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'iOl~~-r <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Ms. Ann Tatum <br />DATE: June 30, 1995 <br />PAGE: 2 <br />Foundation Inspection <br />With respect to our observations of the foundations which support the east <br />end of the house, Mr. Pendleton may recall from his own crawl space <br />expedition that the transverse foundation wall which supports the west end <br />of the two story (east) portion of the house was accessible and appeared to be <br />in generally good condition. Furthermore, there were one or two pipe chase <br />openings in this transverse wall through which you could shine aflashlight - <br />but not see much of anything. <br />So that there is no misunderstanding or inadvertent misrepresentation of <br />our observations: we tried but couldn't make a detailed inspection of the <br />eastern foundations. However, we have no reason to believe that they are <br />not in reasonably good condition. <br />Exterior Finishes <br />Mr. Pendleton questions our observation and mmment that exterior cracking <br />was not as widespread and pronounced as the interior cracking which we <br />believe can perhaps be explained by the ability of the exterior reinforced stucw <br />finish to minimize surface cracking. <br />It is not uncommon when we inspect a residential or commercial structure <br />that there is a disparity between degree of distress found on the exterior <br />versus the interior of the building. The difference tan often be attributed to <br />the tendency for some+ finish materials to be more "forgiving" than others. <br />For example, a brick clad structure may quickly manifest some distress from <br />even fairly subtle foundation movements with no appreciable damage noted <br />within. Conversely, a house with wood siding may appear to be in good <br />condirion from the outside and yet exhibit extensive cracking of the interior <br />drywall finishes. <br />In this particular instance, we made the general observation that the more <br />pronounced evidence of structural movement Is apparent from within the <br />house. Upon reflection, this observation made sense to us, due to t'~e <br />presence of an exterior finish that contains wire mesh which tends to restrain <br />the growth of cracks (which is why we usually put it in stucco and why we <br />typically reinforce modern concrete structures), <br />