Ask the Architect

'It's just like all the others'

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Q. After Sandy we had to repair the walls along both sides of our driveway, which slopes down to our basement-level garage. The man who came told us to replace it, since he couldn’t stop it from leaning inward or bowing. It was all concrete blocks and was a mess to remove, but he replaced it for a lot of money, over $10,000. In the last two years we’ve noticed that the new wall is leaning in, again, which obviously isn’t supposed to happen, but the man looked at it and pointed to all the other walls on our neighbors’ driveways that aren’t quite straight and said it was normal and would stop, just like all the others. Is that right? Should we make him do it again?

A. When I got to be a parent, I remember my kids doing something I didn’t think was right, and they’d say, “But all the other kids are doing it!” The usual answer to them was, “If they walked off a cliff, would you follow them?” Just because somebody else does something the wrong way, do you follow his example, or did you expect the guy to roll up his sleeves and say, “I’ll get right on it,” and replace that wall correctly without further discussion?

What happened was you let a layman make a structural design decision, based on having a lot of tools, a truck and some experience, whether that experience was valuable or spent doing things wrong often enough. Everything in nature moves. Your house moves up and down every day. Your yard pushes against those walls at a predictable and constant rate that can be calculated. The key isn’t just knowing that general fact, but the specific solution must be calculated based on the type of ground material, adjacent factors, such as the house movement and how to connect, how far back into the ground tie rods are installed, what the tie rods should be made of to last a long time, how much steel reinforcing must be placed in the concrete, what diameter the rods must be, and what the spacing should be.

Most of the time people just guess, and they seem pretty defensive when someone with the background to challenge their decisions steps in to tell them what should have been done. I guess that was why the smart kids got picked on the most in school. Having the answers isn’t the important thing; having the correct answers is. Confidence can’t replace doubt, because people who understand how to fail can avoid failure, while people who boldly move forward on a whim are depending on luck. I wouldn’t depend on “Mr. Lucky” the next time around unless he agrees to remove the wall and follow a planned design by a structural professional. Otherwise you’ll have to do it again and again. Good luck!

© 2015 Monte Leeper. Readers are encouraged to send questions to yourhousedr@aol.com, with “Herald question” in the subject line, or to Herald Homes, 2 Endo Blvd., Garden City, NY 11530, Attn: Monte Leeper, architect.