joasis asked:
"Now, not meaning to start another argument manhatten, have you ever seen a home move enough on the lateral axis to cause lally collumns to fail? The home collapse? If so, did the foundation collapse? "
Have I ever seen a home move enough along the lateral axis to collapse?
ABSOLUTELY!
The literature and news is
full of lateral load design failures each year... especially in hurricane zones, high seismic zones, and zones subject to tornados such as your own Oklahoma, Joasis...where design for lateral loading is
ROUTINELY insufficient.
Entire homes collapse and get blown away from insufficient lateral load resistant designs....including their foundations all the time.
Decks fail just as frequently from such poor lateral loading designs and improper connecting practices.
Joasis further stated:
"Lally collumns are designed for vertical loads ONLY, expressed in KIPS, not a horizontal load factor of any kind. It would appear that in an active siesmic zone, the movement of the home to this point would cause catastrophic failure, and the bolted/welded lally collumns would not prevent it."
It is also entirely
not true that columns are designed for vertical loads
ALONE.
They most
CERTAINLY are designed for lateral loads.
And
Properly designed structures in seismic and high wind zones resist failure all the time.
Although the labeling, listing and testing criteria by independent testing agencies and column manufacturers themselves normally do not
include lateral loading specifications... Column manufacturers installation instructions specifically
require that the final connection be made by
engineering professionals who can assess the lateral loading conditions and design for them
in the field.
For example, you can read this Evaluation Report submitted to the
International Codes Council by one such company which manufactures steel residential support columns:
http://www.icc-es.org/reports/pdf_files/BNBC/94-53.pdf
In the Evaluation Report for
Dean Lightweight Columns you will find:
3.0 CONDITION OF USE. 3.1 "Column plate attachment shall be welded, nailed, bolted or lagged to structural members and the footing below, as determined by the registered design professional." (ie field engineer or architect)
In section 2.2 you will likewise find:
2.2 "The numbers of columns, the spacing, connecting details, and the footing are to be determined by a registered design professional." (ie engineer or architect)
You will also find in ALL column manufacturer's specifications that lateral loads shall also be determined in the field by design professionals....and if one would simply READ the installation instruction included with the steel columns, one would know that.
You can read other Evaluation Reports for steel and other type columns and their lateral loadings here:
http://www.icc-es.org/reports/index.cfm
Joasis further complained:
"I know, I know...the holy bible of inspectors says so...but in reality, come on now. This is why 99% of contractor get to despise building inspectors...private, public, or whatever...just like Dave said, we get to hate inspectors."
Unfortunatley the only reason 99% of the guys like you end up hating engineers, architects or code professionals is that you do not understand basic construction practice, design, loading, nor the codes you are
SUPPOSED TO KNOW...and end up blaming
others for your own
FLAWS.
First and foremost I am a
CONTRACTOR, but I am
also a Code Official who has studied structure and design
and the Codes to better myself to further serve my customers.
I realize it's convenient to blame others for one's own ignorance, but let's be realistic here:
The fastening requirements in the photos shown above illustrate improper column connecting techniques
so basic, that any 1st year novice carpenter knows better not to do them.
That the builder
AND code offical missed this one is beyond comprehension.
That those who further "claim" to be professional builders dispute the findings of the
home inspector in this thread and have tried to denigrate him for being right only serves to highlight the problem.
Residential construction may not be rocket science, but it
IS science, and the fact that so few so called "builders" have the foggiest understanding of proper building practice or what consistutes minimum code requirement is no reason to hate the code official....it is an
EXCUSE by the builder to hate himself for being so ignorant....and an
EXCUSE to blame someone else for his own shortcomings.
The home inspector didn't screw this one up...
The
BUILDER AND the
CODE OFFICIAL did.
It's an embarrassment to both professions that this structural failure was overlooked and it's a good thing the original poster hired a competent home inspector who pointed out the inferior work submitted by both the building and code official.
What this is about is not about
BLAME..... It is about
RESPONSIBILITY and who is going to be big enough, man enough, to accept it.
BOTH the builder and code offical failed in this one.
And that is to their shame.
But it is further to the shame of those who think there is nothing worng here or that it is the code officials who should alone be chastized.
That's simply calling the kettle black.
Either begin to know at least as much
OR MORE than the Code Officials, Design Professionals, Manufacturer's Reps, and eberyone else....or just remain the hypocrite and fool that you are...and learn to live with and take responsibility for your OWN
hypocrisy and
foolishness alone.
And I the ONLY one to whom I point the finger is MYSELF.
There is
nothing wrong in being
wrong and being corrected.
There
IS something wrong with being
corrected and still insisting on being
wrong!