to around 2"
Click to expand...

Holy hell. A perfect example of a total failure, which also highlights just how damn resilient wood construction is. That thing should've fallen down 10 years ago, but it didn't, and that's what makes our jobs so difficult sometimes. We try to convince people that things should be done a certain way, but when things like this are still standing, anything in slightly better condition is good enough to "land a helicopter on it".
 
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Hard to see from the pic, but the glulam delaminated causing the deck to sag 3 inches. I believe they may have used an interior glulam in an exterior application.


deck_hfpcqm.png
 
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jerseyshore said:
Don't recall I've ever seen steel angle ledgers before like that on every joist/beam.
Click to expand...

I've never seen anything like it either. Above that floor platform all the columns are solid sawn timber in a 14'x14' grid. The biggest were 20"x20" with 1" thick steel collars at the top. The building was in terrible shape and the moisture condition within the multi-wythe brick pockets had a catastrophic effect over the years. The photo below shows one of ~20 pocketed beams that were crushing and shearing at the wall. I ultimately had to walk away from the job--the contractor and current EOR for the repurposing were at severe odds and the contractor thought he could bring in a new engineer to take over... No, thank you!

photo_6_27-10-2022_13-23-49_gdz7bp.jpg


This one always makes me laugh--text message conversation between me and the site superintendent for a new neighborhood development. The permanent steel column hadn't arrived yet while I was doing framing inspections.

Screenshot_2023-04-03_120954_d1ukzt.png
 
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XR250 said:
Hard to see from the pic, but the glulam delaminated causing the deck to sag 3 inches. I believe they may have used an interior glulam in an exterior application.
Click to expand...

I saw someone not to long ago attempt to install an LVL for a deck and say it was rated for exterior application. I said there's only 1 company in the US that even makes those treated LVLs so nice try. If only these builders actually see what untreated engineered lumber looks like when it gets wet.
 
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RPGs said:
I've never seen anything like it either. Above that floor platform all the columns are solid sawn timber in a 14'x14' grid. The biggest were 20"x20" with 1" thick steel collars at the top. The building was in terrible shape and the moisture condition within the multi-wythe brick pockets had a catastrophic effect over the years. The photo below shows one of ~20 pocketed beams that were crushing and shearing at the wall. I ultimately had to walk away from the job--the contractor and current EOR for the repurposing were at severe odds and the contractor thought he could bring in a new engineer to take over... No, thank you!
Click to expand...

That's a walk in the building and say it's an effing disaster type of project right there. I had a similar thing a year or so ago where it was a disaster and we said it was un-save-able so they said we'll find another engineer to give us better news. Go for it.
 
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20220706_115301_il1u5e.jpg


Similar to XR250, but interior. This is in a fire hall, training tower for high angle rescue is above. The training tower had balconies that were poorly detailed and leaked. The original contractor also put the vapour barrier under this beam rather than over it, creating a bathtub in which the water could gather. The result was full delamination, but absolutely no signs of distress above (amazing redundancy of wood framed construction). Was discovered by the maintenance crew who were replacing the lightly stained drywall wrapped around the beam.
 
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Awesome picture. That belongs in one of those AWC webinars in the "glulam gone wrong" slide.
 
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I was once invited to a pool party and saw this deck. Note the spliced band board to the left.

Deck_1_gponpp.jpg



Here's a view from under the deck. The joists spanned from the house roughly 14' out to the single ply band board.

Deck_2_d83z86.jpg


I pointed it out to the homeowner. He had no clue there was a problem. I suggested that he keep everyone off the deck until it was fixed. He didn't seem concerned.

I never heard of the deck failing, but never went back to that house either.
 
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Not to mention that stellar band to post attachment.
 
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Not a failure, but this was discovered by a new homeowner who knew the previous owners and claimed it had been this way for 30+ years! Located in way upstate NY, just a few miles from Canada. Even with all that snow for all those years, apparently it got the job done.

photo_2023-04-07_08-33-49_cc85yt.jpg
 
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Wood framing is much more resilient than we can prove on paper but I don't mess around when it comes to decks. That one makes me uneasy just looking at it in a picture.
 
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Just before Xmas I went to a house where a lady had gotten her crawlspace spray-foamed 15 years ago. The problem, they used closed-cell foam.

It's hard to describe how rotten the wood was. You can see in the first photo a giant chunk of the bottom of a joist missing. The contractor just pulled it off by hand. It just fell apart. The wood basically disintegrated in your hand. I told him when we were down there, don't touch anything else, this is structural foam now. When they did the repair work the GC said water was pouring out as they chipped off the foam. Never seen anything like it.

Inked20221216_143524_evjgkr.jpg

20221216_143512_wqoq7w.jpg
 
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