Re: Leaning Apartment Buildings On Addison
Posted by:
PKDickman
(---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: January 16, 2014 02:57PM
I had to go to the store, so I swung by and looked at them.
They are definitely leaning.
The fact the they are identical leads me to suspect... same builder, same problem. Bad craftsmanship
It could be poor footings, but more likely the foundation wall.
Old foundations were not the cast concrete things we see now, they were laid up from rough limestone blocks or, in the cheapest case, common brick.
Stone is preferable because properly laid, the high points on the stones touch each other so the wall can't get shorter. Brick, however, is laid on a bed of mortar and both the bricks and the mortar can decay, letting the wall compress under the load.
Both are damaged by water infiltration so it is important to direct the water away from the foundation. If the concrete walk slopes the wrong way and does not have a water tight bond with the wall, seepage occurs.
I wouldn't suggest buying these buildings.
The Tower of Pisa still stands. Generally the building has to tilt until the inside wall at the top is past the outside wall at the bottom before it becomes unstable.
I lived in a brick building on Wood St that was raised on wooden pilings.
It tilted badly (it still does) and there were no flat surfaces.
The landlord had raised the kitchen floor to level it and laid black and white rubber tiles on a diagonal.
Between the tile, the windows and doors tilting one way and the ceiling tilting the other, it was like being in the forced perspective room the used to have at the Big and small exhibit in the Field museum