The landlord who cheaper out on contractors and told them to remove the shoring should be given a life sentence for manslaughter. In so many ways this collapse reminds me of the sampoong mall collapse in south Korea, such a great loss of life just to try saving the owner a few dollars.
@Rumpleforeskin I understand that's not a very long time but he was well aware of the structural issues, went against the advice of a certified engineer, had countless warnings and notices by the city, cheaped out everywhere possible especially on contractors. He definitely deserves whatever he has coming to him
@@get_a_job633 He took on the responsibility knowing what condition the building was in. He's responsible for any damage and lives lost for being a cheapskate. The previous owner should also be fined as well for even populating it full of people in the first place while in such abhorred condition.
I went to Palmer College of Chiropractic 2000-2005. Many of my classmates lived there and that place was a death trap then. I am surprised that this didn't happen years ago.
It doesn't take an engineer to see this building is falling apart. These pictures scared the hell out of me. If I had seen that on an inspection tour, I would have run.
@@KayInMaine I don't see how he could have thought a building in this sorry shape was not in imminent danger of falling down. It should have been torn down!
As a brick restoration specialist it makes me happy to hear you say NEVER paint bricks, especially historic bricks from or before the 1950s. Also if my crew walked up to inspect that job we would have left immediately, straight to the city to protest the fact that people were STILL living in that death trap. Vertical separation near the foundation without proper shoring and internal supports would condemn the building. Also its Cement Modular Unit. CMU. Love the video
@@jeffostroff ruclips.net/video/T7Zevflne74/видео.html interview with a contractor who was told his estimate was too high (bc he wanted to do it right) He mentions the same bracing you did that was necessary before beginning any repairs
Holy crap. These close up pics of the building are unbelievably bad. Just insane. It’s criminal that individuals knew just how horrible the condition of the building was and didn’t say anything or evacuate the residents. It was a disaster years in the making. Unreal
@@drivenmad7676 actually it's not THAT bad...yet... That is the direction some people want to see us go in though. They just do so surreptitiously by making it more and more difficult to get things done and done correctly.
@@drivenmad7676 It's a big problem in the northern parts of the country where extremes of weather in the winter take a big toll on structures causing water damage that over a long period of time results in hidden damage that causes similar collapse events in the absence of quick remedial action. There have been several such incidents recently in New York where building facades have collapsed but nothing as bad as this one.
Lipstick on a pig is a great description of so many "repair" projects. The City was very negligent. I wonder why? As a PE for many years, I lost count of the number of times that the client decided that they were a better engineer and removed safety systems. My last 10 years working, I stopped doing private work.Good Video. Good Luck, Rick
@@electrictroy2010 They didn't follow the original plans. Most things are designed with a factor of safety of 3 or 4. When calculating for the size of temporary columns, I designed it with 4 times the maximum expected load. One guy decided that I was ridiculously too expensive and used fewer columns to support an overhead slab pour. It collapsed. It cost him millions for the clean up and project delay. Several men were hurt too. When properly designing a structure safety factors are included in many places that most people wouldn't even think of. I've been retired for 12 years and am very glad to be out of it. 20 years ago we were starting to see substandard foreign steel come in and cause problems. Good Luck, Rick
My last 49 years working with few heavy commercial clients I only accepted industrial work. - Residential and real estate inverter types is a whore's business.
Thanks for the info. As a tenant you simply have no idea how dangerous these problems are. You see cracks and it's not clear if that's cosmetic or structural when you have 0 knowledge about building. And then you see people working on it, you trust that they know what they're doing and it's being repaired. I don't know if they are, but it'd be great if they make inspection reports available to all residence so they have some idea.
Thanks Jeff for pulling all this information together. I am astonished that the building was allowed to be occupied given the extent of the remediation works.
@jeffostroff yeah but you blame the $20 an hour laborers for going along with a stupid plan put together by an overpaid "engineer". The "engineer" who saw every smoking gun photo showing eventual disaster. At least anyone with half a brain could decipher.
@@jeffostroff I'm an Iowan. I keep reading rumours that many of the tenants were Section 8 voucher recipients. People who are on Section 8 usually don't have much choice as to where to live because very few landlords will accept the vouchers. Some people end up living homeless for months (couch surfing, living in their car, homeless shelters or even living rough--a scary proposition in a state that sees periods in the winter where the HIGH is -15F for as long as 2 weeks at a time) even though they have a perfectly good voucher. So when they find a landlord willing to accept the voucher, they are often willing to live in some pretty awful places. And very few people have the knowledge to spot the difference between disgustingly dirty/grungy and structurally dangerous.
So a few years ago (2016) we had gone down to Sofa City (that’s what we call it to the north) to take our son and his friends skateboarding. They had a really cool skate park and the guys loved it. We spent the night, then the next day we walked around downtown, basically following the guys long boarding before heading back north. We were in front of this building, across the street, when a few bricks seemed to fall from the sky. It freaked us out a little, but since my husband is a contractor, he was genuinely curious as to what was going on. We walked around the building to the back side (it’s painted red, now) and he literally gasped as we rounded the corner of the building (again from across the street) as you could visibly see the back wall bowing like the building was holding in a big burp. He said ‘if they don’t do some restructuring of that wall soon, the whole building is coming down in 5 years or less.’ That was when he explained to me how old brick buildings were constructed way back when, what tie rods with stars on them are for (no, the stars aren’t just pretty emblems implanted in brick lol and no, this building didn’t have them but I mentioned them as I’ve noticed them previously) and how buildings like these are disasters waiting to happen and it seems like nobody pays attention. He said he’d bet there’s a binder full on infractions for this building in the inspectors office and yet, people still live there. And here we are, 7 years later, and he wasn’t off by much. He about fell over when we saw this on the news Monday- turned to me and said ‘that’s that same building, isn’t it?’
