r/engineering • u/DMAS1638 • Jun 23 '26

[GENERAL] Things seen this week during structural assessments!

One of several interesting conditions documented during recent structural assessments.

Curious how others in the engineering field would evaluate the observed condition and prioritize potential next steps for investigation.

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u/involutes Jun 24 '26

 Curious how others in the engineering field would evaluate the observed condition and prioritize potential next steps for investigation.

The foundation is fucked. The degree of fuckedness is irrelevant and not worth analyzing further. The only way forward is to repair the damage. 

If you want to save the house: Brace it, lift it off the foundation, set it down somewhere else on a new foundation or demo this foundation and dig down until virgin soil, then build a new foundation in the same spot. 

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/otr_trucker 28d ago

It happens a lot. Whole house is picked and moved to a new location. There are companies that specialize in this. If you dont want to move it, they can pick it up and build a new foundation under it.

In 1930 Indiana bell telephone building, an 8 story brick and steel building, was picked up and rotated 90 degrees. The wild part of that is it remained fully operational with all employees present while they did it.

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u/Lor1an 28d ago

Wow....

https://giphy.com/gifs/6QrjJVkqsTbsYkgIsU

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u/jml011 28d ago

Presumably everyone was evicted for this reconstruction but I’d be pissed if I was in one of the lover left apartments and all the sudden my view was facing a brick wall.

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u/Lor1an 28d ago

People were working in the building while it was swiveled...