Foundation Inspection --stepwise

The major problem of residential houses is foundation settlement. That too in areas of Dallas-Fort worth and several areas in Texas they have soils which are expansive nature. They swell and shrink according to the climatic conditions which is main reason for foundation settlements. Foundation repair must have done to the houses which are effected badly ie failed structurally. This is our job to identify cracks caused by settlement and suggest foundation repair technique at effected areas. This process starts with inspection of house and ends with generating report with possible solution.

1. Take pic of the house which we are going to investigate along with the house number for reference.
2. Speak with owner of house about why they called us, age of house, are they identified any cracks?. We have to keep in our mind that owner consulted us because they have a problem.( Think similarly like a patient consulted doctor). Ask whether they are selling the house? or fixing the problem. Spend some time about talking about problem they are facing because of the settlement like Doors not opening properly, etc.. Ask owner if they have any previous structural engineer checkup or foundation repair done to the house if so request them for the documents. 
3. Now start our work by drawing a perimeter sketch of the house elaborately. Start from the main door( porch) and go left-side of the house (Turn Clockwise). Identify all types of cracks which are visible to your eye. Cracks like Mortar cracks, Brick cracks, Trim separation, corner cracks, construction markups, foundation cracks, slab cracks etc..
4. Parallel to observing cracks also mark the dimensions of the house (perimeter) on paper and identify windows doors.
5. Identify any drainage leakage or big trees which suck water with in the surroundings of house.
6. After observing cracks outside , now do the same thing inside the house.
7. After observing and drafting cracks on sheet of paper now we have to observe leveling of house from inside using leveling machine.
8. Setup benchmark at the center of house and make it  Zero. Now mark down leveling data at four corners of each room and draft those values in the plot.
9. This completes house inspection and next step is to generate report.

Microsttion v8i

Most of the companies are using Microstation for plan and profiling....so learn it....

Foundation Inspection

Yesterday I learned about foundation inspection. Lot of areas in USA have expansive soils problems, so houses constructed on these shrink-swell soils will get structural cracks due to settlement. Houses which are constructed in mid 70's they have slab on grade foundation and that too just 5-8 inches thick slab. The soil is the main problem for these kind of problems. Now they are using lifting technique to hold the house at certain level without settlement. They insert concrete cylinders surround the house until they reach hard surface, now they will put concrete blocks above it. Now they will lift the house using heavy hydraulic machines and insert steel bracing's between cylinder and block. This is called uplift technique which is cheap, economical, fast which is using by most foundation repair firms in Dallas area.

Equivalence of U.S Customary and SI Units

SI Units

Quantity	Name	SI Symbol
Energy	Joule	J (1 J = 1 N.m)
Force	Newton	N (1 N = 1 kg.m/s2
Length	Meter	M
Mass	Kilogram	Kg
Moment	Newton meter	N.m
Rotational Frequency	Revolution per second or hertz	r/s or Hz
Stress (Pressure)	Pascal	Pa (1 Pa = 1 N/m2)
Time	Second	S
Power	Watt	W (1 W = 1J/s)

Hello

Building in rome

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Thanks,
HM