House on pilings

[ndpace]

I am looking at buying a house that is built on pilings at the beach. It is a block from the ocean, built in 1994. Is there any way to have the pilings inspected to make sure they will be good for awhile? The pilings continue into the house, and there are some 0.5inch splits in them. Is that cause for alarm? Thanks for any help

[John A. Weeks III]

You need to have a structural engineer take a look at this. Perhaps you can find the same one that signed off on the original design when it was built. My gut feel is that these kinds of splits are normal, assuming that the timber is treated and is of a healthy size. Most of the modern river front houses that are built on stilts that I have seen use concrete cylinders where the concrete is poured into prefabricated cardboard tubes.

-john-

[Tom Cular]

Without seeing the piling, it sounds like what you're seeing is just normal checking, pretty common in treated timber and piles and harmless. Take a couple minutes and look closely at a few utility poles, you'll see the same condition. Another poster mentioned concrete piers formed with sonotubes, don't compare the two. The sonotubes are not likely to be more than 10' overall with 5' +/- in the ground, ok along a river or lakefront, NOT the beach. The timber piles are typically driven 25-30'. The deep penetration is what might save your house if severe storm erosion occurs. I've seen erosion that left homes a block from the beach looking like a fishing pier after a storm, but they were still there!

Tom

[PeterD]

Just off the top of my head...

1. Salt water actually provides some protection against rot (vs fresh water that promotes rot). Wood boats always last longer when used on salt water for example, and we'd always flush the bildges with salt water if they got 'contaminated' with a lot of fresh water.

1. Splits seem normal to me, but I can't see them...

Personally I'd worry more about storms!