accident in California

caz said:
annie I will stick with me could have done..i could say it unlikely to happen to young americans because they know the shoddy buildings and lack of regulations and not stood there but I wont say that because sounds rather like I pointing a finger at the people who run the place I most definatly not going do that....This earth quake zone I would thought do similar to japan minimise the maximise the safety for think that right way round
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Sorry, Caz, whatever happened to just don't put a dozen or more people on a very small balcony, hellooooo? We'll have to disagree on this one. :lol:
 
caz said:
annie I will stick with me could have done..i could say it unlikely to happen to young americans because they know the shoddy buildings and lack of regulations and not stood there but I wont say that because sounds rather like I pointing a finger at the people who run the place I most definatly not going do that....This earth quake zone I would thought do similar to japan minimise the maximise the safety for think that right way round
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Yeah we had new decks builds at my condo and one of my neighbor that was 90 yo lived on the second floor. Her son came to see her and they went onto the deck to talk and the son went to lean on a the railing and it was not nailed onto the post ! Thank goodness his mom did not lean on it she would had fallen to right onto the walkway. Talk about shoddy work! The guy that did the work it know for being real SOB . I still feel there should some kind building regulation that say you have to post how weight a balcony can support. This would give some protects to landlords or hotels as I see this as a liability .
 
Lots of American buildings are not brick built as I understand from something I read on here sure I read that in last few days...my brothers house not built like mine it lot of plaster bord my built all bricks... I not sure that would pass safety test here fire hazards etc but I not clued up on that...Irish been going there for years not sure why I suppose it Irish area
 
whatdidyousay! said:
It looks like there is an opening in front , I see no railings . I counted the fifth floor too. I just don't like the way the balcony is attach to the building , I would not want to go out on it. Yeah this a very tragic, the kids came here to work for the summer and now their parents have to plan their funerals . :(
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Yes, the front railing as well as the cement floor of the fifth story balcony are gone. Obviously when it collapsed, people lost balance and fell off the collapsed balcony. It reminds me of the soccer (?) stadium where people fell off one of those structures in another country.

In the back of my mind, it wouldn't happen at luxury condos with balconies where there are frequently high class parties even higher than 50th story (especially in NYC).
 
CrazyPaul said:
Yes, the front railing as well as the cement floor of the fifth story balcony are gone. Obviously when it collapsed, people lost balance and fell off the collapsed balcony. It reminds me of the soccer (?) stadium where people fell off one of those structures in another country.

In the back of my mind, it wouldn't happen at luxury condos with balconies where there are frequently high class parties even higher than 50th story (especially in NYC).
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No , that is NOT what I was talking about !There looks there was no railing in the front before the accident happen . There are 2 photos a before and after . Look the before photo , can you see any railing in the front of the balcony ? I am wondering if kids were sitting on the edge of the balcony with their legs hangs off it . That is a small balcony and there were 13 kids on it , some kids may had been sitting on the edge to made room for more people . This would too weight on the weak spot of the balcony .
 
whatdidyousay! said:
No , that is NOT what I was talking about !There looks there was no railing in the front before the accident happen . There are 2 photos a before and after . Look the before photo , can you see any railing in the front of the balcony ? I am wondering if kids were sitting on the edge of the balcony with their legs hangs off it . That is a small balcony and there were 13 kids on it , some kids may had been sitting on the edge to made room for more people . This would too weight on the weak spot of the balcony .
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I think that is a plexi-glass or glass panel on the front of the balcony. I admit it does look like there is nothing there.
 
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The front railing isn't gone. I saw a photo of it as it was carried off. It sheared off at a 90 degree angle, so the front of it is actually hanging in the lower balcony. The railings are intact.

I read that the builder or someone connected said that the balconies were not meant to be used. Then they said it was only meant for someone to come out and look around and go back in. Both of those statements are hogwash. It was built to 60 pounds per square foot standards, though the new standards are 100 pounds per square feet. With the dry rot I wouldn't be surprised. The engineers were checking it out and they just had to poke it and wood would crumble and fall.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I posted a link too a few minutes before you. This has happen too many times , a balcony falling b/c there were too many people on it. There should some kind of warning posted on the deck saying how weight the balcony can support.
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A leading structural engineer said on the SF news stations it was a clear cut case of wood dry rot due to poor flashing and the number of kids on the balcony were under the weight limit. Basically it was an accident waiting to happen. All the other balcony's on the building were red tagged by 3am the morning of the accident.
 
