Building and Construction - House on pilings

Author

House on pilings

ndpace

2008-02-15, 9:26 pm

I am looking at buying a house that is built on pilings at the beach.
It is a block from the ocean, built in 1994. Is there any way to have
the pilings inspected to make sure they will be good for awhile?
The pilings continue into the house, and there are some 0.5inch splits
in them. Is that cause for alarm?
Thanks for any help

John A. Weeks III

2008-02-16, 3:25 am

In article
<7fd960bb-b84a-4949-bb29-fe3ea7b0c209@h11g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
ndpace <ndpace@gmail.com> wrote:

> I am looking at buying a house that is built on pilings at the beach.
> It is a block from the ocean, built in 1994. Is there any way to have
> the pilings inspected to make sure they will be good for awhile?
> The pilings continue into the house, and there are some 0.5inch splits
> in them. Is that cause for alarm?
> Thanks for any help

You need to have a structural engineer take a look at this.
Perhaps you can find the same one that signed off on the
original design when it was built. My gut feel is that
these kinds of splits are normal, assuming that the timber
is treated and is of a healthy size. Most of the modern
river front houses that are built on stilts that I have
seen use concrete cylinders where the concrete is poured
into prefabricated cardboard tubes.

-john-

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John A. Weeks III _ _ _ _ _ 612-720-2854 _ _ _ _ _ _john@johnweeks.com
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Tom Cular

2008-02-16, 9:26 am

"ndpace" <ndpace@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7fd960bb-b84a-4949-bb29-fe3ea7b0c209@h11g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>I am looking at buying a house that is built on pilings at the beach.
> It is a block from the ocean, built in 1994. Is there any way to have
> the pilings inspected to make sure they will be good for awhile?
> The pilings continue into the house, and there are some 0.5inch splits
> in them. Is that cause for alarm?
> Thanks for any help

Without seeing the piling, it sounds like what you're seeing is just normal
checking, pretty common in treated timber and piles and harmless. Take a
couple minutes and look closely at a few utility poles, you'll see the same
condition. Another poster mentioned concrete piers formed with sonotubes,
don't compare the two. The sonotubes are not likely to be more than 10'
overall with 5' +/- in the ground, ok along a river or lakefront, NOT the
beach.
The timber piles are typically driven 25-30'. The deep penetration is what
might save your house if severe storm erosion occurs. I've seen erosion that
left homes a block from the beach looking like a fishing pier after a storm,
but they were still there!

Tom

PeterD

2008-02-16, 9:26 am

On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:04:48 -0800 (PST), ndpace <ndpace@gmail.com>
wrote:

>I am looking at buying a house that is built on pilings at the beach.
>It is a block from the ocean, built in 1994. Is there any way to have
>the pilings inspected to make sure they will be good for awhile?
>The pilings continue into the house, and there are some 0.5inch splits
>in them. Is that cause for alarm?
>Thanks for any help

Just off the top of my head...

1. Salt water actually provides some protection against rot (vs fresh
water that promotes rot). Wood boats always last longer when used on
salt water for example, and we'd always flush the bildges with salt
water if they got 'contaminated' with a lot of fresh water.

2. Splits seem normal to me, but I can't see them...

Personally I'd worry more about storms!

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