Forgot to add- when we were ‘across the street’ we realized city hall was just across the street, on the same block (at the other end of the street). Not directly across but close enough to see the scaffolding set up to keep falling bricks from killing/injuring anyone. So they were *well aware* of the imminent danger this building possessed, especially if my husband spotted it *SEVEN YEARS AGO*.
@@merrywalsh2809 it was a Sunday, but he actually did place a call to the city engineers office on Monday. He was brushed off and told they were ‘on top of things’, and well aware of the issues with the property. We’re very aware of the old ‘when good people do nothing’ stories, and while generally speaking, are more of the ‘you do you’ mentality, but we’re property owners of an apartment complex that’s old Chicago brick, and he’s very knowledgeable when it comes to structural integrity. We’re not slumlords by any stretch, and take care of our property and tenants. But it’s a hard road to walk and know how small things can quickly escalate to unmanageable disasters, so he wanted to put his mind at ease, and made a call just to alleviate his own mind, if nothing else. And now, here we are, with 3 people losing their lives, countless left homeless, pets who’ve likely perished, property losses that couldn’t possibly be completely calculated and this could have all been prevented had this reprehensible situation been fully addressed and resolved long ago.
@@JumpCutThis Exactly, he did all he could, and someone in the department blew him off, when the alarm bells should have been ringing, and the tenants evacuated.
Not surprised at all. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job .
10:06 that is my apartment and that is when the inspector came after I made a complaint that the leak had started in April of that year and I was no longer receiving any response from management. I moved just weeks after this. I was unable to shower and they were not helpful in relocating me.
Wow. I'm sure you're glad that you left. Sounds like a slum Lord. He should be in jail, but I'm going to guess he has friends in high places in your city. Take care.
@Edward Miessner your comment implies that there is only corruption and slum lords in the USA...when corruption is a global issue so the bias in this comment is evident. In my opinion all currency should be worthless since after all its just paper. There are other examples on internet and RUclips of the failing of many governments and people. There are bad people in ever corner of this earth. Not just the USA
These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job .
Thank you sir. I have lived in Davenport my whole life. This building has housed more than one friend. Just thankful non were living there at this time. We need people to expose what happened here and ensure this kind of shotty work does not continue to happen in our town. This is ridiculous that anyone was living there after 2021 without these repairs being done.
I also am a Life long resident of Davenport. I agree with you this Building has been in horrible shape for Years! How people were Allowed to Occupy this Building is beyond Understanding! The Residents of this Building were Elderly, low income, and Disabled. Affordable housing here is Horrible here in Davenport. The First Things that comes to my mind is…..GREED! My Son was in this building While it was Falling! He was on the 3rd Floor! Thank God he Got Out Safely🙏🏾 He is Still having a Horrible Time Mentally (his Friend one of those Still Missing)😨 This Did Not Have to Happen!!! Please keep All in your Prayers 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
My coworker was telling me about this video earlier. She's got a close family-friend still unaccounted for. He moved into the building in April. His son just graduated from high school here. So heartbreaking. Especially after watching this video and learning just how bad things were/are with the building. I only moved to town a few months ago, so I don't know of the past history with it or anyone who has resided there.
Jeff, don't know if you have heard or not, but the city of Davenport have brought in 6X6 beams and osb to shore up the building. Some of the reports I read said it is to search for the 2 missing people due to public outcry. Kind of reminded me of Champlain towers when they couldn't search due to structural issues. The shame of this is that was such a beautiful building when I was growing up and to see it in such a state of disrepair over the dollars to do it correctly. I think as a country we are going to see more of these old buildings having structural issues due to owners not wanting to repair them correctly. Keep up the good work of keeping us informed
This is what happens when so much real estate is owned by wall street, reis, etc. That only care about return on investment not lives. They don't hesitate about RAISING RENT, but refuse to actually invest any of that money into the property. Just milk it for money for as long as possible then cash out to another slumlord
I think alot of the time owners just don't have the money to repair these buildings so they just make cosmetic patches to them and milk out as much as they can from them before they have to close them up 🤷♂️
@@willschultz5452 were lacking proper inspection and maintenance infrastructure in most places to properly deal with these things. Investors buy these buildings often because they’re often priced at 25-40% of the replacement cost. Sometimes less. Then, they’re able to charge basically 10-20% less than newer buildings in rent due to inventory and market dynamics . So it’s cashflow and rental arbitrage opportunity.. At that point, they’re almost trapped in the investment as well because any significant repairs are likely more expensive than the building is worth AND there’s only basic safety measures in place to prevent this type of situation. It’s a real problem that we’re going to be seeing in a real way over the next couple of decades as most of our housing inventory avg ages are going up significantly.
"Searching for people because of an outcry"?! 😳😡 This has to be the laziest rescue team and efforts in forever. The level of indifference to human lives by officials is appalling.
Soon as I saw the news, I immediately went to your RUclips page. I’m so glad to see you’re covering this. Too often these collapses are forgotten and then we move on until the next one. You guys are not allowing that to happen you’re investigating it and letting the public know what really happened. You’re educating us and I appreciate it.
