Structural Damage

Structural damage or structural failure occurs for a number of reasons, among them being vehicle accidents, fire, wind, dry rot, corrosion and termites. Regardless of the reason, American Technologies, Inc. and American Restoration can assess the structural integrity of the building and determine what repairs need to be made. When the decision is made to go ahead with repairs, we have a team of professionals ready to handle the range of work involved in repairing structure damage to a building.

Common causes of structural damage are as follows:

• Wood Rot
• Dry Rot
• Framing Collapse
• Corrosion
• Weather
• Vehicle Accidents
• Construction Defects
• Shifting/Unstable Landscaping
• Defective Plumbing/Electrical Wiring
• Faulty Draining or Water Intrusion

Count on Us

As a licensed, bonded and fully insured general contractor, we offer a full range of construction services for handling all structural damage needs from replacing flooring materials to reconstructing heavily damaged buildings.

Our supervisors are trained to manage and oversee most trades involved in reconstruction jobs, which include:

The Reconstruction Process

The reconstruction process will vary depending from job to job and what type of loss occurred.  Regardless of job size, we always assign a project manager and superintendent to oversee each reconstruction job from start to finish.  The most common reconstruction repairs are detailed below.

Repairing Water Damages

With a water loss, the process is quite straightforward.  After the job is assigned and once superintendent performs a preliminary job walk with owner, the superintendent usually schedules to start any rough trades first, such as electrical, plumbing or framing. If cabinets need to be made, the old cabinets are measured to determine sizes before being fabricated. American Technologies, Inc. has a Cabinet Division that can provide custom-made cabinets for any project.  As the rough trades begin their work, the superintendent collaborates with the owner and project manager to get material selections from the owner so orders can be placed to accommodate delivery schedules. At this point, materials and labor are scheduled through completion. Upon completion of all repairs, there is a final walkthrough with the owner for sign off and approve all the work that has been done.

Repairing Fire Damages

After the fire loss is assigned to a project manager, that project manager surveys the job with the building owner and insurance company representative.  Generally, an engineer is recommended at this time to address structural issues and to put together engineering plans.  The superintendent and project manager also need to communicate to the building owners that the city in which the building is located will not issue a permit to perform the repairs without a set of engineered plans showing how the structurally damaged part of the building will be repaired to comply with current building codes. The engineering plans will also show code change requirements, for instance, extra smoke detectors. This initial process of setting up plans for city approval can take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks to complete.

The engineer will then bring the plans to the city planning and building departments for approval. Most cities require 2-3 weeks to review plans before approving them.  After reviewing the proposed plans, the city will either release them as approved and issue a permit or release them for corrections, at which point the engineer will make the necessary changes and resubmit the plans for approval.

After the plans are approved, the superintendent will fill out the paperwork required to obtain a building permit at the city and pay the appropriate fees for the required inspections, namely, building, electrical, plumbing and HVAC, and pick up the approved plans and permit card. These are items that will be needed when inspections are called for by the city.

With the approved plans and permit, the project manager can finish estimating the project and get the job started. Usually at this time, the superintendent performs his job walk with the owner and discusses a schedule for the progress of the work.

A large fire typically requires more walkthroughs and material selections with the owner as the job progresses, therefore lengthening project time to completion.  If large beams are required, it will usually take a week to get them delivered, but if roof trusses are involved, it usually takes two weeks for them to be fabricated and delivered to the jobsite.  Depending on the weather and the nature of job, demolition work may be delayed until assurance of a delivery date for the beams or trusses are confirmed so that the superintendent can coordinate timely removal and replacement.  Also, if trusses and large beams are being installed, the superintendent will plan ahead to have the correct heavy lifting equipment onsite, such as a crane, at the same time the materials arrive.  All these considerations must be made for the job to be completed in a correct and timely manner and avoid unnecessary delays.

As with reconstruction after a water loss, there is a final walkthrough with the owner to sign off and approve all work that has been done.

Vehicle Damage

Most of the time, the damage done from the vehicles are minor but there are the other times when the damages are severe.  Often during the severe cases, there is issues with the structural integrity of the building and requires emergency shoring and board up until the building officials from the local city municipality can inspect the property.  The reconstruction process after the initial emergency services has similar considerations as repairing fire damages, such as pulling the permit, meeting with the building inspectors and planning out the entire construction project from initially removing the unwanted vehicle to getting the completed permit signed off by the building inspector.  For more details, please see our construction Vehicle Damages page.