How Can Concrete Restoration Prevent Tragedies on Your Property?

What does Florida Bill S.B. 4-D mean for property owners?

SB-4D establishes a new, statewide inspection program that mandates condo and co-op buildings 3 or more stories high to meet new requirements.

Structural inspections are key to making sure your building is properly up to code and complies with the new law. Here’s what you need to do:

• Make sure your structural inspection is performed by a Florida-licensed engineer or architect
• Include visual inspection of primary structural members and systems
• Identify if any structural deterioration is substantial and if it will negatively affect the building’s condition, integrity, or safety of occupants
• Document whether unsafe or dangerous conditions are observed
• Report any items that require maintenance or further inspection
• Report any items that require immediate replacement or repair (including structural components)

Lastly, these (and more) elements of building structure need to be included in the scope of a Structural Integrity Reserve Study:

• Roofs
• Load bearing walls
• Primary structural members
• Floors
• Foundations
• Plumbing

Since the Champlain Towers Collapse in Surfside Florida, we have had numerous requests to perform structural condition assessments.

How can you prevent a tragedy like this occurring at your property?

Prevent Collapse – IEI Concrete Restoration in Atlanta

Spalling and cracking concrete are deterioration problems that need to be addressed immediately. Early repairs and concrete restoration are far less expensive than kicking the can down the road, allowing the repair costs to increase exponentially. When you work with Innovative Engineering, you can feel safe knowing your structure is secure.

IEI’s proven state of the art techniques provide a thorough condition assessment with consistent results. Contact IEI to inspect, report, repair and prevent future damage.

What Florida Bill S.B. 4-D Means for Property Owners

Earlier this year, we talked about the tragedy of the Surfside Condo collapse in Florida. Over the last few years, more catastrophic structural damage cases, concrete restoration, and progressive collapse cases have been in the news. Because of this, building owners are taking a closer look at their building, and lawmakers have also been making changes to prevent this type of tragedy from occurring.

Senate Bill 4-D (“S.B. 4-D”), which was enacted in May 2022 in response to the collapse of Champlain Towers South passed in May 2022, amends the Florida Condominium Act.

Read a summary of the bill on our website!

Since the Champlain Towers Collapse in Surfside Florida, we have had numerous requests to perform structural condition assessments.

How can you prevent a tragedy like this occurring at your property?

Prevent Collapse – IEI Concrete Restoration in Atlanta

Spalling and cracking concrete are deterioration problems that need to be addressed immediately. Early repairs are far less expensive than kicking the can down the road, allowing the repair costs to increase exponentially. When you work with Innovative Engineering, you can feel safe knowing your structure is secure.

IEI’s proven state of the art techniques provide a thorough condition assessment with consistent results. Contact IEI to inspect, report, repair and prevent future damage.

The Causes of Concrete Deterioration

Have you ever wondered about the severity of a crack in a concrete structure?

Does your structure currently have ponding, or standing water?

Don’t Ignore the Warning Signs of Structural Collapse

• Leaks, standing water
• Cracking or spalling, exposed rebar, signs of corrosion
• Construction Defects

Investigating warning signs of deterioration and good structure maintenance can help you prevent a collapse, saving yourself on future expenses as well as protecting the community. 

Learn more about the importance of concrete restoration in Atlanta here.

Don’t Risk Collapse - IEI Concrete Restoration in Atlanta

Work with IEI concrete restoration in Atlanta to avoid costly repairs. We will let you know if we find any warning signs of degraded structural integrity. 

Contact us today to prevent future failure.

Don’t Wait Until it’s Too Late for Concrete Restoration

Structure collapses have a traumatic effect on the community.

Property damage, fatalities, life-altering injury, financial consequences, and loss of trust are all side effects when a building falls.

Regular Structure Inspections are Life Saving

Regular inspections and repairs prevent tragedies like the Surfside, Florida condominium collapse. Inspections early detection of cracks, rust, water damage, leaks, and code compliance issues.

Some Indications Your Structure Needs Restoration

• Leaks
• Exposed or Rusted Rebar
• Cracked Concrete
• Standing Water

Read more about the consequences of collapse here.

Don’t Ignore Damage - IEI Concrete Restoration in Atlanta

Avoid costly repairs when you work with IEI Concrete restoration in Atlanta. Our engineers specialize in restoration of concrete, masonry, steel, and wood structures and will let you know of any conditions that require immediate attention.