This documentary was so well put together. If I may speak on behalf of all of the citizens of Davenport when I say thank you for taking your time in this investigation. My husband is a mason, has been for over 30 years and is simply appalled by everything you have shown us. The wrongdoing from the get-go is unacceptable. Truly heartbreaking and we can hear it in your tone and compassionate journalism.
I live in central Iowa, and I've been watching the news conferences that Davenport's city people have been giving. They're sidestepping any knowledge of these conditions prior to the collapse. There will be many lawsuits filed.
@rcpmac NICE TRY but cities have been Democrat Party controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job .
Most of the ones who live there don't have much of a choice, mold or not. It is difficult to find housing here that will take rental assistance. Most of these people were faced with this place or the street.
@@Dallas_K Yeah, the last apartment my ex and I lived in had black mold ALL OVER the bathroom. It didn't show up for a little while, then the paint started to bubble and the mold seeped through, and it was obvious that they'd simply painted over the mold, and we knew they'd paint over it again once we left too. There was no ventilation in the bathroom except a window you could open, but of course much of the year it's too hot or cold for that and you'll have the AC or heat running. Funny thing is, it wasn't a traditional "slum lord" who orned it, it was a company, fancy building downtown and everything, they even had the apartment regularly insoected by a woman who nitpicked no matter what I did to the point we called them and told them I never wanted to see that woman in my home ever again. But the mold is no problem? Same thing with my current apartment, when I moved in it was owned by a company that SEEMED professional, but within 5 months of moving in there were bed bugs! And they did what I'd seen done before, a couple apartments ago (that was why we left, actually, someone down the hall brought them in so we were having to pack up everything in plastic totes every two weeks for the exterminator and let me tell you, that was MIGHTY problematic when I was trying to write multiple college final papers. I never saw a bed bug, though.), and sent in an exterminator. Well guess what? Chemical sprays won't do much to bed bugs, they're highly resistant to it. So what did the company do? Have the building heat-treated? Nope, they sold it and didn't tell the poor guy until afterwards. Actually, I had to tell him. I ended up taking care of the problem myself with a bunch of food grade diatomaceous earth and some cinnamon, cinnamon sticks, and mint oil, and making interesting use of a chest freezer I bought.
Even 4X4s pinned to the ground, and OSB held against the bricks, would not have successfully resisted the force of the wall outward. The masonry contractor whose bid was rejected is entirely correct about his prescription for shoring and his prediction that the absence of it cause imminent collapse.
Exactly!! Obviously they have no idea of the tons of force that is in play here🤷♂️. I had to laugh when I saw the "bracing" they put up😆. Totally useless
The engineers plan wasnt followed at all, so i dont think you can blame him. The only thing the engineer could have done better is make them vacate the building during renovations.. (yes people will be mad they have to move)
It's crazy, but it didn't take an engineer to see what was happening.. 18 years in construction and related fields was enough to tell me that a collapse of either the brick exterior or of the structure itself, was likely. I don't know how much experience the guys on the ground had, but I can't believe they agreed to keep working on the building with it looking that way.
@@williamhaynes7089 Honestly, I would have felt better about the proposed shoring than the pissant job that was actually enacted. Like, the crew that was working it, they were just addressing the cosmetic issues, not the structural ones. Its ridiculous. Even if it came down anyways, I would have said 'well at least they tried' if they did it right. But they didnt. They willfully did not do it right. This was blatant greed and ignorance, plain and simple.
@@zombieregime I’m not sure I agree. The workers had to shore up the areas they did simply to try to work underneath that wall. The exterior wythe alone could have fallen on them and killed them. They obviously pulled off the job after they brought the 4x4s to the job site and staged them there. I think they recognized the OSB plan was a suicide mission. It was not their job to die for their employer.
Buildings in this shape are rented out all the time where I am from, the landlord has a piece of plywood covering the bowed out brick wall at the base of the 3 story brick building, a burnt out apartment on the first floor with severe mold and water damage has never been renovated so when you walk into the building it smells horrific. Cities do not enforce ordinances and this is why people die and landlords get rich.
Uh huh. The landlord is probably broke and doesn't have the money for fire damage renovation. Or you're right and he's rich, leaving space boarded up creating no income. Tenants should be sentenced to own rental property and deal with tenants and their lack of life skills.
@@uptoolate2793 if you're really siding with Andrew Wold, the owner of the Davenport, then that's all anyone needs to know about your character. He deserves to be charged with manslaughter for the neglect of his building while still allowing tenants to occupy the deadly structure.
As much as the owner and contractors are to blame here ultimately it's the city's job to protect its people, this building should have been condemned years ago until it was fixed properly. If you condemn it the owner will get it repaired ASAP because they're losing money but because it was kept open they took their sweet time and half-assed the repairs. People need to be jailed for this but we all know that won't happen.
Many notices were served. City officials have to walk a knife edge between enforcement and interference of private business. As a result the city law departments are enormous. Look to the antigovernment regulations party for responsibility for this situation. Most of the commenters blaming the city are the same anti regulation folks that are constantly ranting.
These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job .
Jeff, as always you have done an impeccable job in both investigating, and providing valuable information to this unfortunate building collapse. You indeed are very thorough in both your insight, logic, and how you present your facts to us, your viewers. It boggles the mind that these building collapse occur, especially like you said "this building is screaming for attention", and the building owners fail to see the real threat to loss of life. Again, it comes down to saving a few dollars for the owner, higher rental cost to the tenants. Little do the tenants realize that the building owners are playing Russian roulette with their tenants lives. Thank you Jeff for all the awareness you provide in your videos.
