For nearly 30 years, Alpha Structural, Inc. has developed a powerful reputation as the number one foundation engineering and repair, landslide repair, earthquake, and structural rehabilitation contractor in the Los Angeles area. The company has over 400 years of combined technical experience and all of it is hard-core and down-in-the-trenches, not managed from behind a computer.
Alpha Structural, Inc. also shares photos from its engineers' day-to-day work, including all the funniest, most bizarre, and downright dangerous things they discover. We've already covered their finds here, here, and here, but recently they've unearthed more surprising treasures, so we put together a new piece on them.
#24
A car hit the side of this house and caused some pretty significant structural damage.
Not much can be seen from the inside surprisingly, except water damage and some cracking.
Not much can be seen from the inside surprisingly, except water damage and some cracking.
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24points
#25
Out with the old, in with the... new?
This is a very early 1900s home with a brick foundation that we inspected.
In addition to the foundation needing a replacement/sister foundation, much of the framing needs to be replaced as well.
It's hard to consider this as a foundation since the concrete is as stable as the dirt underneath it.
This is a very early 1900s home with a brick foundation that we inspected.
In addition to the foundation needing a replacement/sister foundation, much of the framing needs to be replaced as well.
It's hard to consider this as a foundation since the concrete is as stable as the dirt underneath it.
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23points
#26
This masonry wall supported the back half of the home, as well as a deck in the back. Tons of moisture and hillside erosion caused the wall to lose its grip on the hillside and rest of the structure. This type of failure tends to happen in the rainy season in Los Angeles.
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23points
#28
This is why you always remove stucco before you engineer a solution!
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18points
#29
A nice pile of dust supporting a home.
This is a very bad spalling concrete foundation. I assume most of you know what that is by now, but if you don't feel free to ask.
Here's some more spall damage on a different property!
This is a very bad spalling concrete foundation. I assume most of you know what that is by now, but if you don't feel free to ask.
Here's some more spall damage on a different property!
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18points
#30
Who wants to guess what happened to this poor girder? Luckily it was sistered a while back, but it's a shocking scene with that old one still there
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18points
