cracks from earthquake

[John Dirks Jr]

Since the quake along the east coast I've gotten 3 calls of people inquiring about my services in relation to inspecting foundation cracks.

I spend a few minutes on the phone with each of them. In all cases the descriptions they gave would probably prompt me to recommend a P.E. Things like rotational movement with the cracks wider at the top, a corresponding crack in about the same location on the other side of the house as well, sloped lots in the direction of the rotational movement.

In each case I told them it would likely be a waste of money to have me come out and recommend a P.E. and they should start with a P.E. and go from there.

Have any of you east coast inspectors received calls about cracks from earthquake and how did you handle them?

[Nick Ostrowski]

I got one call very similar to what you described John. And the funny thing is that I was in a car with our son and had no idea we had an earthquake. When we got home, I checked my messages and I had a voicemail from somebody who works for a lawfirm with 200+ employees. He said in light of the earthquake we just had (huh?????), they were wondering if I could check their office building for cracks or damage related to the quake. Having absolutely no experience with earthquakes or any damage related to them, I declined to even consider it. I called the person back and told them that type of evaluation is out of my realm of expertise.