Structural Repair near you

Open a basement ceiling in an older house and the story is usually written in the framing. A drain line has been cut through the bottom of a joist at mid-span, a bundle of wires runs through a hole an inch from the top edge, and a girder has been notched to clear a duct. Each of those is measured against a published limit, not against how the floor feels. Seattle's adopted residential code allows a notch at the end of a member up to one-fourth of its depth, restricts notches elsewhere to one-sixth of the depth and one-third of the length, keeps them out of the middle third of the span entirely, and requires that a hole stay at least 2 inches from the top and bottom of the member and from any other hole in it.

Engineered framing has no such allowance, which is the part that catches homeowners out in houses built in the past few decades. The same code prohibits cuts, notches and holes in trusses, structural composite lumber, structural glue-laminated members, cross-laminated timber and I-joists unless the manufacturer permits them or a registered design professional has specifically considered the effect. It repeats the point for trusses: truss members and components may not be cut, notched, spliced or otherwise altered in any way without the approval of a registered design professional, and added load beyond the design load is not permitted without verification that the truss can carry it. A plywood floor laid across the bottom chords of attic trusses for storage is exactly that kind of added load.

None of this means every old modification is dangerous. It means the question has an answer, the answer is checkable against the code your jurisdiction adopted, and a contractor who waves it off is guessing. Confirm the edition and the local amendments at your own address, because adopted code text varies from state to state.

On the West Coast the most common structural repair is not a repair at all but a retrofit of connections that were never adequate. The California Residential Mitigation Program describes its Earthquake Brace and Bolt retrofit in plain terms: the foundation is bolted to the frame of the house, and where there are short walls called cripple walls in the crawl space beneath the house, they are braced with plywood. CRMP states that the program is for wood-framed, pre-1980 homes with a raised foundation, that grants of up to 3,000 dollars are available with supplemental amounts for income-eligible homeowners, and that a building permit is required. Its separate soft-story program addresses houses with living space over a garage, where the walls at the garage opening are strengthened, the perimeter walls of the lowest story are braced, and the house is bolted down.

Wind country produces a different version of the same idea. There the load travels upward rather than sideways, and the retrofits worth money are the ones that tie the roof to the walls and the walls to the foundation, along with the openings that decide whether the building stays pressurized. In both cases the money goes into hardware and nailing patterns that no one will ever see again, which is why a retrofit is worth a permit and an inspection even where the local jurisdiction would let it pass. The inspection record is the only proof the work was done as designed, and it is what an insurer, a buyer or a future engineer will ask to see.

Structural work is the category where the building department is most useful to you and least optional. The adopted code assumes a registered design professional stands behind anything outside its prescriptive tables: Seattle's version requires that truss design drawings be prepared by a registered design professional where the statutes of the jurisdiction require it, and that they be submitted to the building official and approved before installation. The same logic governs a beam replacing a wall you want gone, a repair to a cut joist, or a new bearing point landing somewhere the original design never anticipated.

Engineering is licensed state by state, and so is contracting, and they are not the same credential. Ask the engineer for a license number issued in your state, and ask the contractor whether the engineer whose letter you are being shown works for the contractor. There is nothing improper about a contractor retaining an engineer, but a homeowner who never hires an independent one has no document that belongs to them. Keep the permit, the approved drawings, the inspection record and the engineer's final letter together; when the house is sold, those four items answer a question that would otherwise cost a buyer an inspection and a price reduction.

Structural pricing is mostly access, shoring and the size of the hole you have to make in a finished house. The variables that move it are which member is failing and how much load it carries, whether the work can be reached from an unfinished basement or means opening finished ceilings and walls, how much temporary shoring the sequence needs and for how long, whether a new bearing point requires a footing poured beneath it, how far the engineering has to go beyond prescriptive tables, and how much finish work has to be put back afterward. A repair described as replacing a beam and a repair described as opening a ceiling, shoring two floors, pouring a pad footing and installing a beam are the same job priced by two people with different levels of honesty.

LokalMatch handles the introductions. You post the problem once: what is sagging, cracking or moving, how old the house is, whether an engineer has looked at it, and how the space is finished. Contractors who do structural work in your area see the request, and the ones who want it reach out to you. Homeowners pay nothing to use LokalMatch and pros pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not carry out structural work, does not set prices, and does not vet, rank or recommend anyone, so the engineer's report, the state license check and the permit remain your side of the deal.