Possible settlement cracking damage?
Possible settlement cracking damage?
(OP)
Hi!
We were recently called to inspect upon an old Building (80 years old) wich started cracking last 5 years.
In the pictures attached you can see how almost every window or opening has diagonal cracks coming from the corners of the opening.
On the internal corner of the Building you can clearly see a large crack propagading up to the roof and on one facade there is a crack wich started on the roof and goes all the way down to the ground.
Building bearing walls are made from stone and mortar and are 60cm thick.
Slabs are from wooden beams covered with planks and boards.
Roof is wooden truss wich suprisingly has no damage at all.
My First gues is that these crack are from diferential settelemts.
Walls, not having any reinforcement, so an non-ductile elements started to crack imedeiatly upon "sinking"
Whats you opinion?
http://postimg.org/image/6el2tnyed/
http://postimg.org/image/c593gs823/
http://postimg.org/image/lpki2s5zh/
http://postimg.org/image/6qjfxublf/
p.s. download images to your disk so you can zoom in.
We were recently called to inspect upon an old Building (80 years old) wich started cracking last 5 years.
In the pictures attached you can see how almost every window or opening has diagonal cracks coming from the corners of the opening.
On the internal corner of the Building you can clearly see a large crack propagading up to the roof and on one facade there is a crack wich started on the roof and goes all the way down to the ground.
Building bearing walls are made from stone and mortar and are 60cm thick.
Slabs are from wooden beams covered with planks and boards.
Roof is wooden truss wich suprisingly has no damage at all.
My First gues is that these crack are from diferential settelemts.
Walls, not having any reinforcement, so an non-ductile elements started to crack imedeiatly upon "sinking"
Whats you opinion?
http://postimg.org/image/6el2tnyed/
http://postimg.org/image/c593gs823/
http://postimg.org/image/lpki2s5zh/
http://postimg.org/image/6qjfxublf/
p.s. download images to your disk so you can zoom in.





RE: Possible settlement cracking damage?
RE: Possible settlement cracking damage?
Around 12 pices!
To be more specific, lots of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_pine
Around 4-6 pices only near the facade that has this crack from roof to the ground
Some of them have been cut down.
You can see the trunks let behind in this picture attached
http://postimg.org/image/oulfygpo7/
RE: Possible settlement cracking damage?
I know of several cases where the shrinkage has been reversed by watering the ground at the building. Removal of trees also has worked, but more slowly.
RE: Possible settlement cracking damage?
RE: Possible settlement cracking damage?
The soil inspection will be in 6 months or so then we will Know egsact groung parametars.
In the mean time we also found out that the whole Building waste water is going into this old concrete septic tank located in front of the Building. YOu can see how near this is. The question of waterproof of this old tank is also questionable. If leaking the water will moist the ground directly under the foundations.
RE: Possible settlement cracking damage?
I noted on one of my jobs (a school room building) where floors raised due to expanding clay and nearby footings didn't lift as much. Talk about a mess!!!