Thread: Bowed interior wall on a A-Frame House

Inspected an A-frame house today (built in 1989) and noticed the kitchen wall wasn't plumb. Along the kitchen counter they had put a filler (1") behind it and the wall. The level showed me that wall was 1'' out of plumb. The wall was plywood so I couldn't any cracks. I think the weight from the roof rafters have bowed or pushed the rafters outward ?

You are assuming that the wall was plumb when it was built.......Maybe not((((probably not))))

Originally Posted by Garry Sorrells

You are assuming that the wall was plumb when it was built.......Maybe not((((probably not))))

Out of plumb by an 1" WHO does something like that ??

Looks like the rafters spread to me. Is it the whole wall or just a section? I don't have mutch exspeariance yet, but I have seen something similar in an A frame house. Just my 2 cents

Originally Posted by Sam Morris

Out of plumb by an 1" WHO does something like that ??

Some A-frame houses were built from kits and/or mail order plans. Owner/builders who don't know about plumb bobs.

Certainly worth reporting. Deferring? Possibly.

Did you check for plumb in the corners and in the center of the wall? If the walls are plumb (or closer to plumb) at the corners of the house and an inch out in the middle, would be a better indication of movement.

I would suspect rafter spread, but would also want to know the status of the basement foundation wall. Is the foundation as viewed in the basement bowed inward if so cancel the rafter spread theory and go with foundation failure.

Originally Posted by Sam Morris

Inspected an A-frame house today (built in 1989) and noticed the kitchen wall wasn't plumb. Along the kitchen counter they had put a filler (1") behind it and the wall. The level showed me that wall was 1'' out of plumb. The wall was plywood so I couldn't any cracks. I think the weight from the roof rafters have bowed or pushed the rafters outward ?

Chris gave a good answer. It is likely that the walls would be bowed out if there is not a structural ridge beam since there are not ties at the wall plate level. Checking for plumb at corners and sighting down the exterior walls at the the top of the wall or fascia gives a good indication if the wall bowed out.

You created two nearly-identical discussions on the same subject, same house, this one four-and-a-half hours after the "original" one. Both topic discussions on the same subject got participation in a rather confused way.

This is a link to the "ORIGINAL" topic you created:

http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_i...ame-house.html

Its rather confusing, exasperating, and short-changes the participants & readers when one creates two or more discussions on the same subject matter and same subject home) and plunks them in different places at different times, such as in this exmple where you threw one in the "interior" section and one in the "structure" section.

In the future, pick an area, post the original question in one area and stick with the one discussion topic. If you feel it was posted in the wrong subject area JUST send the host/administrator/moderator an email or private message and ask him to move the entire discussion thread to the more appropriate section of the forum (PLEASE)! Then it (the entire discussion) will all "stay together" and all can follow along (even long-future readers). It really works out best that way and doesn't waste band-width or skew the site stats either.

Thank you in advance, Sam Morris.

P.S. you might want to consider renaming your photo files from inspections before uploading them to the forum. This is 117 ..... Dr. isn't it? circa 1988/89?

Is the wall on the opposite side of the house also bowed out? Is the ridge sagging? I would agree that the roof is probably not adequately supported and the rafters are pushing the walls out.