Why I Like My Job: Strip Mall Wall Collapse

[RGD.]

SEE PICTURES HERE

It's been a few years since we have had a good ole fashion collapse of any kind. Not since the 4 story condo's blew out a wall - so it's always fun to get a decent collapse where nobody got hurt (except for the owners bank account - LOL).

First off - this is basically all we do. Structural foundation repairs, deep helical pile repairs, support, lifting and leveling of buildings, etc, commercial and residential.

So over the past weekend we get a call of a wall collapse on a two story, block and brick commercial strip mall. 12" CMU with 4" concrete slab on metal joist work, brick facade.

What you are seeing in the picture is a 12 foot tall by 18 foot hole failure caused by soil pressure on a sub-standard corner design. Why the slab did not collapse is just - well nobody knows. Currently that 4" slab is supporting 25 feet (height) of 8" CMU and brick - in addition to the roof load and live floor loads. Magic I guess - LOL.

So we have two days of shoring in so far. Little touchy as you don't really want to be standing under it if it decides to let loose. Tomorrow we expect to get the shoring up under the broken wall you see. Which means we have to excavate the debris you see - which will cause more collapse of the soils - hopefully without additional pressure on the right side of the hole - which has a six bow in it. Then we can get the final parallel shoring wall in place.

Once we get all the shoring in - then we can excavate the exterior for the wall replacement.

Some may ask why we are not using standard steel column shoring - this is a 14'-6" height - and our stuff does not reach that high, so good ole timber shoring it is. Another two days and we will have her wrapped up.

Anyway - fun stuff - LOL



Ron

[G G]

Cool

[kayak_rat]

They filled the area behind the concrete block with no reinforcement??????

How old was this building? That was horribly ignorant.

[RGD.]

Originally Posted by kayak_rat

They filled the area behind the concrete block with no reinforcement??????

How old was this building? That was horribly ignorant.

Current owner bought the building in 96. No one is actually sure on the buildings completion date. Inspection sticker on the service panel is either 1983 or 85 - but that also could have been just for this suite.

Yeah - no reinforcement - lack of shear design on the front wall connection - it's a butt joint with brick ties embedded in the concrete - LOL.

Our structural engineer was on-site today to approve my shoring plan and inspect - he did a cursory walk around of the entire building - and guess what? The opposite corner (left side of building) is showing signs of stress/cracking/bowing also. Owner wants that whole wall braced/shored as soon as we are done with this shoring to prevent a collapse. I looked at it this after noon - we can save that wall.

I thought you'd enjoy these pictures Zack.


Ron

[cort]

I'm surprised the T-Bar lid didn't hold up that wall.




Crazy stuff. On a positive side if it wasn't for some of these dipsh!t engineers you wouldn't have any work

[tenbaseg]

Thanks for sharing. Be safe.

[Volt]

On a good note it seems no one was hurt and job security for you.

[Bruins Fan]

Shoddy workmanship, mall jobs 95% of the time go to low ball contractors that are always cutting corners.

[Kreth]

Interesting. I worked for a house mover years ago and we did a lot of shoring jobs (mainly residential), but nothing on that scale.
One of our biggest projects was moving a cinder block building that had been built about 6 feet over the property line. Our solution was to set up a system of steel beams inside and out. Then we drilled holes below the center of each block in the 2nd course, ran steel banding through the holes and over the beams, and jacked the whole building up so we could clear out the bottom course of blocks. The building was lowered onto dollies, then a contractor extended the pad, we moved the building 6 feet, and he and his crew laid a new bottom course of blocks. We set the building down, and trimmed the banding flush once the mortar had set. IIRC, it was about a 3 week project between set-up, curing, and cleanup. I'm sure the owner passed the bill on to his surveyor.
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