Leaning Building of El Sobrante

I thought I would try regailing you with some of the more interesting things I find with my job. Today I went out to visit an apartment complex that they are turning into condos. The building has some noticeable settlement in one corner and they want to jack it back up and put some new concrete piers and grade beams so that it won't settle anymore. After a closer inspection I discovered that the settlement wasn't really the root of their problems. The whole building is sliding forward due to a cracked foundation.


This is the building from the rear. There are three two-story units.


This crack is in the footing on the side of the building. It's up to an inch and a half wide and you can see through to the other side. The portion on the right side is sliding away from the left causing the building to slide forward. There isn't any reinforcing in the foundation, which means there isn't anything to hold it together.


You can see the tilt of the cripple wall is quite noticeable.


This is a close-up of the cripple studs. You can see that they are lifting up due to the tilt of the wall. What is hard to see is that because all the weight from above is now sitting on a much smaller area, the foundation plate (the wood piece the studs are sitting on) is literally being crushed. If the building slides much more, it could collapse. I was a bit nervous just being in the crawl space. Who knows when it could go.