Day 12- Fake Foundations and Cisterns

Just got a call. Not exciting, at least its easier to swallow then fire.....

"Claire you're not going to like this......".

As the double wall foundation gets pulled down to make way for rebar reinforcement....a mystery is revealed.
A Cisterne under the ground is discovered. Whats a cisterne?
A Cisterne is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by their waterproof linings. Modern cisterns range in capacity from a few litres to thousands of cubic metres, effectively forming covered reservoirs.
These were common in 1900 buildings....so were short walls. And shortcuts.

So Killen reveals the double wall foundation that we were psyched about is actually a band-aid, and the east and south foundation walls are short.
          - Limestone only goes 2ft under grade (should be 30" min)
          - Block foundation is sitting on concrete slab floors- (not good)
         - House was originally built with a crawl space; so to make way for a basement they just lego-ed  the     walls together (maybe this is why it was haunted.... baby spirits in the crawl space)
          - Frontenac Engineering is removing their seal of approval on my plans as the foundation is not sound.

So what do I win Bob? You win an extra cost of $9500 to replace the foundation.

heavy sigh.

Building Permit Time Folks

I applied for a building permit on October 14th. Maplewood wants a second opinion. Looks like foundation is still sound... let the building permit roll! This exercise has taught me that a $250 engineer and a $1500 engineer are created equal.

RE: Martin Residence Foundation Inspection (FEG# 11.672)

Dear Mr. Killeen;
Pursuant to your request, Frontenac Engineering Group, Inc. has recently carried out a site visit
on Friday, October 14th, 2011 to the property located at 7127 High Street in Maplewood,
Missouri. The purpose of our visit was to visually inspect the foundations in the aftermath of the
fire. Please note that, since our inspection was visual in nature, we did not enter any areas that
are not normally accessible, nor was any destructive or non-destructive testing conducted. Thus,
we cannot warrant the future behavior of the building’s structure. Also, our inspection did not
include non-structural items, e.g. plumbing, electrical, HVAC.
We believe that the existing foundation is capable of supporting the new proposed house.
Hence, based on our visual inspections, we recommend the following:
• Rebuilding the North-East wall corner due to settlement.
• Rebuilding the South-West wall corner due to construction demolition damage.
• Grout solid all collar joints between the stone walls.
• Provide dowel bars between the stone walls and the new proposed block above.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
Thank you,
Mohamed T. AL HARASH
Mohamed T. AL HARASH, Sc.D., P.E., S.E.
Chief Structural Engineer

Don't Tell Apollo.....

Demo work is complete and I meet T. Postal at the house to double check foundation appraisal, I bring Apollo with me for his morning jaunt. He is confused, very confused at the familiar surrounding but remembers how good it feels to sprint into the bamboo....

Claire, thanks for inviting me back over here. Sure looks different without the house
Ya Ted it does, so do you still think we can build on this? How does the foundation look... pulling the I-beams caused a little tear....
Aw, I think its beautiful. absolutely gorgeous. I think this might be the strongest foundation Ive ever seen....they dont make 'em like this.

Dont tell Apollo we are not staying here tonight.....

Double walled foundation: Limestone and  8 " Block

This is what a $30,000 coupon looks like