Can someone recommend a good structural engineer?
We have a 1925 Tudor Revival home In Palmer Woods. Part of the two story structure is built over a brick foundation on a concrete slab. This crawl space is sinking causing the floor to drop. We had Foundation Services of Michigan to the house and they want to install 10 accuforce helical piers around the crawl space foundation at 4 ft increments. The room over the crawl is 12 x 24. The crawl is probably 3-4 ft high.
The cost is extremely prohibitive.
We would like to know if installing jack stands in the crawl space would slow down the sinking of the slab, and want to talk to a structural specialist about our options before proceeding. Any help or contacts for structural engineers with specialty in dealing with brick foundations/historic structures would be appreciated.
Other considerations are the roof is slate and there is just dressing rooms above the 1st floor room. Lastly there is a Pewabic tile floor that is cracking and breaking up. Mostly due to the subfloor. Several people have looked at the crawl and have said the exterior brick and the ceiling joists are in good shape.
I would recommend Cheryl Early of Fitzpatrick Structural Engineering, P.C. as a place to start. She's a structural engineer and on the board of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network so she both knows and cares about older homes: [email protected]
You can also use the MHPN directory on Brick + Beam's resources page:
http://www.brickandbeamdetroit.com/resources/detroit-michigan-contractor-list
I think it's a great place to start, and if you have questions about a firm, you could always ask the MHPN staff what they know of the firm and if they can connect you with others who have used them.