This project highlights the importance of hiring your own structural engineer, possessing adequate experience, to diagnose problems within your structure – prior to purchase.

For this project, our clients had purchased a home that was determined by the seller’s structural engineer to be in good condition. The indicators pointing to the deficiencies within the structural system seem to have been overlooked.

For this project, it was necessary to traverse the crawl space into “hard to get to” areas that appear not previously accessed and were not addressed within the report the seller received. Schnitzhofer & Associates navigated the confines of the crawlspace and were able to gather additional information that was key to the complete analysis of the structure, including: multiple missing floor beams omitted during the time of construction, excessive settlement, improperly installed floor joist bridging, and inadequate foundations/piers.

S&A was able to complete the framing analysis with a complete visual assessment, coupled with an accurate diagnosis, so that the new owner is able to complete the needed structural framing reinforcements.