Annie09Z said:
Sorry, Caz, whatever happened to just don't put a dozen or more people on a very small balcony, hellooooo? We'll have to disagree on this one. :lol:
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yep annie we agree to disagree but it seems I was right
 
Eater of Worlds said:
The front railing isn't gone. I saw a photo of it as it was carried off. It sheared off at a 90 degree angle, so the front of it is actually hanging in the lower balcony. The railings are intact.

I read that the builder or someone connected said that the balconies were not meant to be used. Then they said it was only meant for someone to come out and look around and go back in. Both of those statements are hogwash. It was built to 60 pounds per square foot standards, though the new standards are 100 pounds per square feet. With the dry rot I wouldn't be surprised. The engineers were checking it out and they just had to poke it and wood would crumble and fall.
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You don't even know what I am talking about . Annie know what I mean . If this is the case then there should had bee a sign posted saying only one person can use
the balcony at a time. Whoever said this just open their self to a huge lawsuit , they just admitted they neglect to post some kind of warning .
 
This is going to cost the developer- TransAction Co. the the general contractor- Segue Construction of Pleasanton, CA and everyone who had anything to do with the construction of the balcony's on the Library Gardens Apartments millions upon millions of dollars before everything is said and done. Berkeleys inspectors are immune from prosecution even though they inspected the building as it was being built.
 
seb said:
This is going to cost the developer- TransAction Co. the the general contractor- Segue Construction of Pleasanton, CA and everyone who had anything to do with the construction of the balcony's on the Library Gardens Apartments millions upon millions of dollars before everything is said and done. Berkeleys inspectors are immune from prosecution even though they inspected the building as it was being built.
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http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/06...r-quality-of-construction-of-library-gardens/


You're right ! they're immune from being prosecution. I wonder if they can fired if this keep happen on their watch?
 
seb said:
A leading structural engineer said on the SF news stations it was a clear cut case of wood dry rot due to poor flashing and the number of kids on the balcony were under the weight limit. Basically it was an accident waiting to happen. All the other balcony's on the building were red tagged by 3am the morning of the accident.
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My husband is a civil engineer in the state of CA. This exactly what he thought happened by looking at the pictures. Really sad and horrible for the parents of those sweet kids who were just spreading their wings. RIP
 
Angel1989 said:
My husband is a civil engineer in the state of CA. This exactly what he thought happened by looking at the pictures. Really sad and horrible for the parents of those sweet kids who were just spreading their wings. RIP
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I am not even a civil engineer and I could tell the balconies were badly designed for that kind of building. I can't believe the building inspector didn't do something when the building was being build . I only think that they got paid to look the other way.
 
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There's no plexiglass on these balconies. You can see that the big spaces have wire.
 
Eater of Worlds said:
WireAP_a0551d9ddcbd42ae9ae5eeacc2b417ff_16x9_992.jpg


There's no plexiglass on these balconies. You can see that the big spaces have wire.
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Now you can see the wire , it was hard to see before. I wonder want going to be done with the doors leading to the balconies . I hope they're blocked off inside b/c a child would have no idea what the red post is for.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I am not even a civil engineer and I could tell the balconies were badly designed for that kind of building. I can't believe the building inspector didn't do something when the building was being build . I only think that they got paid to look the other way.
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It wasn't that they were a bad design, it was that they weren't flashed correctly to protect the wood support members from getting wet. If the wood continuously gets and stays wet it will decay and eventually turn into a powder. The achilles heal of any construction project is bad flashing: if it is poorly done the building will begin to rot away pretty quickly and this building is a prime example with the balcony failing in only 9 years!
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Now you can see the wire , it was hard to see before. I wonder want going to be done with the doors leading to the balconies . I hope they're blocked off inside b/c a child would have no idea what the red post is for.
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I'm sure they have already been covered with plywood.
 
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