Home buyers ask themselves a lot of questions:  Can I afford this home?  Is it a good deal? Is this a safe neighborhood? Is the home big enough? Do I really need three bathrooms? But one nerve-wracking question often stands out as the hardest to answer: What don’t I know about this house?

Exterior stairs should be designed and constructed such that the service life of the stair assembly is no less than the life expectancy of the building or structure to which they provide access, and are maintainable without non-visible damage occurring.  Increasing the ability of exterior stair assemblies to withstand prolonged exposure to moisture and other deteriorative elements will inevitably extend the service life of the assembly.  It is uneconomical to continuously attempt repairs, or to replace stair assemblies that have degraded to the point that they can no longer function as originally intended.  A typical failure of exterior stair assemblies occurs in stair designs that incorporate the use of a steel pan with concrete fill at the treads or landings.  Manifestation of the damage to this particular type of stair assembly appears as corrosion of the steel liners, freeze-thaw damages to the concrete fill, and structural weld and connection damage.  The corrosion will inevitably progress, causing unaesthetic conditions, decreasing structural performance, and ultimately threaten the public’s safety.  These negative attributes are further exacerbated when the stair system is designed with closed riser and stringer components.

Thousands of homes and businesses every year experience problems stemming from the movement of the floors that support their structures, walls, equipment, and exterior flatwork - differential vertical slab-on-grade movement.  This is a very common insurance claim and most owners do not understand the causes.  Since the soils in Arizona are commonly expansive, but remain relatively dry for the majority of the year, the slightest bit of water infiltrating the soils results in soil expansion with vertical and horizontal forces.  Expansive soils can be defined as any soil or rock material that has a potential for swelling due to a change in water content.  In some areas of the country, homeowners are advised to “water the foundation” to keep a constant moisture amount in the soil.  In Arizona, the soils are dry, and the discussion below indicates the need to keep the soil dry.

What is a Construction Defect?

It seems logical to begin the discussion by first defining a construction defect.  Although logical, this is not so simple since there seems to be no standard definition for the term. 

Marianne Sparks at the American Re-Insurance Company has summarized this dilemma best by stating that “what constitutes a ‘construction defect’ is essentially defined by state laws and court definition and interpretation.  In defining “construction defect,” the states and laws and trial courts have created a complex issue.”  She goes on to say, “Generally, this is because each state has its own approach to defining ’construction defect.’  Not only do approaches vary widely by state, but the individual state statutory schemes themselves can be ambiguous, and it can be left to the courts to determine the applicability of the definition of “construction defect” on a case-by-case basis.”1

The main reason for performing a geotechnical investigation is to provide a structural engineer, architect, owner, and/or contractor with information on site subsurface conditions.  The geotechnical report is required to provide structural foundation design, grading criteria, and other soil-related issues including, but not limited to: surface water and subsurface groundwater control, compaction criteria, and future performance determinations. 

PIE's business primarily consists of forensic investigation and analysis. Most of this work has historically occurred after an event has already occurred; thus, we must then "peel the onion back" to determine the root cause of that event.

The ability to conduct this retrospective look has evolved from our many years of successful experience in planning and implementing the same types of projects we now analyze. In other words, proper planning enhances the knowledge needed to look backward, and vice versa.

Do you often have claims resulting from water problems in basements? The causes of water infiltration are numerous, but are typically related to the immediate grading and drainage around homes. Water infiltration can result in damage to structural elements of the home and, more seriously, health issues resulting from mold and fungus under structural basement floors or in the wall cavities of finished basements. Storage items could also be damaged by water exposure, resulting in property loss.

By Edward L. Fronapfel, M.S.C.E., P.E. and Alan D. Gillan, P.E./P.L.S.

We often examine building structures that show signs of failure or have already failed. This part of our work allows us to see first hand how structures fail and examine the factors that contributed to the failure. An example of this type of work is a structural failure on which we consulted.