Beach Rental Galveston - rust

[LCHIEN]

I spent the weekend at a beachhouse rental. Built in 2008 so 17 years old.

The house had the second story and third story up on stilts above a concrete foundation/parking area and a small storage garage/shower. The stilts were I guess 12 x 12 and probably 25 (5x5 array) supporting the house; on the top of each column/stilt there was 1 sistered and one single wood beams running horizontally to support the structure. Each beam had 6 bolts and nuts fastening it to the column/stilt.
If I had seen this the first day I might not have stayed.
Look at the ends of the bolts on the beam I could get to near the stairs. Not much of the Nut remains... in fact one is completely missing, I bet I could knock the other 5 off with a hammer and a small screwdriver.
Rust never sleeps.


Check out the breaker box rust.

[cwsmith]

"Rust never sleeps"

It's apparent that the local building and code inspectors do! Or don't they have those requirements there?

[LCHIEN]

"Rust never sleeps"

It's apparent that the local building and code inspectors do! Or don't they have those requirements there?

I looked at the bolts from the other side and their hex heads were all intact and the threaded ends on this side appear to be intact, However the nuts and the washers if there were any appear to have been severely affected by the salt atmosphere (800 feet from the Gulf of America/Mexico) and simply eaten away by rust.

My presumption (not a structural or metallurgical guy but an engineer), is that galvanized fasteners should have been used.

I suspect that non-galvanized, probably just low grade zinc-plated steel fasteners, were used and that they have rusted away.
Stainless steel is an option but costs a lot more than galvanized.

[capncarl]

You would think that whom ever built these rust magnets would know not what to use. The condo that we like to stay at the beach just finished repairing their parking garage that had cracks and rust drool everywhere. The contractor cut out every crack, cleaned and smeared in some concrete goo. It will probably last 5 years before it will have to have some serious repairs. This repair took a year. This is probably because they didn’t use coated rebar.
A privately opened 3 story rental has a balance problem. it’s located next to our favorite condo, and has been in this condition several years. Owner wants neighbors to sign a hold harmless agreement so he can demo it. Ain’t happening. Their buildings have been vacant the entire time too.
Supposedly “someone “ cut a few corners on the piling and bridge supports. When one failed and shifted it dumped the building on the neighbors. A small twister did minor damage to nearby buildings and started this fail, but it, like rust was inevitable.

[leehljp]

About 6 years ago, for some reason, I received 8 boxes of very expensive bolts and nuts, via UPS weighing about 30 to 40lbs each. It was address was my address but a name I could not find even by numerous google searches. I received them on Dec 30, so the New Year's holidays prevented me from contacting UPS or the company that sent them. A few days after new years, I got the sending company on the phone and they had a subsidiary company out of Memphis to come and pick them up. And the guy picking them up said I might receive a couple more that were supposed to be with them but got lost. Sure enough, a week later 2 more boxes were delivered. I did not have the number of the guy or company in Memphis but I noticed the headquarters were in Dallas only a few miles from my daughter and I was going there the next week. I took the extra to boxes; the people in the front office seemed aggravated that someone was returning some boxes that they (front office) would have to handle. They sent me way back to "will call", got back there and hauled in 80 lbs in two boxes to the stand and had to explain what I was doing out of the kindness of my heart. They looked at me like I was crazy and then a "manager" of sorts opened one box and let out a yell. "WOW. These bolts are worth a major mint." They were meant for off shore underwater platforms. The guy did thank me profusely and said someone was going to get fired for that mess up.

It takes a good high quality bolt and nut setup to resist rusting in situations like that.

[cwsmith]

I can't speak for other areas, but having spent my life here in NY State, building codes are pretty strict and unless you purposely hide it (almost impossible to do here), plans, reviews, and inspections are all required before you can even get a building permit. Following that, inspections occur during the process and continue over the years.

When I built my 25 x 15 ft deck in Painted Post, I had to go through the process of submitting my drawings, material list and answer some details before I got my permit, and during the build I had two inspections.

Here in Binghamton, when I purchased a 12 x 20 Amish-built shed, I had to present my plan to the city council, questions were few, but I also had to get any neighbor within withing 100 ft of my property boundary to sign a permission, and then when I wired it, I had to get a permit, present my wiring plan and had two inspections during the process.

Even with that, in the past twenty years the area has had a few commercial building problems including a parking garage collapse at a nearby hospital. My thoughts with that were that somebody must have been paid, 'under the table' as my father used to say!

CWS

[capncarl]

I 100 percent agree with you about code enforcement. In areas where there is not much building going on or in remote areas where code enforcement isn’t present there are always people who try lol slip something by to save a few bucks. I know a local builder who completed a dozen single level duplexes a year. 1 code enforcer in the county that was stretched to thin. The builder would notify code that he was pouring a slab, enforcer would come by and inspect, check off on forms and rebar and leave. Before the concrete truck arrived said builder would lift out the rebar and move it to his next duplex, the concrete would arrive and the slab was poured and completed before the end of the day. A few bucks and a case of beer and the concrete truck driver saw nothing! It’s just too easy for unscrupulous contractors to cut corners for a few bucks. My last 2 jobs, private industry and gov. Build I was the code enforcement. I didn’t let contractors get away with this that I know about, but there were lots in my position I can’t answer for. That’s how this happens.