structural support: Future Projections
- 06/14/15 09:49 PM
Looking ahead, a downturn is imminent The real estate market has been in a historic decline now for years, although that seems to be changing. Foreclosures and short sales have been a large part of transactions. One constant that I have witnessed in spite of a poor market is that a nice, well kept house will still sell fairly quickly no matter the economic climate. A good incentive to any homeowner would be to maintain their home. As a home inspector good looks holds no sway with my assessment. Sometimes the ugly duckling is actually in better condition than the beauty queen. A pretty … (21 comments)
structural support: The Weight of Gravity
- 06/06/14 09:50 PM
There are a four basic physical forces in the universe which govern all things great and small. Two of these forces I would believe are familiar to all humans, electromagnetic and gravity. We are all intimately acquainted with gravity. It is the force that adheres us to the earth and causes us to hit the floor when we roll past the edge of the bed. Surprisingly it is the weakest of the four basic universal forces. Gravity acts on everything with mass and it is theorized it can even act on light. What this very simply means is the more the mass of an … (34 comments)
structural support: Glass Walls Are Not Only in Glass Houses
- 09/08/10 06:55 AM
Glass has to be one of mans greatest inventions. It has so many great attributes, but at the same time has many weaknesses. By far and away the largest and most notably use for glass is windows. Can you imagine what homes and building must have been like before window glass? The biggest weakness of glass is that it's weak or more accurately brittle. It breaks very easily and has marginal strength. I often joke about glass not being structural, but apparently someone hadn't heard the news. I found this wall of glass on a recent inspection. The glass is a … (9 comments)
structural support: Move It On Over
- 03/08/10 07:50 AM
Remodeling has become all the rage due in part, I'm convinced, to the plethora of DIY shows on TV. The hosts make it look so easy it inspires people to put aside their fear of lifting a hammer...and using their good sense. Here we have a room in a nice little cape style home. Looks perfectly normal, doesn't it? Nothing jumps out at you as problematic, just a normal living room. While inspecting this home the buyer said to me his wife, who was not attending, had a few questions. The first was to do with the floor in the upstairs … (16 comments)
structural support: A Little Help
- 06/19/09 12:03 AM
One of the most common elements on a home is the windows and doors. So common in fact I'm sure no one gives them much thought. But there are those that should give some thought to how a door is installed. When a door or a window is put into a home the wall structure into where it's placed is compromised by the opening. The wall studs have to be cut out of the way to fit in the door or window. To strengthen the gap a "header" must be installed at the top of the opening. A header is a … (8 comments)
structural support: You Keep Me Hanging Out
- 05/08/08 06:07 AM
I was in an attic the other day which highlighted through the deficiencies found the importance of specific design elements of these spaces. The first photo shows roof trusses and rafters. The left side is framed with rafters supported by a beam and purlins. The purlins are installed under every third rafter. As you can see when the addition was added they did not support the end of the beam. The trusses are seen in the right half of the photo. From the exterior large dimples could be seen where the sheathing was failing due to poor support and lack … (6 comments)
structural support: No Support, Plainville, CT
- 08/22/07 06:51 AM
Structural support is backbone or more apt the skeleton of a home or building. Without a correctly designed and installed support system the building will fold like a house of cards. Defects in the structural system can cause significant failures in the building. On a recent inspection it was discovered in a quite newer home (2005) a serious structural concern. The first photo shows the end of one of two main structural support beams in this home. This is the pre-formed pocket in the foundation wall made to accept the beam. As is evident in the photo the beam has been shimmed … (16 comments)
Looking ahead, a downturn is imminent 
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