If appears to me the owner wanted to get the work done, but not being a structural engineer, probably didn't realize just how dangerous this was, it didn't have the money or didn't want to spend the money to have it fixed. But really, of the workers had done what was required by the engineer, this would not have happened. This is what it was like to live in eastern block countries for the past 80 yrs. & this is what we are getting... I'm sure we'll see more of this to come...
@@laurae.4285 This guy was sheisty and shady. He was a slumlord that owns (not for long) many properties. The list of infractions is long with Andrew Wold.
I live here in davenport. If you have questions just ask. We are angry! No reason he should have been allowed 145 incidents and still allowed to own property. 3 strikes your done!! He needs to be made to sell all properties and all $ should go straight to the cost of the horrible damage and aftermath to this situation. No insurance company should have insured that building. He shouldn't be allowed to collect any insurance $. He needs to sell his $2 million dollar castle and move into one of his glorious slum holes!
Makes me mad because my home insurance company had an inspector drive by and saw palms touching my roof and had me trim the tree or they would cancel me
@jeffostroff I really appreciate the time you put into these videos! They finally released 1 surveillance video but isn't the best view. I know the police station has a better view but they haven't released anything. The police station is literally diagonal from the side that collapsed. They have to have a better surveillance system then the one they released.
Jeff, its amazing that you were able to obtain all of these reports, from the engineer and from Davenport Neighborhood Services, and then provide pictures of the shoddy shoring attempt that was performed versus what was actually specified by the structural engineer. The bracing that was built was useless. Honestly I don't know if the engineer specifications would have saved the building from collapse either. Takeaway is that even with building inspections and engineering reports, corners are cut and danger results. Thanks Jeff as always.
I for one am convinced that the inspection reports and engineering plans don't reflect the dire nature of the building's unsafe condition and suspect that both the field inspector and the design engineer wanted it torn down but were overruled.
Thank you much for the update. Me stalking your channel as soon as it happened. I appreciate the information you provide. 💕 + It's sad the owner paid 2 million dollars for the building but didn't put any money into it. He clearly knew the condition on purchase. + the city failed all the tenants past and present. No way should this building have been occupied with the mold and leak issues alone. + it's too bad previous tenants didn't break their leases and sue in small claims court with the condition of the building. They surely they would have won. + Tiktok has more older pictures from tenants that had moved out and email communications with the property management and city. Such a shame.
@@deeannemason7003 I’m looking at a house built in 1926 but it’s been relatively maintained since then so the bricks look almost new. My only worry is the possibility of asbestos and the homeless people living on porches
From what you've shown me here, which I haven't seen compiled so thoroughly anywhere else (thanks Jeff), it looks like the collapse was the result of a lack of adequate shoring (support) during the repair process, which was performed in a contrary manner to what was prescribed by the Structural Engineer. Hope the contractor has lots of insurance. So sad that there was loss of life. This was preventable.
@@jeffostroff Who was acting as "contractor"? The permits said "owner", so owner might have hired crews with no licensed contractor in the loop. I don't think his LLC will save him.
The owner, Andrew Wold, liked to do things as cheaply as possible. Sadly, Wold owns MANY properties in downtown Davenport and elsewhere in the community. I'd like this to be on him, as opposed to the workers, so that he can be held accountable.
@@bradleystraincrashchannel2498 Whomever was responsible for NOT performing the work the way the Structural Engineer said to do it, including the required shoring (temporary support), is the "bad guy" here. If both owner and contractor colluded to do the work on the cheap, without the proper supports, they're both liable. The real story here, yet to be reported on in depth, is the City of Davenport's response (or lack thereof) to the numerous signs of a potential failure/collapse. As the news reported yesterday, the fire department responded to a 911 call and visited the site the day before the collapse and left, after apparently doing nothing. Was Davenport's Building Inspector contacted immediately after the FD"s visit? Was the Building Inspector at the building the next day, the day of the collapse, when the work started? If he/she was, they would have noticed immediately that the work being done was not in accordance with the Permit (the Permit was issued to do the work as prescribed by the SE), and shut down the work. One other thing, it's a BIG DEAL for the City of Davenport to tell residents to evacuate their homes. But I'm at a loss to understand why it wasn't done in this case after the 911 call the day before. The City has liability here as well, imo.
@@Harry_Gurvich yea so many factors at play. I think bottom line is no one thought anything like THIS could happen. That it was something that could wait. It’s the only way my brain can make sense of how so many people missed the opportunity to save the residents. Regarding the workers - it is very possible they were just following orders from owner and didn’t know any better.
I will share with you the same comment I've been sharing since I heard about it Monday morning...THE OWNER OF THAT BUILDING IS CLOSE FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE IN THAT CITY'S GOVERNMENT... Friends doing favors for friends, narcissism, nepotism, city land owners being elected to city council, local construction company owners being elected to city council... My hometown of Auburn NY currently has all of that as well...
Many notices were served. City officials have to walk a knife edge between enforcement and interference of private business. As a result the city law departments are enormous. Look to the antigovernment regulations party for responsibility for this situation. Most of the commenters blaming the city are the same anti regulation folks that are constantly ranting.
