Weird Weather and Building Failures
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Last spring and summer, the wettest weather ever recorded in Maine
led to a rash of paint failures here on the coast, and at least one
costly siding failure (on my own house, dang it). Washington, D.C., is
still digging out from an unprecedented wave of snowstorms. Of the
three members of my immediate family who live down there, two had water
intrusion through their roofs, and another lost gutters and had a chunk
of ice plunge through a skylight. So in the past 12 months, all four of
us have experienced damage directly attributable to weird weather. And
the phenomenon seems to be widespread, with changing rainfall patterns,
in particular, wreaking havoc on foundations.
After a particularly dry summer followed by deluges in the fall, Psonya
Wilson, a lawyer in Brandon, Miss., noticed light streaming in where
the wall had separated from the baseboard in the bedroom of her
5-year-old son. “I could stick my finger through it,” she said. “I
couldn’t believe it. The whole back part of the house had sunk about
six inches.” To stop further collapse, not to mention to control the
draft, she is having several stabilization piers installed to shore up
the foundation of her two-story garden style house; it will cost more
than $5,000.
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association indicates
that since the 1990s there has been an accelerating trend nationwide
toward more extended dry periods followed by downpours. Whether due to
random climate patterns or global warming, the swings between hot and
dry weather and severe rain or snow have profoundly affected soil
underneath buildings.
Are
you seeing an increase in property damage and building failures due to
extreme or unusual weather? If so, do you view them as a business
opportunity, a headache, or a little of both? --Bruce D. Snider
