Supporting Post Inspection

Supporting Post/Supporting Walls1. There is several different ways of supporting the structure of the home today.  Steel I Beams, steel lally columns or steel screw jacks, wood support walls, laminated beams and block or poured concrete, all these different systems work very well if they are properly installed.  It is very difficult what to say to exactly look for but we are going to give you several different ideas of common problems.1. Wool Supporting beams (example 3 2×10) should be standing straight up and down, not twisted in either direction.                                                                                                                  2. Look closely to where homeowners may have cut out some 2×4 or 2×6’s in a supporting wall to add some additional space.3. Many times steel I beams are installed and they are not actually supported to the floors of the supporting wall above.4. A very common area to find problem is under every door & sliding doors.  Most doors will leak at one time of another and directly below them in the basement and the crawl space should be checked closely.5. We recommend looking at every floor joist for cracks or home owner cutting, these can generally be repaired fairly easy by sistering another board to them, and unless several have been cracked in a row then you will need to hire a licensed contractor to make repairs.6. Look behind the insulation in the rim boxes area (we don’t recommend removing blown or Styrofoam insulation to view rim boxes) this is a common place for moisture and termites.