Thank-you for bringing this to light and thoroughly explaining what the conditions were. I am horrified seeing those pictures of how unsafe the building was for occupancy going back 3 years until the day of collapse. . because the Mayor and inspector at the initial press conference acted like they had no clue to any complaints except the exterior wall repair. ●Unfathomable how many reports and photos are on file with the city showing how untable the building was and how the tenants were lives were disregarded. ●Many contractors abd City officials have seen the pics., reports, and building in person yet not one person involved stepped up, advocated for the safety of those tenants by declaring the building uninhabitable; just so their businesses could secure the contract. ●The fact that the contractor on Sunday, hours before the collapse warned his employees twice to leave the site because the building collapse was imminent; but never warned tenants to get out or call 911 to get help to evacuate the tenants...is deplorable. ● Very suspicious the City wanted to demo the building 16 hrs. after collapse; we were all immediately suspicious. ●City Hall is directly across the street. There is no way the Mayor did not see the exterior condition of that back wall. And there's no way with documented images and report's of the horrible condition of building that it would've been flagged as "passed". I wanted to send you a few online pics. of a pre-painted back wall and a Zillow rental pic. but i had no way to contact you. The Zillow rental pic. showed a wall crack that ran diagonal zig-zag from left lower corner of an apt. window there. Unbelievable the failure at all levels with no concern for tenant lives.
@@drfreud65 You're very Welcome! Anything I can do to help the Davenport tenants/citizens have their voices heard. I know all about less is more govt.; I live in NYS with Kathy Hochul as Gov.
@@drfreud65 Don't be complacent, putting up with falling bricks until buildings collapse. The remedy is in the hands of the voters. Throw the bums out.
City released all the information because they are trying to lay the blame on the property owner when they have the authority and power to just condemn the building at any time. I hope the victims bankrupt both the property owner AND the city.
There are a number of things that tie the city officials and property owner together in this mess. But you're right, the politicians saw that they were sinking and tried to shoot out ahead of the news cycle. I think they might have done too little too late after a ton of questionable cover up attempts, though.
@@jeffostroff NBC news has it on it's main channel came out like 4 hours ago "Three people likely still trapped in Davenport building collapse, officials say" is the title of the video, ruclips.net/video/qnNQ3maHGdg/видео.html
@@johndewgames horrific. It collapsed right at the point it looked like it would. And the fact that that guy took videos and pics of it just hours before it collapsed is insane. He was trying to help too and was ignored
Similar antique brick structures are inhabited in every city and town. My hobby is driving in alleys and looking at antique bricks of the buildings. The history of brickwork will interest me.
I'd suggest you do a video on things to look for if you're going to rent or buy a place. When they ordered the workers to leave they should have vacated the whole building
Really enjoy how you dissect and explain the good, bad and ugly of construction screw ups, Jeff. Any time I'm in a parking garage, first thing I do is look up. Great work! Take care.👍
Same here! In fact, I'm very uncomfortable, to the point of claustrophobia, in parking garages after Jeff's Champlain videos. I'm grateful to have learned what I have.
Here in Las Vegas we have a casino with water streaming into the parking garage. I think “Why did engineers think this was acceptable?” So far all the columns look solid with no rust, but the building is still young. Maybe in 40 years it will collapse .
I think you have to go back to the 1980's renovations into apartments to get to the root cause. Something was done then with the walls, air ducts, elevator shafts, and that large A/C roof unit to change the building's rear structural integrity!
WQAD just released a 911 call from the day before the collapse of a concerned person saying the wall was buckling. Fire department spent 4 minutes on the call. What a shame.
I felt physically sick looking at some of those photos. I have no background or expertise in building or anything like that, and even i can see that people should not have been allowed to stay in that building until it was made safe.
I worked on a project recently that required a great deal of shoring. When I asked the engineer for specification on how to shore I was refused and told it was my responsibility as the site manage. So, technically the engineers left this to the ‘grunts’. I figured it out and found the right people but always though it would have been nice for the engineers to give some confirmation on the shoring integrity. So, perhaps these people were told to shore but not given a game plan and they didn’t know an old Irish builder with old timer knowledge.
@@cathiwim it was a hundred year old double brick mansion undergoing extensive renovations. The building wasn’t the problem. Heavy beams, underpinnings and other work drawn by the engineer but the engineering behind how to support the structure in order to implement this work was missing.
@@Kyle-gb9dq agreed, a very important step that needs to be addressed from the engineering side otherwise the site will just figure it out and sometimes it will work and other times it will not. I would visit the house at night while it was shored up, listening for movement, measure cracks and eye changes in the joists. I think a lot of these jobsite miss a very important ‘part’ which is someone who cares.
@18:43 those two pipes that have been cut back to above the masonry repair area are the downspouts that handle much of the roof runoff (roof looks to be pitched to flow to this wall). If they got any rain without creating a temporary downspout diversion away from the wall, it would have dumped tons of water right into the repair area.
I'm not sure if it's unpainted area due to being previously behind the removed downspout or if it's water damage on the paint, but there's at least possible telltales on the wall that you're correct and the water was just dumping out several feet above the ground.
People may think I’m nuts, but after watching your channel, now when I travel if I’m booked in an older building that’s been turned into a hotel, I am looking for cracks, water stains, and if I saw separated brick and that they had to put a roof over the gas line due to falling brick?! No way I’m going to sleep in that hotel. If these folks were Section 8, their options were probably this building or nothing. Poor souls. And probably the only people who will get charged will be the poor guy who was told “go put these bricks on that wall,” not the people who kept saying it was fine for people to be in the building.
Probably also the contractor who was dismissed because he never warned the TENANTS or the City. But how could he notify the tenants? Usually buildings like this are locked so you can't get in without a key.
Use the mailboxes. Not surprised at all. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job .
