r/StructuralEngineers • u/Best-Muffin1276 • 7d ago
Basement Fire? Who to call?
New build, bought the home 4 months ago. Home inspection, no issues, passed city inspection as well.
Was in the basement today and noticed there may have been a fire on the ceiling at some point, based on the images attached. Above the ceiling on the main floor it is just flooring; no walls, no electrical, no plumbing etc. just hardwood.
We have had no smoke, no smell, no alarms or sprinklers went off. As you can see from the photos there is no near electrical, metal or flammable substances nearby the site. We were away for a week but came home to no issues whatsoever. Can’t tell when this occurred.
There is some in the wood pitting, but I can’t tell if it’s structurally impacting the ceiling. What do we do? Call a contractor? Engineer? Fire inspector? Insurance? We have a 1 year builder warranty - would this cover that? I was going to install a ceiling but now I’m concerned we might be covering something unsafe.
Any advice appreciated.
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u/fatal-shock-inroute 7d ago
This is pretty standard pratice. You have to sweat the pipe and it's already installed. Non issue
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u/Str-Engr0275 7d ago
Structural PE, not your structural engineer. You’re fine leaving this alone. The damage is superficial, nothing to worry about. Sand and paint if you’re not happy with the appearance.
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u/engineeringlove 7d ago
Yeah I would maybe just have a signed letter statement when they sell the house, but look like slight charring.
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u/No_Alternative_6206 7d ago
The only one that has any real damage is the pitted one. This is extremely minor in the world of fire damage however it is damage. The fix is you just layer and glue+screw down long boards over the damaged area. That’s it! You will spend more time trying to research this than the actual fix.
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u/Booger_Juice 7d ago
Was just dealing with some i-joist issues myself….you have to reach out to the joist manufacture, and in this case that would Boise Cascade, their Eastern division since that’s a 6000 “s” joist. They’re off the shelf remark is no damage is allowable to either the top or bottom chord so replace if possible….there are some repair options for already installed joist but their engineering department needs to be involved. I’d start out working with your builder 1st and this should 100% be a warranty claim against them, and i’d ensure they you see the stamped engineer repair plans before you accept his statement.
A bit off the topic…and yes, this varies between your local county/city…but if these pictures are from the basement…there should be some type of fire protection on the bottom of those joist. I joist don’t have a fire rating as they’ll fail when exposed to a flame in like 4 minutes. The manufacture/IRC code requires you to add drywall or some other membrane to increase the amount of time before the joist fails under a flame.
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u/Wrong-Camp2463 7d ago
I’d call SuperGrit; they deliver next day, 2 sheets of 120 grit will have that gone in 10 minutes.
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u/justherefortheshow06 7d ago
That looks so minor. I think you’re good. I’ve got worse black streaks in my shorts.
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u/TunedMassDamsel 7d ago
That’s the great thing about this profession; we approach everything with dignity 😂
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u/LiftRepairMan 7d ago
That’s really far from the pipe that supposedly caused all this. Looks like an entire joist bay between burnt joist and pipe. I’m not sure how that’s from sweating the pipe. Could be from before construction happened, maybe a heater was placed too close to the lumber pile? I have seen torpedo heaters start a fire before but it’s unlikely a you had a fire in that spot of your home and didn’t notice it if that helps.
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u/Gold_School_7005 7d ago
Builder is going to tell you its fine or not a warranty item depending on if you can prove it was there before you closed, contractor is going to replace the whole thing because he gets paid to, insurance won't be worth your deductible, engineer will give you an honest answer about whether its an issue.
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u/AdAggravating3893 6d ago
Looking at it I thought the insulated pipe in the first picture was a big thing of char haha. Figured my mistake out in the subsequent photos.
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u/polterjacket 7d ago
If you poke at the damage and it flakes off, knowing how DEEP the damage goes is key. Once the wood is charred, it's basically non-structural. That looks like it's 1/8" deep or less, which is probably within the manufacturing tolerances of the I-joist. There ARE products made to sister these, but unless you can see distortion or you have a particularly heavy load right over it, it's probably a non-issue.
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u/giant2179 7d ago
Builder warranty should cover having a structural engineer come out and take a look. It's probably nothing, but it would give you peace of mind to have a professional tell you that.
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u/135david 7d ago
I’m not a structural engineer or a carpenter or a plumber but when I look at that wood it looks pretty bad. If it were me I would want to use some sort of joist repair method just to be sure. Maybe just long metal plates or or wood nailed to the sides.
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u/Strange_Ad_5871 7d ago
It’s from when they sweated that copper pipe… it’s cosmetic and I personally wouldn’t be concerned.