Structural Inspection for house
Structural Inspection for house
(OP)
Hello........I have to perform a Structural Inspection for a house as part of the selling process where the seller wants to provide the report to the buyer. Any tips on how to prepare the report and what language to include with findings and recommendations.....any exclusions to make etc......,to minimize the liability would be greatly appreciated. If there is a template for such report available on some Engineering websites, please guide me to that. Or if someone has any such report template to share, that would be great starting point for me.
The issue prompting the inspection involves drywall cracks in couple of interior walls. The floors seem level and no cracks in floor tiles, ceilings etc. Any tips on how to approach this inspection, what items to consider, will also be great.
The issue prompting the inspection involves drywall cracks in couple of interior walls. The floors seem level and no cracks in floor tiles, ceilings etc. Any tips on how to approach this inspection, what items to consider, will also be great.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
www.PeirceEngineering.com
RE: Structural Inspection for house
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates
-Dik
RE: Structural Inspection for house
RE: Structural Inspection for house
RE: Structural Inspection for house
I also have to figure out what kind of cracks are considered structural. I have seen cracks in drywall in my decades of practice (my house has some), but I have not seen any that I thought were caused by Structural issues.....
RE: Structural Inspection for house
Sorry, I have to question your qualifications to carry out such an inspection unsupervised. Finding the right wording or formatting for a report is one thing, or even wondering about a certain crack, but to not know what to look for or where to look for it? And to not be able to identify if you did see it? There should be an engineer with experience in this looking over your shoulder and directing you - and then sealing the report him/herself.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
In this thread, the report language was more of what I was hoping to get some tips on.
Anyway, thanks for your comment to point out my that musing was misunderstood.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
RE: Structural Inspection for house
www.PeirceEngineering.com
RE: Structural Inspection for house
They will provide the report to the prospective buyers. The report will indicate that the opinion was based exclusively on the visual condition observed on the day of visit. If somethings were to change later, obviously those could not have been foreseen.
Am I wrong in this approach? What kind of problems could arise and what am I missing?
RE: Structural Inspection for house
Here's the thing - especially with cracks - everyone has an opinion. Everyone. And they're not always the same. And I can guarantee you that somewhere near you is a license engineer who will be more than willing to take a fee half of what you're charging to say that they are structural and the seller needs to fix them. So now what? The owner has a report from you saying it's okay, so they didn't fix it ahead of time, and the buyer with a contract has an engineer saying it has to be fixed or they're backing out. The market is cooling off in a lot of places, and some places are loosing value. If they lose this buyer, and the next one offers $20k less, who is responsible for that $20k loss? Many people might blame you - you failed to recognize it as a structural crack (they have the other engineer's report to "prove" it!). If you had, they would paid $3k to have it fixed and would have made an additional $17k on their house. But you didn't, so pay up.
That suit may not have much in the way of merit, but that doesn't matter. Maybe it does, and a lawyer takes it. Maybe it doesn't, but they find a hungry lawyer that just wants a few billable hours. Maybe it doesn't, they don't find a lawyer, and they file the paperwork themselves (not that hard, actually; following through on the litigation might be, but filing the suit and wrecking your month - and checking account as you try to defend yourself, even for an initial hearing to get it tossed out - is easy).
Sort of a doomsday scenario, sure, but these are the sorts of risks you deal with getting into that kind of a situation. Flip side, doing it for the buyer, if you misdiagnose the crack and it gets bigger...remember you're having to make a snap decision about a process that can literally take decades to play out...you could be buying them a new foundation.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
www.PeirceEngineering.com
RE: Structural Inspection for house
RE: Structural Inspection for house
Good luck defining that scope like you mention. Did you walk by something on your path to the area of interest? Ought you have noticed something? Lawyers have the luxury of looking at things in a very different light from those before a problem occurs. Maybe the exclusions hold up, but you still get to wade thru the litigation process. If the dollars are small enough it is just small claims, but it is still a nuisance.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
I also observe that a lot of us (engineers that have hung their own shingle at some point) have taken on this work because it is...there.
So, like giving a teenager life advice, do with that information what you will. If you do choose to write the report here are some good things to include:
1. Only structure that was exposed or accessible to observe was reviewed.
2. Spell out the exact scope of the review: list the areas you looked at and comment on. Any areas outside of the review, were not reviewed for conformance. Don't try to look at the whole house!
3. I wouldn't provide recommendations for repair, let someone else do that. Recommend that the repair have a structural engineer, etc. retained to provide drawings and construction support.
I agree that it's a bit backwards to have the seller get a structural engineer involved. My preferred sequence is home inspector --> client reviews report --> report suggests further consult with engineer --> engineer looks at really discrete parts of the structure (ie. a crack in a beam, cracks around drywall, etc.).
Like others, I steer away from this work currently and probably for the forseeable future.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
RE: Structural Inspection for house
A few weeks ago I had a client call me and ask me to review an existing commercial structure before he bought it. The existing structure was previously used as a furniture store/gallery. The client was looking into turn it into a storage facility. He wanted me to evaluate the capacity of the floor.
I informed the client that was an enormous task, but I would be willing to run some quick numbers based upon field observations made during a set time limit (I set the limit at two hours). I gave the client a proposal of $900..... and never heard back from him. The $900 bill must have been too much money for him considering he was thinking about spending $2M on the property.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
On the other hand, wasn't that a very risky proposal? For $900 it will be less than half a day's worth of calcs and report writing after you take out 3-4 hours for travel and commute. That is not enough to have a good idea of the gravity capacity of the structure.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
RE: Structural Inspection for house
You would normally be correct.... most of my projects are an hour or so away in whatever direction.... in this instance the particular project was in town here... less than 5 minutes away. So I had budgeted about 6 hours or so with no travel time. Was it risky... yes, but I informed the client upfront of the risks involved (hard to come up with a definitive solution so quick).
This hits something I don't like to do..... which is work in this town. I do it for select clients (larger contractors who I have had relationships for over the past 10 years), but try to avoid doing work for anyone who lives in town.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
RE: Structural Inspection for house
I always have that I dont do destructive testing, and only whats visable to me. No finishes are removed during the evaluation. I try to not use the work inspection.
I also say that I am only seeing this at one point in time. I cannot predict the future, or know the history of every issue. If I was told the crack was there 10 years ago, I put that int the report, and then say I only see it today.
Anyone ever asks for a discount, I dont do the project. Usually you can get a feel for the bad ones, and you just out price the work, they go elsewhere.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
Careful with this one. I had a boss try to do that once, but the person on the phone was fed up with calling around so they said yes. In the middle of the inspection, a neighbor came over to see what was going on, and apparently told the homeowner they knew of an engineer who would have done the inspection for less than half of what my old firm was charging. They were pissed. Fortunately the policy was to collect payment up front. They demanded I return it, but told them I couldn't and that they'd have to contact my boss. Made for a very uncomfortable day.
Bottom line: if you don't want the work, tell them that. "I'm afraid my schedule is full, sorry." "For insurance purposes, I'm unable to take forensic investigations at this time." Something like that. If you give them a proposal, make sure you're willing and able to do it.
RE: Structural Inspection for house
or give them the name of a competitor you don't like.
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates
-Dik
RE: Structural Inspection for house
I use this one all the time when anyone asks me to do shoring. I have no clue if I'm insured to do shoring or not.... But I tell everyone no, my insurance prohibits me from designing shoring. Works every time.