CYOA> That's the only reason they did it . Had to do it because of the city and the permit process. My own opinion based on what I saw is the building should have been vacated . 2 that the entirety of the inside of the wall should have been removed to determine just how much damage was there to the wall on both faces. From what I saw it was obvious to me and I'm by no means an engineer that this building had or had previously suffered from a leaking roof and bad plumbing problems. This what explains the bulging at the upper story lintels as well as the bulging of the wall . Freeze and thaw cycles will do this .
Your conclusions seem very sound. I am not an engineer but the logic and forces make perfect sense to me. The first time you showed the picture of the ‘bracing’ that was done I actually shuddered. Vey scary sight. Thank you for you clear analysis.
Last month he was cited for another building. His fine? $300. Unreal! And it's interesting how you cannot find a pic of the dude, or the news, protecting the rich, aren't publishing any pics.
Came across your channel while I was looking up stuff about this collapse. Thank you for keeping us the people informed. The scary thing for me is that my wife and I drove by this building while leaving a baseball game just an hour before the collapse.
The NBC News channel has a video clip from a surveillance camera showing the moment of the collapse. When I play it at 0.25 speed it seems that the unsupported bricks at the top of the area being repaired began to slide down first, bringing the upper part of the exterior wall down in one sheet. Have a look and see if you agree.
@@jeffostroff Watching you explain the Champlain Towers collapse a year or two ago put big emphasis on what dramatic water damage looks like. For years I've tried getting my parents to fix the water leak in the house.
I’m a minor home repair guy yet I know enough about old buildings to know that that place should’ve been closed down a few years ago. I haven’t looked into many details about the building itself but those bricks looked like they were from before the Great Depression. If what you said is true, the owner of the building should be charged criminally, depraved indifference and negligent homicide. I can’t believe someone would be so careless and only concerned about the bottom dollar. I hope he’s having issues sleeping for many long years to come.
Beautiful coverage and teaching us all about how to do something right: and how people w/lack of conscience and who are also possibly used to being dishonest and having low standards in general can kill people. In other words, stupid people kill. Thank you Mr. Ostroff for your high intelligence and your high standards and conscientiousness.
The owner and his staff didn't even do the bare minimum - which is why the city had to get involved with almost every tenant complaint, it seems. Perhaps they felt the tenants didn't matter because they were low income and just 'lucky to not be homeless,' so to speak. It's just sad.
But Democrat politicians tell us how much they CARE about the people & their welfare. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job .
Solid report Jeff, thanks for following this one......let the finger pointing begin.....kind of looks like the PE is in the clear except for hindsight of clearing the occupants out of all the apartments on the weak side of the building....so far...no mention of what condition is of the other walls/structures of the rest of the building.
I blame the city & the landlord. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job .
@@electrictroy2010 But as a lawyer reminded me, local governments, like all governments have IMMUNITY from everything and it would be very hard to bring legal liability against the city....so the Mayor was right, tear the thing down and move on....nothing to see here!
Another excellent video Jeff, thank you for the amazing work you do. This building was rotten to the core and no matter how much they patched it, it was doomed. One would think that Surfside was a wakeup call, but clearly not. The landlord should be jailed.
@jeffostroff Thank you for researching and compiling the extensive info seen here! While the building collapse and loss of life is a catastrophe, I do enjoy hearing your take and expertise when these things come up. Keep up the good work!
I live in a house built in 1865. The house has a brick foundation. I pray every night the house won’t fall down. I’m renting so I don’t have any say on repair. Then in my son’s room the ceiling had a diagonal crack across the ceiling. I live in Dekalb IL .
Wow, sorry to hear that. If possible, I pray that you get another place. Meanwhile, maybe call the officials to lodge a complaint and document all of the issues. Good luck.
I read somewhere that 911 was called only a few hours before the collapse and they stayed 5 minutes and left. It seems that many people on many levels are culpable. I hope the people who are displaced and the families of the three deceased residents get restitution from all levels. This tragedy could have been avoided if ALOT of people had done their jobs.
When you look at the twisted bulging around the window at the 19:22 mark, that looks the same as the slow motion beginning of a building implosion video.
Your videos are very well done. The music is low in the background and your voice is well modulated. Your opinions in this situation are spot on! PS. I hate painted bricks too. ;) Thank you!
Jeff, I heartily agree with your synopsis of this event. Even from the photo's you can see this building should have been at least partially evacuated so as to give access to the areas where permanent support should occur. It's always a matter of going from the ground up. Fiddling with the exterior brick was fool-hearty. The economic concerns of the owner outweighed the actual needs for repair and this event was just a matter of time. Money spent on numerous repairs and paint could have been, should have been spent on providing sturdy columns from the base of the building up to support all the beams that relied on the deteroriatig brick structure. And from what I've seen the front and sides of the building were not too much better than the rear. Brick, over time, without proper maintanence becomes rotted from being wet then freezing. The outer surfaces of clay brick is hardened in ovens when made. The insides don't have as much strenght at the outer edges. As it ages it's composition becomes more powdery and less able to support weight. It has a limited lifetime. And the mortar is even more prone to deteroration due to the wet/freeze cycles that occur over time. Older mortar used lime and sand composition rather than portland cement base. Alll brick buildings should be treated periodically with a sealer such as 5% silicone solution to help prevent water infiltration. I seriously doubt this building ever saw even one such treatment. Absent the required maintenance and the subsequent need for internal suring, this building was on it's way out for quite some time. What is amazing to me is the lack of knowledge city inspection workers have in situations such as this. Even a basic seminar requirement for such people might have kept the tenants safe. So I blame all parties responsible for this building for this collapse. Once the pieces of this disaster are sorted out, those responsible should be held to account.
