Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
(OP)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bedford-park...
Terrible to see. What do you think the chances are there was a Structural Engineer involved?
Terrible to see. What do you think the chances are there was a Structural Engineer involved?






RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
It's tragic. I've seen houses fully shored many times, I'm still always leery about going underneath.
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
My money is on a basement renovation including increasing the height or extent of the basement.
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
Shoring should be simple. Shoring should be designed by an Engineer. Above all, shoring should be treated as serious and essential work.
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
My neighbourhood is infested with home handymen, including me, creating all sorts of possibilities.
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JHG
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
Someone died in this one gang; Let's try not to let this get too glib.
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
Maine EIT, Civil/Structural.
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
I just pity the young fella in the hole. My father's team suffered a fatality on one of their projects when I was still in Uni. Young guy, two kids. He was told to get in the hole and dig, so he did. No shoring in that one; I wonder what will be found here.
I often think of that young man who was crushed on my father's staff's "watch" (no fault found on his team of staff, FYI) and of his kids. They'd be going to Uni themselves now, but would have lived in intervening years without their father in their lives, and that from a pretty young age.
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
Yup. Underpinning of the foundation.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/09/10/house_c...
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
I don't know if there was an engineer involved, but way too much structural renovation is done by non-engineers, which increases the possibility of tragedy, although engineers too can make mistakes. I have found the confidence of non-engineers breathtaking.
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
Yep. As the saying goes, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
People who "know everything" can be extremely dangerous.
RE: Toronto Residential Home Collapse - Extensive Construction underway in basement
It's possible that the people involved were just plain incompetent, but the reality is they were probably just overconfident and in too much of a hurry. Obviously the risks are NOT worth it! Sad that it cost a worker his life.
I did 38' of underpinning on the long wall of my addition to my house, which isn't too many km away from the one that collapsed, though it's a fair bit down-market...I did the work myself because I had to be sure it was done right, as my family's safety and my investment were riding on it, given that this wall would become a central bearing wall of the combined house. I had both the city building inspector and the structural engineer I used on the project (who specializes in residential and who is also a personal friend) all over this work before I started, and my work was thoroughly inspected prior to each pour. The new combined house has been standing for eight years, I have had zero settlement issues, and as a bonus, the original wall now actually has a footing underneath it... The excavation gave me a chance to grout up a huge fault in the original wall which occurred because when this house was built in the '20s, they poured right against the cut earth of the excavation, and of course when dirt fell into the concrete they just kept a-pouring.
The native subsoil in my neighbourhood is a very dense clay till. A shovel just bounces off- 100% of the actual digging under the wall was done with a pick or a mattock- contractors use pneumatic clay spades which of course I was too cheap to rent. I lost 20 pounds digging those underpinning trenches, but regrettably I gained it all back...