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| We have an early 80s passive solar house, with slanted greenhouse/sunroom windows along one side that always have broken seals. Finally learned that the foundation doesn't extend to that part of the house, so it's constantly flexing in relation to the house itself.
What specialist would we hire to design a solution, assuming we tear down the greenhouse and want to have a foundation under whatever we build there? Is an architect the right person, or some sort of construction engineer? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| If you have a competent architect design it, he should either know what to do about the foundation, or will consult an engineer if there is something uniquely complex about it. Alternatively, you could go with a design-build company that may have architect/engineer/construction services in one office. |
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| Structural engineer. |
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| House foundations rarely require an actual structural engineer, they are just not that complicated. Footers need to extend below frost depth, and be large enough to bear the weight of the structure. A geotechnical engineer can assess bearing capacity of soils. On a smaller job you might just design for the lowest bearing soil and be done with the job (the footers would then be oversize for any other soil, but it may actually be cheaper than paying for a geotechnical evaluation). |
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