Skip to content
Home Inspection Software
home inspection software photo editing view nachi home inspector association Home Inspection Software allowing you to create easy to read, customizable reports that can be uploaded online, emailed, or printed out on the job site. Runs on Windows, Mac & Linux!
ASHI home inspection software screenshot.png Create a professional looking home inspection website for $24.99 a month. We give you all the tools you need to create a site and get it to the top of the search engines. No previous skills required!
Home Inspector Pro Forum
May 18, 2013, 10:57:44 PM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News:
 
   Home   Help Search Login Register  
Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Cable coming from foundation...What is it?  (Read 1444 times)
David Nasser
Jr. Member
**

Karma: 0
Offline Offline

Posts: 56


View Profile
« on: April 19, 2010, 08:42:00 PM »

Southern Calif. home built in 2005.
What is it and what is the write up ?

Logged
Joe Keresztury
Hero Member
*****

Karma: 14
Offline Offline

San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 1220



View Profile WWW
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2010, 06:53:06 PM »

David, In my area we pretty much have all slab foundations with mostly rebar steel reinforcement and some post tension slabs. I'm not that familar with post tension foundations but from your picture this apears to be a blowout in a post tension slab. That anchor shown should be imbedded in the slab. 5-10 days after a post tension slab is poured and before it is totally cured, the contractor comes and tightens the strands/cable to within 7% of the engineers designed strength of between around 25,000 and 35,000 psi. Looks like there's concrete on the anchor here (in the pic) so it was probably stretched/tightened and imbedded as needed than had a blow out. Appears that cable and anchor have been exposed for a while. The size of the hole in the slab looks about the size of the anchor, another indication of a blowout. Were there any indications of a blowout inside. Of course the builder and or homeowner probably patched the slab with an epoxy and then re did the flooring. This could have been engineer approved or maybe not. The builder should have addressed the issue and resolved the problem with the original licensed/registered engineer that was paid to design and certify the slab in the first place.
But I also don't see why if they did resolve inside issues why they didn't address the outside issues, the exposed, rusting outside slab reinforcement cable, wedge and anchor along with a good sized hole in the slab, it's a smoking gun that you should address to your client.
This (your situation) is one situation that I would use the overused comment-
"recommend qualified specialist or engineer to review". I would highly recommend an engineer review and if possible the original engineer!! Something has been apparently done inside with this issue to resolve problems since you don't note any inside issues. The reason I say this is that in your pic the hole in the pic goes to the bottom of the stucco, being the top of the slab, which leaves me to believe that the possible (most likely) blowout came up thru the slab inside.
Also from your pic there is not the required 6" slab exposure, which of course is even more of an issue since there is a hole in the slab....
« Last Edit: April 26, 2010, 07:16:17 PM by Joe Keresztury » Logged

Title: San Antonio Home Inspector
Site: www.jwkhomeinspections.com
Body: JWK Inspections, San Antonio Home Inspector, Performing Home Inspections in San Antonio & all surrounding areas.
Keywords: San Antonio Home Inspector, New Home Construction Inspections, New Braunfels, Schertz, Home Inspector
url: san-antonio-texas-home-inspector.html

Title: 'Owner Builder' Consultant South Texas
Site: www.ownerbuilthome.info
Body: JWK Consulting, Owner Built Home Consultant in San Antonio, all South Texas areas
Keywds:Owner Built Custom Homes South Texas
url: south-central-texas-owner-builder-home.html

FB: www.facebook.com/jwkinspections
John M. Hetz
Jr. Member
**

Karma: 3
Offline Offline

Plymouth, Indiana
Posts: 64



View Profile WWW
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2010, 07:07:14 PM »

David:

I have done many pt slabs and decks in SoCal and Joe's explanation nailed it. One other possibility that I doubt that you can determine at this point in time is that there was an anchor bolt or holdown that was missed in the initial placement of reinforcing and bolts and it was retrofitted by drilling and epoxying a replacement in and the pt cable was damaged and blew out. Joe's recommendation for a structural engineer's observation and recommendation is the right call to protect you.

John
Logged

John M. Hetz
IN Home Inspection, Inc.
www.inhomeinspections.com
Certified Professional Home Inspections, Radon Testing, Wood Destroying Insect Inspections and Water Quality Sampling and Analysis for Plymouth, South Bend, Mishawaka, Rochester, Logansport, Culver and Goshen, Indiana  and all of Michiana.
URL Path: home-in-home-inspection.html
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.15 | SMF © 2011, Simple Machines Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!