Anyone notice this a lot on foundation drawings now?

[WARose]

Lately, I've seen a lot of foundation drawings that have some kind of note like "Bearing capacity of foundations assumed to be [something low] ksf. Geotechnical investigation should be conducted by licensed professional to assure this assumed bearing capacity is adequate." Or something along those lines.

In other words: we couldn't/didn't get the geotechnical investigation (9 times out of 10 the owner doesn't want to spend the money).....but we need the foundations anyway.

Would this fly if something went wrong? I know the code has presumptive load bearing values, but I've never been sure if running with that or not would be ok.

 

[Ron]

As noted above, bearing capacity is only one geotechnical parameter to consider and one that is more intuitively correct when guessed than settlement would be.

This statement on the plans is like an indemnity clause in a contract....its entire purpose is an attempt to shift liability. In this case it will work, unless their presumptive bearing capacity is outrageous and wrong. Contractor beware.