Concrete Slab Addition with no footing

[J-Man]

I'm trying to find out if an addition done to my house prior to my purchase (in 2001) is up to standard. In the 1990s they added an additional room to the house by pouring a 19x11 foot concrete slab 12 inches thick. But what was brought to my attention this week (during a buyers inspection) was:
(a) it has no footing and
(b) it has no water lip.

My question is when building an addition using a concrete slab is (a) or (b) required, or just a nice to have? Does the thickness of 12" make a difference?

Addition type: Bedroom
19x11 ft
12 inches thick (entirely above ground)
4-5 inches of gravel base
Black plastic sheeting between gravel and slab
-No permit

- So addition on my house is just the 12" slab
House is located in the city of Delta, B.C.

[bcb_admin]

I'm not qualified to give you a professional answer, but here is some info...

1. All drawings and details that I have in my database show footings

2. The current BC Building Code requires footings, as per below:

4.2.4.4. Depth of Foundations
1) Except as permitted in Sentence (2), the bearing surface of a foundation shall be below the level of potential damage, including damage resulting from frost action, and the foundation shall be designed to prevent damage resulting from adfreezing and frost jacking. (See Appendix A.)

2) The bearing surface of a foundation need not be below the level of potential damage from frost where the foundation
a)is designed against frost action, or
b)overlies material not susceptible to frost action.

3. The building department in Delta should be able to tell you if it these are needed based on their requirements/interpretations of the code, if you were to ask them how you would have to build such a slab....if you were planning an addition!

4. A knowledgeable BC industry resource on footings & slabs is Richard Fearn at FabForm (they manufacture footing systems) at
FAB-FORM INDUSTRIES LTD.
Unit 212, 6333 148th Street
Surrey, BC, V3S 3C3
PHONE (604) 596-3278
info@fab-form.com

Hope these help you out. If not let me know and I'll see if I can come up with some other resources.

[J-Man]

Yep that's great thanks. I'll give Delta Muni a call tomorrow.

[J-Man]

Well I had another look and removed some gravel it appears the inspector the potential buyers had was wrong. It does have a footer. If you look at my picture its exactly like I drew it. But the dirt line is at the base of the footer. It goes in 8 inches then up into gravel. But it doesn't have the water lip.

My issue is the buyers finally decided to pull out based on this inspection, because the inspector told them the addition has no footer and would cost $25k to fix. Where I agree to jack the slab and dig out and add a footer would cost probably that much. My issue is the addition clearly has a footer. And his inspection cost me the sale of my house.

[bcb_admin]

Congratulations on checking into this the way you did.

In my opinion you have a right to have your issue with the inspector. It may not be of interest to you, but I always suggest going back to the source (with intent to improve future performance, rather than seek recourse/compensation), and in this case that would be the inspector and possibly his trade association, if he belongs to one. With any luck, the inspector would accept his oversight and change his inspection procedures.

If you could get the name of the inspector, and his trade association if applicable, you could forward your comments to him and the association. There are 2 trade associations for home inspectors in BC...

CAHPI BC: Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors BC
http://www.cahpi.bc.ca/#

BCIPI: BC Institute of Property Inspectors
http://bcipi.asttbc.org/

Regardless of your choice for next actions, you deserve accolades for searching out the facts.

[J-Man]

Thanks for the info, more tidbits.

Yea the more I talked with my realestate agent and get a bigger picture of what happened. The inspector showed up, spent 30 minutes at the house. Never went inside, found/made up this so called Fault with the buyer standing over his shoulder then they left.

Apparently he said something like,

there are some cracks in the foundation and this backend has no footing. Is that enough can I stop?

The buyer said yes and they left.

So the buyer hired an inspector to just kill the deal because my assumption is they made an offer on another place at the same time as mine. And were using the SUBJECT TO clause to find any little thing during the inspection. Next time I'm going to amend that SUBJECT TO and add, "subject to an inspection finding any serious structural flaws or defects that would make the house unsafe or unliveable."

[bcb_admin]

I like your idea of an amended Subject To clause.