OT: Building collapse in Iowa, causes?

[EPAIII]

I lived in a small town in Iowa for 16 years. If you were counting the building inspectors in the town/county where I lived on your fingers, you could leave your hands in your pockets. As far as I could tell, you were free to build as you pleased. And everyone did.

The company that I worked for had a contractor remove a steel column and two roof support beams, replacing them with a single, longer beam to get a larger, unobstructed space. No permits! No inspections! I held my breath.

I am sure Davenport had some inspectors, but I do wonder how many.


And remember, it's Iowa First!

 

[standardparts]

I lived in a small town in Iowa for 16 years. If you were counting the building inspectors in the town/county where I lived on your fingers, you could leave your hands in your pockets. As far as I could tell, you were free to build as you pleased. And everyone did.

The company that I worked for had a contractor remove a steel column and two roof support beams, replacing them with a single, longer beam to get a larger, unobstructed space. No permits! No inspections! I held my breath.

I am sure Davenport had some inspectors, but I do wonder how many.


And remember, it's Iowa First!

Judging by info in a vid, permits were being pulled and inspectors were active and either passing or failing work done including masonry work.
Looks like quite the paper trail.
No doubt it will all be looked at and critiqued in depth by lawyers, the city, and insurers.

 

[DrHook]

ABC News on the radio this morning said the building was scheduled for demo awhile back, but families living there begged to be allowed to stay "longer"... I didn't catch all the details because I wasn't paying close attention, and knew nothing about the collapse until I heard it this morning.

 

[Modelman]

I will be eagerly looking for engineering reports on this. Looking at the many, many photographs of the collapse, it's not clear if there was anything actually supporting the front facade of the building beyond a four-story stack of red bricks and mortar. If there was an iron or steel reinforcing frame on the front, it's not obvious looking at the pile of rubble.

That's true of most "brick" buildings built before the "skyscraper" era. Originally the brick walls were supposed to support the entire weight of the building, and transfer all the loads to the ground. This, of course, limited the width of buildings to what the floor beams could span, until builders could work out methods to support the wider floors with a forest of columns. Originally these, and the floor beams they supported, were wood, which led to problems as wood expands and shrinks with the seasons, so the middle of the building would get taller and shorter but not the perimeter walls. This led to exploring other materials, such as steel or concrete, for the inner structure. This is the point on the time-line when this building was built. Masonry buildings tended to be limited to five or six stories, in part because the perimeter walls had to get thicker as they got taller. Still to come were all the developments of the twentieth century where the inner structure was expanded to support the perimeter walls, called "curtain wall" construction because the exterior walls "hang" on the structure like curtains.

Dennis

 

[DouglasJRizzo]

Back in 2014 the metal pre-fab building I was renting collapsed due to heavy snow/ice accumulations on the roof. After the collapse, the landlord was in a BIG hurry to clean up and rebuild. The town slowed him down and, well..well....well.....turns out the building was improperly constructed. Oops.

 

[jim rozen]

"..but I recall someone explaining to me how back in the day you bought two different kinds of bricks..."

Close inspection of the photos shows just such a double-layer of bricks. Some of the exterior bricks fell off, revealing the inner layer.

 

[SIP6A]

I wonder how long the builders thought it would last when they built it?

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

From the pics I've seen, it looks like some structural element in the lower part of the building failed.
" Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water.
Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better"
Tao Te Ching

 

[boslab]

I used to read through these failures, looks like a lot like one they overloaded the top slab with water and air con plant for air conditioning, that failed by buckling dropped on the next slab and started a pancake collapse, we used to get samples of busted bolts and plates in work to do XRF and OES to see if the steel was the right one
The engineers ( structural ones) used to panic in case our steel was in there more than normal
Mark

 

[Modelman]

From the pics I've seen, it looks like some structural element in the lower part of the building failed.
" Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water.
Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better"
Tao Te Ching

There are some reports of a gas leak, although they don't say specifically where. If there was a natural gas explosion in one of the lower apartments, that could have buckled the bottom of the brick wall outward. As People's Gas Co. in Chicago used to advertise when I was a kid, "Gas does the big jobs better, for less!"

Dennis

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

There are some reports of a gas leak, although they don't say specifically where. If there was a natural gas explosion in one of the lower apartments, that could have buckled the bottom of the brick wall outward. As People's Gas Co. in Chicago used to advertise when I was a kid, "Gas does the big jobs better, for less!"

Dennis

Had not heard mention of that, would explain the damage.

 

[standardparts]

New report regarding the Davenport building collapse.
Based on this news(?) report I'd say a bunch of people better lawyer up.
And yeah...the guy took pics, and oops...allegations the cities website regarding inspection status was altered..allegedly.

Contractor’s dire warning days before Davenport disaster revealed - live

Building owner Andrew Wold facing fine as cause of collapse remains undetermined

www.independent.co.uk

 

[jim rozen]

Again, the "why buildings fall down" book details a building collapse in england, from small gas explosion. Lady went to make tea one morning, lit the burner and the accumulated gas lit off. The pre-cast concrete side panel for her apartment blew out , and the floors above zippered down. The overpressure was determined to be less than a certain amount as her eardrums were not ruptured.

There was supposed to be grout holding the panels, the space was full of construction debris.

 

[GregSY]

Now a building in CT has collapsed. Lord a Mercy!

 

[tylersteez]

Now a building in CT has collapsed. Lord a Mercy!

Where? I'm in CT and haven't heard anything

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

Saw video of the Iowa building collapse last night, again no mention of a gas explosion, it just slid off. They also interviewed a masonry contractor that bid the repair last year, the building owner rejected his bid and was still looking for someone cheaper.....the contractor said when he was in the basement a year ago he was scared, if that tells you anything. The news outlet showed pics he took a year ago, and some he took hours before the building collapsed, my uneducated non-professional opinion is there was an issue with the walls foundation.

 

[GregSY]

1 person dug out after building collapse in New Haven, "still unknown" if there are others trapped

 

[Modelman]

So... was there somebody working on the masonry? The poor quality video appears to show dumpsters and braces against the wall, you can even see one buckle and spring out as the brick comes down. I can't tell, but there appears to be some shadows, like the brick work on the second floor had already bulged out of line, and the braces were intended to hold it in place.

One has to wonder why the city was so anxious to demolish the rest, to the point that they didn't even do a thorough search for survivors. You'd think, with people still unaccounted for,that it would be prudent to call in some cadaver dogs.

Dennis

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

I do not think there was active repair in progress. The pics the contractor showed in news segment (not in vid above), showed the wall and twisted window sills. Looked to me like a problem in lower portion of walls was letting the brickwork above slump and bulge.

Edit: Another vid with lots of pics of the issues with the brickwork, it has been a long standing issue with city inspectors involved.

Edit again: There was work in progress, the contractor with the rejected bid was there hours before it collapsed warning the workers that they were going to die. Contractor on the permit was listed as "owner".....

 

[standardparts]

Well the head of building inspection for Davenport has reportedly resigned. Something about a status change in an inspection document described as a "glitch".
Lots of pics and previous documents portray a building that was in pretty sorry condition.
Just my opinion, but wonder if building inspection/permitting was sort of 'flexible' depending on who the city was dealing with.
Looks to be low income housing which means those left without housing will feel the pain the worst.