thecommish
Structural
- Nov 23, 2010
- 1
Some background: There was a recent natural gas explosion in the area. It destroyed a wood-framed dwelling. Windows in houses in the immediate area blew out.
Aproximately 1300' away, a homeowner is complaining that the the explosion damaged her basement concrete floor slab. There are several cracks in the floor, in an alligator pattern. The cracks are relatively large (up to 1/8") and they all look new, with very little, if any, dirt in them (the house is only 2 years old). The owner is convinced that she saw the cracks on the day following the exposion, and they were not there the prior day. She uses the basement daily (her child's play area is down there), so it's unlikely that she would not have noticed them if they had been there all along. The slab is elevated about 1"-2" at the cracks (in the cenater of the basement).
There was no other damage to the house, no broken windows, nothing disturbed on the shelves, etc. The owner did say that the trim around some recessed light fixtures dropped down during teh explosino. There are new asphalt patches in the street in front of her house, from new gas lines.
Is there any conceivable way that the explosion could have caused the slab in the basement to lift 1"-2", and crack it, without causing any other damage to the house?
This one has me stumped. I've seen alot of gas explosion (and construction and blasting vibration damage), but have never seen it lift a slab. However, I believe the owner (and I'm usually skeptical of owner's statements), so I'm trying to come up with some logical explanation.
Any thoughts out there?
Aproximately 1300' away, a homeowner is complaining that the the explosion damaged her basement concrete floor slab. There are several cracks in the floor, in an alligator pattern. The cracks are relatively large (up to 1/8") and they all look new, with very little, if any, dirt in them (the house is only 2 years old). The owner is convinced that she saw the cracks on the day following the exposion, and they were not there the prior day. She uses the basement daily (her child's play area is down there), so it's unlikely that she would not have noticed them if they had been there all along. The slab is elevated about 1"-2" at the cracks (in the cenater of the basement).
There was no other damage to the house, no broken windows, nothing disturbed on the shelves, etc. The owner did say that the trim around some recessed light fixtures dropped down during teh explosino. There are new asphalt patches in the street in front of her house, from new gas lines.
Is there any conceivable way that the explosion could have caused the slab in the basement to lift 1"-2", and crack it, without causing any other damage to the house?
This one has me stumped. I've seen alot of gas explosion (and construction and blasting vibration damage), but have never seen it lift a slab. However, I believe the owner (and I'm usually skeptical of owner's statements), so I'm trying to come up with some logical explanation.
Any thoughts out there?
