Is this house falling into the ocean?

[EddieWalker]

I guess that's my thinking as well... they've got a lease renewal coming up so I guess they can push it one more year. If the pipes are running through the slab (most from the 80s are, around here) then it's only a matter of time for a slab leak and those aren't much fun to deal with.

I'm surprised that they are on a slab foundation, and it's not pier and beam.

 

[Egon]

Given the location and geological activity relocation might be the best option.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

More movement then most houses, but it doesn't look like panic time yet. Probably never.

The 80's where probably the worse decade for homes. Carter created the EPA and they forced everybody to start all over in how the manufactured stuff. It wasn't until some time in the 90's that they started producing decent houses and cars again.

The cracks all look like areas that should have been built better, and would be if the house was built today. Code, especially there, has dramatically changed, and any house built in the 80's wouldn't come close to passing Code today.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but maybe you're thinking of another agency. To my knowledge, EPA, especially in the early days, concentrated on air, water emission and disposal of hazardous waste. It had a huge impact on the way automobiles were constructed, and how new sources of air and water emissions were constructed, but can't think of how EPA affected the construction industry, except indirectly.

 

[Botaskinner]

Muhammad,
I'm curious if the property setback has always been 25 feet from the edge of the edge of the embankment. Was it a longer distance in previous years? is the embankment a direct drop to the beach?

Pacific storms can erode some serious distances in just one year. Just do some research on the town of Pacifica, just south of San Francisco.

Entire apartment buildings had to be abandoned and demolished in one season and there is an RV park there that has had some serious erosion leading to a loss in available spaces.

We saw it coming many years before. The ocean always has its way.

I too would suggest a relocation plan, and be thankful your parents never bought the place.

 

[Diggin It]

Even OSHA only focused on worker and workplace safety.

Maybe HUD?

 

[WM75Guy]

It is moving, my recommendation would be to move now. Twenty five feet is not that far. Mother nature can be brutal. Here is what happened in the subdivision where we own property. The cliff rapidly gave way and undermined the house. To minimize debris going into the lake the decision was made to burn it up, as it was too unstable and dangerous to tear down. If you look closely at the end of the video you can see a large crack in the ground where a large part of the cliff going over to the point was getting ready to fall. It has since fallen, putting the house that was next door to the house that burned much closer to the cliff edge.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but maybe you're thinking of another agency. To my knowledge, EPA, especially in the early days, concentrated on air, water emission and disposal of hazardous waste. It had a huge impact on the way automobiles were constructed, and how new sources of air and water emissions were constructed, but can't think of how EPA affected the construction industry, except indirectly.

Lead paint and anything with asbestos were banned in the 70's. Creosote. Formaldehyde. Then arsenic in pressure treated wood and more recently it's become hard to buy oil-based paint.

For each of these products the first generation replacement was inferior and often downright unsuitable. So you had an epidemic of things rotting, peeling, delaminating, rusting and generally failing as these replacements were rolled out and rolled back.

 

[dodge man]

Through my work I have surveyed a group of duplexes that had slid down a hill, they had some pretty severe structural damage. In this case rains and a layer of soil deeper down allowed the movement. The movement was just a small amount but enough to ruin the units or they needed major remediation. It could happen again also.

My daughter is a recent civil engineering grad and is working for a geotechnical firm. I know she has worked on at least one project where a house was in danger, in this case Lake Michigan.

There are people that specialize in this type of thing that need to look at it but that is up to the owner. If they have renters insurance to cover their losses I would probably keep renting.

 

[Muhammad]

Through my work I have surveyed a group of duplexes that had slid down a hill, they had some pretty severe structural damage. In this case rains and a layer of soil deeper down allowed the movement. The movement was just a small amount but enough to ruin the units or they needed major remediation. It could happen again also.

My daughter is a recent civil engineering grad and is working for a geotechnical firm. I know she has worked on at least one project where a house was in danger, in this case Lake Michigan.

There are people that specialize in this type of thing that need to look at it but that is up to the owner. If they have renters insurance to cover their losses I would probably keep renting.

Yeah well out here in California there are a lot of "clauses" and "disclaimers" in your policies that give insurance companies the right to not pay when, you know, "natural" stuff happens. As a renter the financial risk is pretty low I think.

Randy, that's a pretty wild video... was not expecting to see the house hanging over the cliff like that!

I got in touch with two structural firms today... both are too busy to even talk for the next two months. That's the way it is right now... everybody is fully booked and can't even get out to look at new work for weeks and weeks.

 

[TractorGuy]

I hear the whole state will fall in eventually.