We have looked at buildings from some of the biggest buildings in the world built for rocket assembly to micro-houses that four strong men could lift. From the solo voice crying in the wilderness to a billion dollar plus portfolio of 289 apartment communities in 17 states. But the process is always the same: keep looking until the building starts to tell you its story. When I started engineering at GE Aircraft Engine Group, a seasoned German engineer, Gerhardt Neumann, used to say: “The engine speaks, learn to listen.”
Each building is unique, but their are family histories and regional syndromes. Homes on the coasts are bombarded with saturated moist air that will produce mold enclaves within months of turning on the air conditioning. Frost heaves in cold climates are not limited to roads, I saw a basketball court at Dartmouth that combined BBall with high hurdles with the wood floor buckled up 18″.
We usually get a call to look at a building when there is something wrong, strange, or being sold. However, there are those of us who go to the doctor when there is nothing wrong in order to identify problems before they are life-threatening. The wiser among you may wish to do it for your buildings as well. Give us a call, all you may get is an interesting story and a clean bill of health, but you also may avoid some catastrophic future headache. We enjoy looking and listening to buildings, from humble to huge….