Painting the bricks was probably the death nail for the structure. You can't paint those old brick and mortar walls anywhere, but especially in the North where we get hard winter freezes. The moisture trapped in the bricks expands when it freezes and crumbles the brick from the mass of the brick itself. The expansion destroys the mortar joint allowing more moisture to permeate the wall creating more leaks and adding to the snowball effect of degradation.
@@arribaficationwineho32 I believe this applies to old clay bricks but I would consult with an expert before covering an exterior brick wall with paint.
@@arribaficationwineho32 All brick has to transpire…breathe on all sides. Bricks have pores that take on moisture and then release it. Paint clogs their pores and forces moisture inward, where over time it dissolves the cement in the mortar, ultimately leaving nothing but sand. The only safe way to “paint” brick is with a lime wash. It’s basically a very thin colored cement layer that is also able to breathe, so it doesn’t prevent the brick from transpiring.
Thank you for your work here. It was useful to see the inspection reports and photos of the building & interior up close. I don't know how people continued to live there - especially since the owners told tenants that they wouldn't do repairs other than emergencies. You'd think that would be a big warning that you should get out. My limited understanding is that the building used a building method that either isn't used now or is not used frequently. The owners haven't had it for very long. Had there been no collapse, could the building ever be adequately rehabbed or should it just have been demolished? Why buy a building with such structural flaws? Do you think the new owners just thought they could do patch jobs and not address the major issues?
This apartment building was affordable for the low income families. And they accepted section 8, so for many people it was either this or the streets. And some tennants- like one of the men who died- was placed here in cooperation with some of the local homeless shelters. So quite literally these people didn't have a choice. And this is my hometown so I've seen plenty of things on fb. The owner of this building didn't just buy it, he bought it from one of his other LLC's. Different name but same owner. I don't feel bad for the slumlord one bit. He knew the condition of this building and chose to do the bare minimum while collecting every penny he could from his poor residents that had to pay rent no matter the condition of the building. I hope he loses all his wealth and faces jail time for the manslaughter of three men.
I hope the city get sued. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job .
In the boating world, when it comes to corrosion of steel boats and rot of wooden ones, it is said that you usually only see about a quarter of the actual damage. There seems to have been a lot of water damage in this building. Perhaps even the steel parts of the structure were compromised as well, especially at their connection points. If those were to fail, the bricking would be doomed to fail in column.
When I was getting ready to move to the area, I had an appt to look at an apartment in this building and the apartment looked great. I walked in about 10 ft and turned around to walk out. My mom was started to walk in and I told her, “absolutely hello no was I living there”. I told mom everything I saw in just the 10ft into the bldg. We found a great place on the Illinois side. This was in October. On the local news, a young girl, fresh out of college and was shown the great apartment and then she had the same thing happen, the ole “bake and switch” She decided to go ahead and move in Sunday morning and by Sunday afternoon, luckily while she was out at Walmart and Hy-Vee the bldg fell.
- The city is at fault for letting the owners of the building drag their feet on repairs they also should have just evacuated the building completely until it was fixed. Take away any potential of the owner making money off the building and than he would make the repairs. - Also the owner is a pos. Shopping around to avoid costs and cut corners that led to this tragedy. He had the engineers recommendations and the contractors plan. He had what he needed and he decided to not to follow the advice of people who are educated to deal with these type of repairs. Also just a fun fact. The guy who owns the building is currently building a multi million dollar house. I guess $50,000 to make sure the repair is done safely is too much to ask. But millions of dollars for a new house is completely fine. - Oh and I forgot to mention that the owner at this point has only been fined $300. What makes it even worse is that a man was arrested yesterday because he was trying to search through the rubble and was fined $600. While he probably shouldn't be searching through the rubble on his own it just highlights how people like Wold get away with things in the society we live in.
Sadly this reminds me, albeit on a smaller scale, of the collapse of the Copper Lounge in downtown Sioux Falls, SD. A company with a questionable track record who might've had friends in City Hall, was converting a century old building into a club and drug store. What little that ever came out was that the building was stable and structurally sound. A set of plans that explicitly laid out what needed to be done was drawn up -- and ignored. The city is supposed to inspect large scale jobs like this, but appears to have felt the code was too onerous. As work proceeded, a critical load bearing wall was removed, but a beam to take its place was not installed. Cost? Time? Who knows? In fact, a photo was posted to Facebook of the very spot, which quickly was taken down by the company after the tragedy. As anyone knows, a previously solid building that begins to develop cracks, and audibly groans and creaks, is in distress and sending out warnings. The residents of the upper floor were concerned and spoke to someone with the company, but were assured everything was fine. The warning signs continued and the residents contacted the former owner. I think he went to City Hall to voice his concerns just a day or two before the building reached its failing point and collapsed. One man, a single father, died in the basement. A resident and her dog were trapped in the rubble for hours but were rescued. As questions started being asked, and a local media started quickly uncovering unsettling evidence, the city had the structure demolished post haste. Sure, there was the public safety concern, but it seems suspicious that it was done before OSHA could begin inspecting everything. The family of the man who was killed sued for workers compensation. The woman living in the building sued for health reasons. Ultimately the state Supreme Court ruled that Sioux Falls and South Dakota were immune, even if they were known to have committed wrong doings. I don't know what OSHA found or stated in the final report. The construction company suddenly declared bankruptcy but turned around and sued the architects, their insurance company, etc. Unflattering facts about shoddy workmanship in past projects, worker safety, etc, started being published in the local media. It tried hard to claim itself as the real victim of the tragedy. A new building was constructed in the spot. It is a nice building but there is no memorial of any sort to the memory of the man who died pointlessly. The city has moved on quickly. Except, it seems to have had problems with other downtown projects repeatedly since. See the coverage at KELOLAND: www.keloland.com/news/copper-lounge-collapse/
Great post-mortum of the collapse. I think I've seen 3 other post-collapse videos of yours - as well as your Sam's Club, Costco, Lowes, and Home Depot videos. I'm late to the party, but have become a fan.
