More than twenty years. No drawings. One honest answer.
How we carried out an Assessment and Structural Evaluation of a twenty-year-old residential building with no original drawings, through a floor-by-floor Building Condition Survey and a full testing programme.
Project stakeholders
The difficulty
Twenty years had passed without structural drawings, and there were no clear plans. So we built our own advanced as-built model of the building using building information modelling, and with advanced laboratory tests we reached the steel inside the columns and beams. We documented every defect we found: concrete spalling, damage at the base of columns and walls, and deteriorated plaster.
The building was not designed to a seismic code, so looking at what we could see was never enough. We first had to know the real strength of the concrete, then define the scope of the analysis that re-evaluates the building, with reference to ASCE/SEI 41.
We found floor finish layers 12 to 15 cm thick in every area, which raised the dead load above the original design. With the soil settling under some columns, this became a real challenge: more weight over ground that is moving.
We ran rebound hammer and core tests for concrete compressive strength, plus tests for chloride attack, sulfate attack, carbonation and half-cell potential. The results split in two: chemical durability was sound, but concrete strength was reduced in the lower floors, which carry the most load. We defined the scope of the full structural analysis for the next phase under QCS 2024 and ACI 318-19, and the second phase is still in progress.
Our edge
We draw what was never drawn.
We build an advanced as-built model that reaches the steel inside columns and beams.
We test, we do not guess.
Every conclusion rests on a measured result.
We count the real load.
We assess what the building actually carries, not what it was once drawn for.
Honest results, good or bad.
You get the full picture, not a comfortable one.
A clear next step.
The report ends with the exact scope of what comes next.
From our work
We arrived at a residential building of six storeys, more than twenty years old, with no drawings and no clear plans, and it had never been designed for earthquake loads. The first question was a heavy one: what is this structure made of, and can we trust it? We did not guess. We built an advanced as-built model of the building ourselves using building information modelling, and used advanced laboratory tests to learn the steel inside the columns and beams. We walked it floor by floor and recorded what the eye could see: concrete breaking away, damage at the base of columns and walls, and deteriorated plaster. Then we found what drawings never say: floor finish layers 12 to 15 cm thick in every area, raising the dead load above the original design, over ground that settles beneath some columns. The question became: how much does this building really carry? So we tested it, and the rebound hammer, core, chloride, sulphate, carbonation and half-cell results gave two answers pulling in opposite directions: the chemistry of the concrete was sound, but its strength in the lower floors was reduced. We reported both plainly and defined the full structural analysis needed in the next phase, so the owner knows what comes next and why, and the second phase is still in progress. We are proud that our team carried out the drawings, the survey, the review of the tests and the Phase I report itself. This achievement reflects the ability of Struct International Limited for Engineering Consultancy to read an ageing building precisely and turn a lack of drawings into a clear, accountable first answer.
— Eng. Mohamed Salah · C.E.O | Structural Engineer (A) · UPDA 25935
Send us your photos and any test reports, and we will tell you the next step.
