Building damage assessment & damage repair or restoration procedure FAQs.

This article series provides residential & light construction building damage assessment procedures for buildings following disasters such as from earthquake, fire, flood, hurricane, tropical storm, or wind damage.

Also try the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need.

Building damage assessment, loss prevention, emergency action priority FAQs

These questions & answers about assessing and fixing damage to buildings were posted originally at BUILDING DAMAGE ASSESSMENT & REPAIR - the master index to our key articles on this topic.

Please be sure to review the topics and information on building damage assessment starting on that page.

Our cracked building photo at the top of this page was caused by the Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994. The website editor along with other ASHI inspectors assisted the American Red Cross with damage assessment and with providing services to people whose homes were damaged, destroyed, or that were unsafe to enter.

In the articles listed in this article series we discuss safe building entry procedures, setting the priority for repairs, and we give more detailed building inspection advice for building structures such as foundations & framing, and inspection and restoration of building mechanical systems.

On 2019-02-16 by (mod) - define the damage problem or concern?

PP

Are we discussing water entry - in the dark area of your photo or chipped concrete or something else?

On 2019-02-16 by pootproot - photos of concrete and wet building area - no comment

...

On 2019-01-18 by John

Thank you very much for your input on this situation. I know can say I 100% approve of your word and input to everyone on this amazing web site. Thank you .

On 2019-01-16 by (mod) - assessing structural wall damage

Not great but there is a lot more information to be obtained and considered including amount of foundation movement, impact on structure, extent of rot, loss of connections between beams and the rim joist or ledger beam, and whether or not there is bulging brick with broken bond courses; IF the wall is bulged there's a concern for more sudden collapse, depending on extent of bulge.

The choices among reinforcement, modification, add-on foundation on the interior, or complete reconstruction need to be made on-sit by an expert, as well as forming an opinion of the urgency - or not - of the repair.

On 2019-01-15 by John - water damage, earth pressure, rot, brick damage, stone damage to foundation

How does it look to you

We live at the bottom of a 200 foot hill. With a water sack of hydrostatic pressure where the stone wash out is. The buckled face plates of the bricks turning into dust is on the bearing side of the foundation and has all the weight force against it

Deteriorating brick 1880 it was built. Timber frame and the basement bearing beam is bowing over 2 inches...

I have a washout in the stone part. And a brick crumbling deterioration into dust every time a heavy truck drives by....

On 2019-01-07 by (mod) - I need someone to come to my apartment

Carolyn you might try home inspectors or environmental inspectors given at the page top EXPERTS DIRECTORY

On 2019-01-0 by carolynkreisman@yahoo.com

Your website is very informative. However, I need someone to come to my apartment to locate the source of a "yealp" I have had for about 2 weeks now. Thank you for whatever information you can provide.

Carolyn

On 2017-04-01 by (mod) - garage slab crack in Texas

Susan,

If I understand you correctly, you were describing and increasing crack in the garage floor slab, and you're saying that there are no corresponding cracks in the foundation wall.

Most likely that's not going to be a structural threat to the building although it would be a concern if you did see fundation wall cracks.

I'm not sure the cause of the crack. It could be due to improper fill under the slab or other errors during pour, even something as simple as the omission of a control joint in the slab

On 2017-04-01 by Susan-texas

We live in Texas, we have a 3 stories condo 4 years old, 2 years ago we discover a crack run from front of the garage to the back, now 2 years later this same crack is a little bigger and run all the way to the back of the house.

Have not see any crack of the wall. should this be an alarming. what would you recommend the course of actions.

On 2017-02-15 by (mod) -

Mike; please search (using the Search box just above) InspectApedia for SHINGLE GRANULE LOSS to read details that may help you in talking with the insurance company.

On 2017-02-15 by Mike

Re-posting from obsolete copy of this web page:

AUTHOR:Big mike (no email)

COMMENT: Gaf royal sovereign manufacturing defect.circular granule loss patterns over entire 6 month o)d roof.claim denied by gaf twice over the last 5 months.

On 2017-01-21 by (mod) - use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) to identify structural damage?

Thanks Matt, good suggestion. Here is some research on using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to identify either structural damage or (more likely) conditions likely to affect a structure:

• Daniels, David J. Ground penetrating radar. Vol. 1. Iet, 2004.
• Ermák, Jan, Jiri Hru ka, Milena Martinková, and Alois Prax. "Urban tree root systems and their survival near houses analyzed using ground penetrating radar and sap flow techniques." Plant and Soil 219, no. 1 (2000): 103-116.
• Jol, Harry M., ed. Ground penetrating radar theory and applications. elsevier, 2008.
• Maierhofer, Christiane. "Nondestructive evaluation of concrete infrastructure with ground penetrating radar." Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 15, no. 3 (2003): 287-297.
• Mellett, James S. "Ground penetrating radar applications in engineering, environmental management, and geology." Journal of Applied Geophysics 33, no. 1-3 (1995): 157-166.
  

On 2016-12-06 y Matt Turner

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can be used to detect building damage or cracks in buildings. Ground Penetrating Radar creates an image of the subsurface that can show damage.

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Suggested citation for this web page

BUILDING DAMAGE ASSESSMENT & REPAIR FAQs at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

Or see this

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to BUILDING DAMAGE, DISASTER, REPAIRS

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Citations & References

In addition to any citations in the article above, a full list is available on request.

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