Saving your stonework when others fall short.
Saving your stonework when others fall short.
The Forensic Scene: When a Hairline Crack Becomes a Structural Grave The homeowner stood on their porch, pointing at a thin, vertical fissure running through the fifth soldier course above the garage. They thought it was a ‘settlement crack,’ a phrase people use when they want to sleep better at night. But when I pulled […]
The Forensic Scene: When a Hairline Crack Becomes a Structural Grave The homeowner stood in a damp basement, pointing at a single, thin line running diagonally across the CMU block wall. ‘It’s just a little dampness,’ they said. ‘Maybe some epoxy will fix it.’ But when I slid my fiber-optic scope into a weep hole […]
The Forensic Scene: A Ghost in the Wall The homeowner in the historic district was proud of his ‘immaculate’ basement. He had spent a fortune on a contractor who slapped a thick, grey coating over the interior stone foundation. He thought it was dry. But when I pressed my moisture meter against a small, bubbling […]
The Anatomy of a Failing Foundation I remember a forensic scene in a 1920s bungalow where the homeowner pointed to a faint, white powdery haze on the interior block wall. She thought it was just dust from a recent renovation. I pulled my borescope from my kit and fed it through a small weep hole […]
The Anatomy of a Failure: When Hairline Cracks Lie The homeowner stood in a foyer that smelled like a damp cave, pointing at a hairline crack no wider than a fingernail running through the soldier course above her grand entrance. To the untrained eye, it was a settling issue. To me, a man who has […]
The Forensic Scene: When Good Intentions Kill Great Walls The homeowner thought it was just a hairline crack, a minor blemish on a 1920s Tudor facade. But when I put my borescope inside the cavity, I didn’t see structural integrity; I saw a graveyard. The structural steel lintels were rusted to red dust, and the […]
The Forensic Reality of the ‘Fixed’ Chimney I recently walked onto a roof where a homeowner had spent three thousand dollars only six months prior to stop a persistent leak around their fireplace. The ‘contractor’—and I use that term loosely—had smeared a gallon of silver roofing mastic over the flashing and injected a tube of […]
The Anatomy of a Slow-Motion Disaster I recently stepped onto a slate roof in a historic district, the kind where the houses have stood for a century and should stand for another. The homeowner was frantic because a $30,000 plaster ceiling in the master bedroom looked like a topographical map of the Everglades. They had […]
The Hidden Danger of Trapped Water Behind Commercial Brick Veneers The facility manager called me because he saw what he termed ‘a little white dust’ on a six-story commercial facade. He thought it was a cleaning issue. I climbed the scaffolding, pulled my fiber-optic scope from my kit, and threaded it through a hairline crack […]
The Forensic Scene: When Copper Hides a Corpse The homeowner was adamant. She had spent four thousand dollars on custom lead-coated copper flashing just three seasons ago, yet the ceiling in the master bedroom looked like a topographical map of a swamp. I climbed the scaffolding, my boots crunching on the loose grit of failing […]
