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Name:	flatlander -	Reply
Subject:	Need a civil engineer
Date:	7/19/2012 9:56:36 AM

New homeowner at lake (me) is flatlander and not used to house that gradually (over 25-50 years) slides towards lake. I wonder if anyone on Forum knows a good civil engineer -- active or retired -- who could work to advise a contractor on stopping the slide and straighten a floor, slightly out of plumb, that probably only bothers a flatlander (me).

Thanks for you help!

Name:	Casey -	Reply
Subject:	Need a civil engineer
Date:	7/19/2012 12:06:46 PM

Are you on Smith Lake?

Name:	Summer Lover -	Reply
Subject:	Need a civil engineer
Date:	7/19/2012 1:38:05 PM (updated 7/19/2012 1:38:34 PM)

If the slide is slow, you may want to just set anchors at the corners of the house on the uphill side - I would recommend a danforth anchor and all chain rodes... Or just put pontoons under your home and wait.

Name:	Old Diver -	Reply
Subject:	Need a civil engineer
Date:	7/19/2012 10:55:41 PM

   If the house has a enough room, dig a trench a few feet back from down hill wall and lay in a telephone pole or steel member (dead men). Attach several chains with large turnbuckles up to the wall at an angle. Fill in the ditch. tighten the turnbuckles. This will anchor the wall.
   One way to level a floor is to cut several pieces of pipe about 6 inches below the floor joist. Weld a plate foot on the bottom. Weld small plate, with nail holes. on top of a 1 inch all thread rod. With a nut on the all thread and a washer this makes a jack. Set in place and tighten the nut to lift the floor. A couple of nails will hold the jack in place.
   A small welding shop can easily make these for you.
    Good Luck.

Name:	MAJ USA RET -	Reply
Subject:	Need a civil engineer
Date:	7/22/2012 10:16:44 AM

Walk some distance from your yard… such that you can see both the house and the water (or the bottom of the slope on which you live). Do you see a hump in the land between you house and the bottom of the slope? Does your house appear to be sitting in a “scooped out” place? (If any of this is true, email me and/or Diver.)

* * * * *

I once had a fridge end up next to a non-bearing wall (new house). Over the years, the floor began to sag. I completely leveled the floor AND provided bearing for the fridge.

Don’t jack the floor until the slide problem it fixed.

You can buy floor jacks… of all different lengths and sizes… at Home Depot or Lowes or Moore’s Hdwe. Some cautions:

a) build a LEVEL pad of concrete or treated 6x6 on which to place the base of the jack. Do NOT use bricks or concrete blocks.

b) Be sure to TIE (not nail or screw) a beam across and under several floor joists. The jack will hold it in place. Do not drill, nail, or screw into the bottom of your floor joists.

c) DO NOT try to level your floor all at once. Tighten the jack firmly between pad and beam. Every few days, give the jack ONE complete turn… the floor should be leveled over the course of a few weeks… or even months GO SLOW! Once the jack is in place it will not get worse.

Email me if this is unclear… I’ll send you a sketch.

Name:	flatlander -	Reply
Subject:	Need a civil engineer
Date:	7/22/2012 11:54:34 AM

Gentlemen:

    All good suggestions and rapid responses to my question about a civil engineer. I am impressed with the level of support residents give each other at Smith Lake. Thank you.

    My problem is not immediate, and not easily handled with do-it-myself construction. My house is only 10 years old and very well built. My concern is about an approximate 2 inch drop in the second floor toward the lake side of the house and cracks in the concrete in the "basement" (lake walk out level). A screened in porch covers the lake side of the second floor and is supported by 4X6 beams resting on a concrete slab that serves as the first-floor walk out.

    The house is about 35 feet above the water and no more than 75 feet back.

    I "think" the long-term problem is a lack of a good foundation under the concrete slab. The builder thought the slab could hold the screened in porch, but I happen to think this is a long-term problem in the making.

    I had good luck working with a retired engineer on a lake house back in flat old Illinois. I'm looking for some similar arrangement where a civil engineer can supervise a contractor or two. I'm not interested in doing it cheap, just right.

    How can I find a civil engineer around here without going to a commercial firm? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Name:	MAJ USA RET -	Reply
Subject:	Need a civil engineer
Date:	7/22/2012 12:23:11 PM

I would recomend Dean Construction in Alexander City (256) 234-4614.

Cecil Dean built my house and stood by his work. He's been around for a LONG time. I retained him after a protracted search for a good contractor. He is honest (I know THAT for sure.) He builds lake houses and knows about slope work.

Personally... I think you may end up cutting off the slab and ripping it out. The subgrade seems to have failed.

Excavate and refill the subgrade (in 4-6 in lifts) with good MECHANICALLY COMPACTED material. The contractor can use a "jumping jack" or "elephant's foot" compactor. Hand tamping of fill material DOES NOT WORK !

When the concrete is replaced, the rebar needs to be up on "chairs"... not blocks of wood, rocks, etc... and tied every other intersection. Personally, I would NOT use mesh.

Footers for the second floor support columns should be formed and poured first... and should NOT share rebar with the slab.

Name:	MAJ USA RET -	Reply
Subject:	Truth
Date:	7/22/2012 12:35:52 PM

When I was a new engineer 2^nd Lieutenant, my platoon sergeant observed during my first (non-training) pour ever, “Sir, there’s only two kinds of concrete – concrete that has cracked – and concrete that ain’t cracked yet.”

Name:	MAJ USA RET -	Reply
Subject:	Need a civil engineer
Date:	7/22/2012 1:04:28 PM

Oh! I just noticed where Smith Lake is located. Don't think Dean Construction will work out for you.

Name:	flatlander -	Reply
Subject:	Truth
Date:	7/22/2012 4:09:20 PM

I've heard that story about concrete cracks. But my father, a WWII vet and now, at 88, a lifelong farmer, was obsessed with qualify concrete. He fed cattle in central Illinois after the war and was enraged by the yearling steers floundering in the mud fall and winter. He made it his mission in life to cover as much of the feedlot as possible with concrete, which he and I and my brother worked and cured for as much as a month. Every year a strip 8 feet wide and 200 feet long was poured and cured. Tractors used it to clear manure and 300 yearlings a year lived on it. There are still only a handful of small cracks in the pads. So I know it is possible to make and cure good concrete, even though hardly anybody does it.

Thanks for the name and the good advice. I think you have hit the nail on the head in terms of my problem. And I thank you!

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