What Should I Expect from a Façade Inspection?

What does a typical facade inspection entail?

The façade inspection begins with a kick-off meeting that includes the building user and maintenance personnel to obtain historical building information regarding the building envelope including re-roofing, previous repairs, additions and known deficient conditions.

Based on availability, existing documents will be collected and reviewed – plans, elevations, wall sections, specifications, and shop drawings for the original construction as well as any additions or modifications affecting the building envelope and previous inspection reports.

Plans and elevations are reproduced to aid in the inspection and reporting process. When previous façade inspection reports exist, study of them can identify areas where damage, both visible and concealed, may be likely as well assist in prioritizing inspection areas.

Read more about facade inspection on our website!

Utilize the IEI Advantage for Your Facade Inspection!

Did you know that a structured self-inspection of your building can prevent problems before they start and before anyone gets hurt? What may appear as an insignificant defect can turn into a big problem if ignored.

IEI’s state-of-the-art techniques provide a very thorough condition assessment and facade inspection. The time to know the true extent of any deficiencies is now, not after closure of downtown streets or worse, personal injury, death, and/or property damage occurs. Contact us today!

Why Should You Care about Facade Inspection?

How important is routine façade inspection?

During hurricane, tornado, and severe thunderstorm season across the United States, we’re reminded how important it is to anticipate façade failures before they happen.

During Hurricane Irma in 2018, façade failures caused street closures in Atlanta despite the storm being downgraded to a tropical depression. Even though wind speeds were relatively low for a tropical storm (40mph or lower) and building facades are required by local ordinances to be designed for a minimum wind speed of 90mph, many buildings still suffered damage.

Am I Required to Perform a Facade Inspection?

Unlike 12 other major metropolitan areas, Atlanta has no façade ordinance law requiring periodic inspections to help ensure public safety from falling building façades. For these other cities, it unfortunately took an injury or death to encourage enactment of a façade inspection ordinance.

The lack of an ordinance, however, does not relieve building managers and owners from liability. The International Property Maintenance Code Section 304.1 requires “The exterior of a structure shall be maintained in good repair, structurally sound and sanitary so as not to pose a threat to the public health, safety or welfare.”

Read more about facade inspection on our website! 

Utilize the IEI Advantage for Your Facade Inspection!

Did you know that a structured self-inspection of your building can prevent problems before they start and before anyone gets hurt? What may appear as an insignificant defect can turn into a big problem if ignored.

IEI’s state-of-the-art techniques provide a very thorough condition assessment and facade inspection. The time to know the true extent of any deficiencies is now, not after closure of downtown streets or worse, personal injury, death, and/or property damage occurs. Contact us today!

 

Consequences of Putting off Major Parking Structure Restoration Projects

If problems are ignored, the harsh environment in garages, including corrosive deicing chemicals, freeze-thaw cycling, and the stress of thousands of vehicles traversing the deck, will quickly accelerate deterioration into hazardous conditions.

Many see the outwardly rugged nature of a parking structure and assume that they are indestructible and require little maintenance. Unfortunately, this is simply not true.

Many parking structures lack a true building envelope, and instead leave their structural components exposed to the elements. This leads to deterioration before construction has even completed. This deterioration is often ignored until a critical failure has occurred, resulting in much higher maintenance costs and risk of property damage, injury, or even death.

Don’t Defer Routine Parking Structure Maintenance!

Reactive maintenance represents the cost of doing nothing. If routine maintenance is deferred for too long, the costs will add up, leading to a situation in which maintenance costs outprice those of demolition and construction of a new structure. This leads to a smaller amount of parking spots for your facility, and potentially unhappy visitors.

If you own or operate a parking structure, a good maintenance program is required to prevent costs from adding up exponentially down the line. A plan should be developed to account for the structural, operational, and aesthetic components of the parking structure’s design. Maintenance should be performed proactively rather than reactionarily!

Read the full article on our website!

The IEI Structural Engineering Advantage

Our engineers at IEI specialize in parking structure restoration. We’ll walk your facility and let you know of any conditions that require immediate attention and what maintenance activities you can perform now to extend the life of your facility. Give us a call today!