“Check” This Out!
The new wood deck repairs throughout your community have been coming along nicely, and the repairs make the decks themselves look almost brand new. However, a few weeks after repairs are finished, you make a startling discovery: the new wood members are beginning to crack! Were the repairs completed improperly? Was subpar wood used? Have you wasted time and money on repairs that will need to be redone? Fortunately, most of the cracks you are seeing in the new wood members are a natural part of the wood’s acclimation process. As “green” (i.e. wet) wood naturally dries over time, it shrinks, causing cracks to form along portions of the wood. A “check” is a crack that occur parallel to the grain of the wood, while a “shake” is a separation of the growth rings within the lumber. While these cracks may appear unsightly, they usually do not affect the structural properties of the wood, unless the check or shake runs through the entire depth of the wood member. Properly acclimating the wood pieces to environmental conditions and specifying higher grade lumber can help minimize this cracking, but green lumber will always display some external cracks as it dries. Also, additional cracks may occur as the wood is exposed to varying environmental conditions throughout the seasons. If you still have concerns about cracks in your wood structures, ETC can help evaluate these cracks and put your mind at ease
Usually when thinking about planting a new tree, landscape aesthetics and shading plays a very big part in the decision-making process. However, proximity to your structure should be a consideration as well. While a tree may appear to be a reasonable distance away from you structure, tree roots can spread as far as five time the radius of the tree canopy and can grow underneath foundations and, in extreme cases, through cracks in your foundation walls. These roots can swell and contract during heavy rains and prolonged droughts, respectively, disrupting the soils below the foundation and leading to potential settlement of the foundation. Roots of trees too close to retaining walls can place intense pressure along the rear of these structures, causing bulges to form or even causing the wall to fail completely, as seen in the adjacent photograph. Foundation and retaining wall issues can be extremely costly to repair and greatly impact the lives of residents in your structure, as opposed to removing improperly placed landscaping before they cause structural issues. If you have any concerns regarding landscaping impacting your structure, ETC can help you examine your options before they become a problem!
Metal guardrails can provide stylish, long-term fall protection for balconies, walkways, garages, and many other elevated structures. While metal guardrails can last almost twice as long as wood guardrails, periodic maintenance is still required to ensure they remain serviceable and do not pose any life-safety hazards due to deterioration of the aging railing components. A few steps taken every few years can allow these vital building components to last well into the future of the building:
Sawn Wood‐ Traditional sawn wood is still the commonly used type of lumber. Almost all structural sawn wood beams originate from softwood tree species, such as Pine or Douglas Fir. Structural sawn lumber is further classified through stress‐gradings, which establish standard working values for properties that can be used to determine the load‐bearing capacity of these members. Typical lumber grades can be seen on the adjacent table. Traditional sawn lumber can be used for almost all structural member, such as joists, beams, posts, etc.
As with all building components, concrete slabs, beams, and columns will inevitably deteriorate and need repair throughout the lifetime of a building. Most concrete deterioration is linked to the corrosion of embedded metal elements, such as steel reinforcement bars. As the steel elements rust, it expands and occupies more space than the original steel, slowly building up pressure on the concrete until the concrete separates from the steel reinforcement. In the most extreme cases, the concrete will separate from both the steel and surrounding concrete, resulting in a condition known as “spalling.” Spalled concrete can be easily identified by visual inspection; it would be hard to miss a chunk of concrete missing in a wall or beam!
One of the most pressing questions when designing repairs for concrete slabs is whether or not the slab is post-tensioned, and if so, the locations of the stressed tendons. Accidentally cutting through a stressed tendon will decrease the slab’s load carry capacity, could possibly endanger the structural stability of the entire slab, and may result in injury to those in the building.
Sometimes, differences in construction materials that might seem insignificant to the untrained eye can have long lasting implications and cause headaches down the road. ETC has seen this situation arise plenty of times when evaluating new below-grade drainage systems, specifically regarding the type of piping to be used: corrugated plastic pipes or rigid PVC pipes. Corrugated plastic pipes are thin walled pipes, typically .02” thick, with a series of grooves running parallel to each other along the length of the pipe, while rigid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes are thicker, ranging from .1” to .5” depending on the diameter and schedule of the pipe, and have smooth inner and outer walls. Corrugated pipes are typically cheaper than PVC pipes and are easier to install and connect, making them a favorite of DIY-ers. However, in our experience, the increased flexibility and installation ease comes at a great sacrifice to the durability and effectiveness of the drainage system.
When most property owners think about ventilation upgrades, they often consider installing new windows and doors or replacing the existing HVAC equipment. However, they often forget to consider one of the most important locations within their building: the crawlspace. Improper ventilation can allow for humid air to become stagnant within the crawlspace, spurring microbial growth and accelerating the deterioration of both wood and concrete structural elements. Given the difficulty accessing the crawlspace, as well as the typical space restrictions, crawlspace structural repairs can be quite costly and lengthy, but proper ventilation upgrades can help curtail these repairs.
