'Structural Issues for Home Inspectors' course

Ummm…

Most exterior walls bear the vertical load of whatever is above it (typically the roof). Though many offer different configurations, the purpose is to help transfer the weight of the roof structure down to the foundation and footings (presuming that there ARE footings, that is)

No disrespect, it is a very good course, and much more relevant to home inspections that the Carson Dunlop course which I found, unsurprisingly, was geared more towards an Engineers perspective.

Keep up the good work Ben and crew.

Easey Joe, he is NOT the only Engineer member of INACHI. He was trying to be funny… Everybody knows that Ben is doing a great job in this great association. Remember credentials??:roll:==Higher cost for Home Inspections. Education is power. Power means $$. If you can make 3 to 4K a week why not? Besides, in addition to helping the client you are also having fun and making a decent living. Remember: Anyone Else, Is Just Looking Around! Inspected Once, Inspected Right! Cheers!:wink:

I just started the course will reply at later date .

My point exactly Joe, in the vast majority of residential buildings the external wall is the supporting wall, but this was missed in the text. Of course commercial buildings can be different, and I suppose so could res buildings if someone built them that way, where the supporting structure is a column or set of columns and the exterior wall was just a curtain wall. But that’s another thing.

I thought that was covered here;
**bearing wall
**A bearing wall, or a load-bearing wall, is designed to carry the weight of structural components above, through itself, and to the supporting components below. Removal of or modification to bearing walls without specific design considerations can lead to loss of structural integrity of the dwelling. Sometimes, the structural weakness is seen almost immediately. In other cases, the weakness is discovered only over time.

Whether this is interior or exterior bearing walls, it gets the point across.

Some need to realize the role of the parties involved in designing a structure.

PE or Structural Engineer= analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of safety, technical, economic and environmental concerns,

PE Civil Engineer= A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.

Architect= is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings, that have as their principal purpose human occupancy or use.](Architect - Wikipedia)

As you can see, this 3 have the leading role in design of a property, whether Residential or Commercial.
Architects design the structure from a rendering and bring it to existence.
The structural engineer designs the supporting components to achieve the Architects dream.
The Civil Engineer makes the outside look pretty based on the Architects rendering and intent of what he wants it to look like and make sure that the chit flows down hill and the water in the ground around the structure is mitigated.

Talk about screw ups, well that happens to the best of us.
The biggest blunders in design that I have seen in the past 40+ years in Building Construction is the Design that the Architects are looking for.
Never have I seen a screw up by a Structural Engineer other than the fact they failed to red flag the construction sequence by the Contractor that could have had a structural failure if I would not have caught it in time.
Civil engineers at times will fail to have proper elevations on exterior underground facilities such as existing grades, structures, and outfalls, etc…

Architects usually try to do the impossible and leave it up to the Contractor to resolve.
If it does not look to their liking, the specifications usually protect their behind and the contractor is usually stuck to fix it. Or it goes into litigation or arbitration for disputes.
If the contractor does not know what he is doing other than following the plans, he is in trouble before he starts.
In today’s world, the Contractor has to out guess the Architect most times to make sure that what he is building will work. That is the problem, most contractors will build it as designed. “OH No”:wink:
If anyone has noticed in the past few years, is that Structural Engineers coming into view are now using more copy and paste designs to take short cuts in engineering and save cost. This often times relates to over design in many parts of the building that only a season experience contractor would notice.
If he is smart, he would apply for a value engineering on the project.

No matter which part or role you play in the building industry, we need to work together to achieve a final product or have it corrected.
The bottom role of the HI is to find these irregularities in the design of these buildings, point them out and get it corrected.
The finger does not have to be pointed at anyone of the above,
If something is broke, fix it, if something is failing, fix it, if something is causing problems, fix it.
It is our role to find these things.
Ben’s structural course was a great course to touch a little on what the whole thing is about. It was not designed to make Hi’s structural experts.
I commend him for what he put out there for all of us coming in to this vocation as an HI.
We are not engineers and do not have to have a college course on structural put out by Inachi.

Hi there, i am about to begin the structural course, most of the time i am taking them after 7 pm, more quiet, no phone calls etc…

hope is going to be instructive like others courses i took, learning a lot with InterNACHI courses

have a good night guys

Guy Bosse
"BETTER HOMES’’
inspection/maintenance

N-B, Canada

Marcel, First let me say that I am a real fan of the NACHI courses, and I really appreciate all the effort that goes into the work. But I also come from a background of Quality Management, which is prevalent in your response too, so we both have the same goal in mind.

My belief is that Ben and the team that create these courses are of that mindset as well. So in that mode, if you find something that is not 100% accurate, do you ignore it? No, you mention what you concerns are, and then let the experts fix it, then go back an re-test it.

This is all I was trying to do with my comments, which were raised as part of the student participation of the course. Just thought that’s what we were supposed to do to prove we actually read the texts, and perform the quizzes.

Apologies if it was taken in any other way.

As I’ve said before, Ben/Nick and team, keep up the great work, it is appreciated.

No apologies required Leonard. It was just my French way of explaining things.
Ben and his people did a great job.
Items you pointed out is fine and should be pointed out.
The course are great and just wanted to touch a little on how other things are and work.
It is impossible to point out all in some of these courses. When we face the music on site, it becomes reality and the only way to make things works at times, is to work as a team.
:slight_smile:

good info…welcome…

InterNACHI is great in keeping you informed and up to date with your education logs. The constant refreshers and new topics to learn keep inspectors on their A game. Thanks again.

ATD
Salt Lake City.

It seems I am like many other InterNachi members…impressed with the wealth of knowledge available to us on this site. Everytime I am here it seems I learn something new and this contributes greatly to my ability in providing a better service to my customers.
Thanks for all your work!

Exactly.
We love it when a mistake or error is found in one of our courses. We get on it and make the edit. Always improving, always getting better.
As my brother would say, As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

1 Like

looking forward to taking this course!

All of the courses thus far have been great thus far. Thanks Nick!

Great courses so far. Thanks

Hello Ben:

I’m impressed with the InterNACHI webb site and all the knowledge that comes with it. Today I passed the How to Inspect the Exterior exam. I learned more about home inspections in the past months then my total contracting carrier. If my brain was equipped with a GFCI it would need to be reset. In Best Regards: David

Great refresher course… I had forgotten some of the issues in the structural course, which is good because this could cost me big time… Thank You

love the diagrams in this unit. the fact you can click to enlarge really makes them easy to read saves the eyes

I think these courses are great. I have learned a lot of additional information. This will make me a better inspector. thank you for these courses.