document updated 14 years ago, on Oct 16, 2009
The rear area (although it's completely enclosed, it's definitely distinct from the rest of the apartment, since there's a solid brick wall and other previously-exterior features that separate the two) is in obviously poor shape. On the third floor, the floor is at an unnerving angle, and the southeastern corner REALLY moves around a lot, making you think that it has almost no structural support.
The goal of this document isn't to moralize, or to criticize other people's decisions. The goal of this document is SOLELY to make an informed determination whether the back area is safe or not.
If we could pay for a professional building inspector to examine it, we would. In lieu of that, we're doing as much of the inspection as we can, ourselves.
Findings
- The structure shifted before the drywall was hung
- Look at the top of the north and south walls on 3F. The top piece of drywall is VERY obviously cut in a triangle shape.
- Comparing the height of the wall, from the south-eastern corner, to the central post, there's a 5.5" difference in height on the 3F.
- The structure continued to shift after the drywall was hung
- Look at the drywall on the ceiling near the top of the center post. One of the sheets of drywall has been torn loose from its nails just north of this post.
- Along the southern end of the brick wall, you can see quite a bit of daylight out of it
Though it's small enough that you can't quite fit a dowel through it, it still looks pretty large.
- Along the brick wall, when it rains hard, the roof allows a fair bit of water through
There isn't enough water to form pools, but there's still water that comes in. Some rotting of the roof and other structures is inevitable over time, if it hasn't happened already.
TODO: the ladder-hole definitely leaks. The next time it rains, check if the water is ONLY coming from this or not. It's important because if the water is leaking THROUGH the roof, then the roof's wooden members are going to rot.
- The window frame of the top window has rotted
If you push on the bottom-left corner, it has very obvious play in it.
- The studs are generally at 24" intervals, but vary quite a bit, sometimes as wide as 27"
- The standard is 16", but 24" spacing is sometimes used to reduce material and labor costs.
- The largest interval I've found (27") is found on 3F, on the southern wall of the staircase.
- NOTE: When 24" studs are used, and the wall has to support another story above, then the studs must be 2x6, 2x5, or 3x4 (see "CABO One- and Two-Family Dwelling Code" reference here)
- Indeed, sliding a butterknife in between the drywall sheets on 2F shows that they used 2x4s only.
Conclusions
- When the workers put up the drywall, they knew exactly how crooked the structure was. The structure was crooked for quite some time in the past.
TODO
- Look into the Cook County public records, find out when the last time this place was inspected, and what the results of that building inspection was.