Foundation walls and foundation plumbing

[Michael Sedillo]

This is a California specific question.

This house has a perimeter raised concrete foundation. Only in the center are there cripple walls. Do the center cripple walls have to be braced (sheared)?

Questions #2: Can cast iron pipes be run across the dirt? The house was built in the 1950's.

Mike

[Joe Keresztury]

Pics?

[Michael Sedillo]

This is kind of a no-brainer so I'm going to answer my own question. After thinking about this I realized, of course it's ok to lay cast iron pipe in the dirt, cast iron pipe is what you find when you dig up any sewer line, it's meant to be buried so why couldn't you lay it in the dirt? Duh!

And the second no-brainer: When you find 18"/24" stem walls in a raised foundation with floor joists resting on them, what you will find in between them are 4X4 pier posts on concrete footings. If pier posts on concrete footings are ok, then why wouldn't continuous (near ground lever) stem walls with cripple walls above them be ok? A continuous stem wall with an unbraced cripple wall in the center would likely be as stable as several pier posts. I am not a structural engineer but this makes sense to me.

Mike

[Fred Sweezer Sr.]

Yes and no depending who you are asking in the professional world! not based on Local Building Code at the time (I am not and engineer either) but based on the engineering that begin in the 1950's and going forward, I have crawled under many houses built in that time period that had stem wall support for the non bearing walls by design from the architectural draws.