NEW YORK TIMES: The apartment building balcony that collapsed last week in Berkeley, Calif., killing six students, was supported by wooden beams with extensive rotting from water damage, city officials said Tuesday.
The joists beneath the concrete balcony were extensively rotted in the spot where the structure collapsed, sending the victims five stories down, according to a report of the initial findings from the city’s Building and Safety Division…
In a memo, city building officials said they recommended that the City Council pass strict new requirements for waterproofing new balconies and other areas exposed to weather, while also making sure they are well ventilated so they can dry after becoming wet.
“The proposed regulations would institute regular maintenance inspections for all such spaces for future buildings as well as those units already built,” officials said in a statement released by a city spokesman, Matthai K. Chakko… (more)
EDITOR: New York Times’ report clarifies many of the absurdities as posted at radio station KQED. There must have been a massive miscommunication between the Berkeley, CA building officials and what perhaps was an inexperienced reporter.
Below is an article that we posted earlier this morning before coming across the NYT piece. We stand by our article as far as what needs to be done. We withdraw our criticism of the officials, although we would welcome additional information about actions that they plan to take to avoid similar disasters in the future.
Be assured, this is very likely to occur again without inspections of balconies in place and ongoing preventive efforts.
The Building Inspectors in Berkeley, CA must be incompetent, if not worse!
Posted on June 24th, 2015
As a long term builder / developer, we cannot believe what the City representatives say as reported in an article posted a KQED News pertaining to the lethal balcony collapse at a mid-rise apartment building in Beckley, CA.
“City of Berkeley building inspectors are confirming what several independent experts said in the wake of last week’s fatal balcony collapse: The lumber that was supposed to support the structure showed signs of extensive dry rot.
“But in a press conference Tuesday, the city also said that even though it’s not known how water got into the balcony structure and caused it to deteriorate, its investigation into the collapse is over.
“The balcony, which was roughly 4½ by 8½ feet, was supported by laminated wood joists that projected out from the building’s exterior wall in a cantilever — meaning its support ultimately depended on the joists being securely tied into the structure’s framing.
“Our analysis is complete and we the city are not going to be conducting any further investigations,” said Eric Angstadt, Berkeley’s director of planning and development. City spokesman Matthai Chakko added that the city is not conducting a criminal investigation into the collapse, which killed six people — apparently the deadliest single incident in Berkeley’s nearly 150-year-history.”
Laminated wood joists? That means instead of the integrity of a regular joists consisting of lumber cut to say 12 inches by 2 inches, there are ribbons of wood glued together to generate the same dimension.
To properly cantilever the support of a balcony (rather than supporting the balcony from below), solid wood joists, perhaps 2” by 12” would be run on a ratio of at least 1’ (probably more) from inside the building to 1’ outside. And those protruding joists would be tied to the adjoining joists inside the building for further strength and balance.
Such solid all wood joists would likely have been specially treated for exterior use to protect against dry rot. We don’t know if this is possible with a laminated product.
Furthermore, the photographs showed the subject joists were enclosed both on top, at the ends, and underneath, a serious mistake that would lead to dry rot if there were no provisions for proper ventilation. We did not notice any ventilation in the photo we posted.
Given the extraordinary amount of dry rot shown in the photographs, the City officials should be inspecting and testing every balcony on that building and any other buildings constructed in a similar manner. This also should be warning to other municipalities.
We urge that the plywood should be reviewed permanently from under the balcony joists to assure both full ventilation and exposure of any problems.
If there is to be a criminal investigation, it should be whether the balconies were properly constructed by codes and why the officials are not investigating further the safety of all other balconies built in the same manner. And if there was no code violation, then the codes need to be re-examined and corrected. That is how we learn in the construction industry.