Thanks for taking your time to do all this research. As soon as I saw the news I was like "oh the Miami condo collapse guy on RUclips will figure this out" So terrible, I hope this isn't something happening more often and I hope this owner doesn't have any more properties. I appreciate you sharing your interest in this.
Looks like huge problems arose as a result of converting the building to apartments in the 80s. That resulted in more bathrooms, kitchens, and internal moisture. It looks like the conversion was slipshod with no additional ventilation to exhaust moisture and cheap drywall slapped up everywhere to cover up. The recent renovation work appears to be even worse. This poor building was ruined by repeated botchwork. Everybody today wants instant gratification and an easy way out. These old buildings were constructed with what today seems like excessive labor. They must be repaired the same way. I am surprised we have not seen stuccoed styrofoam patches.
But how thick is that exterior wall? Some people have stated that it is up to 5 wythes thick. The exterior wythe is going to suffer from water exposure and freeze/thaw cycles. If the exterior wythe deteriorates the other wythes should still be capable of supporting the load. However people tend to cut all kinds of holes and notches through the brick wall so at some locations there might be questionable support. Everybody can guess the primary characteristics of bricks- they are very strong and they are brittle. So with damage inside and outside you can have cracks through the wall and delamination of the wythes which can cause layers to buckle. The building could have been saved at any time, the remaining part of the building could be saved right now. It would take time and money, the building might not be worth it. Rebuilding sections of exterior wall would require shoring, lots of REAL shoring. Your photo at 23:26 shows severe buckling of the exterior wall. This might be just the exterior wythe or it might be the entire wall. A wall buckling like that could lead to collapse of a section of the building. And yes they are not effectively shoring/bracing it. I'm sorry but sometimes you don't just put in a few 4x4 braces, you have to get serious about it and put in real structural steel bracing which might even require construction of new exterior foundations for the bracing to attach to. Then do the demolition and repair work.
Hi Jeff, i happened upon your channel because of the Titan emplosion i am a total novice in engineering terms, i know nothing about this field at all i found your channel really interesting and i have now subscribed Thank you for your expertise on this awful disaster, which should never have happened. These experts need to take action when they come face to face with these big red flags.
Having worked in 28 story hotel and went throught high rise disaster training at 18 yo. I learned to always look for exits and have an escape plan. Hotels really dislike me because I always ask for the current maps with exits and location of fire extinguishers when I travel... lol I live in earthquake prone Seattle, so you know a big one is coming.
Someone did call the fire department the night before the collapse ! They came and left in a few mins and said it was ok. You can find the phone call on RUclips.
Imagine if your kid would move to study to another part of the country and once you would pay him a visit, you would find out him living in this sort of nightmare 😮
Are you taking into account the original design structure of this 1907 building? It seems to be a cage steel structure with a load bearing masonry outer wall which seems to have been five bricks thick, at least where it's visible in the post-collapse drone shots of the wall at the second story level. The steel cage was not meant to hold up the structure. It seems crazy now but it's the load bearing brick wall that holds up the steel beams. The steel beams were just lateral bracing for the load bearing brick wall so that it could be thinner and there didn't have to be internal masonry sheer walls to provide lateral support for wind load. It's all to give more usable interior space. In New York and Chicago this was obsolete technology by 1907. The outer brick wall is just a façade. The load bearing brick wall seems to be what failed. Not to take away from the fact that other things failing could help that along. Was the original construction shoddy? Did they use pressed bricks or common bricks? Water damage? Poor repairs over the years that weakened the wall rather than strengthening? Sheer age past the expected life of the obsolete design? Did the debris at the bottom damage the load bearing wall, not just the façade? Did the knuckle-draggers doing the repair work dig into the load bearing wall? All of the above plus... whatever?
Great detective work putting the facts together. Such a preventable tragedy that was years in the making. I am at a loss why that building was not condemned a few yers ago.
I see some shady stuff as an electrician, but there's pressure not to inconvenience via cost or money, at least as far as repairs to existing structures go. My experience is that old isnt always bad, its the diy or unprofessional fixes that are worse. I know a lot of generals on remodels or flips who do their own electrical and get away with it! As a tech, I have to constantly use judgement as to what's dangerous enough to call out, there is so much of it. There is craft to my job. If you don't do it for a living you don't have it, so don't do it. We did have a restaurant shut down due to egregiously crappy wiring done by the owers buddy - the repairs were re-done correctly and the restaurant re-opened - was the place gonna burn down otherwise? Hard to tell, but my boss on that job made the call and may have inconvenienced or made someone angry. We are still in business and in demand. I cannot believe those poor tenants weren't evacuated and the building shut down before the collapse. The sad thing is, a bit of money will be paid out but probably nothing will fundamentally change. Ticks me off. It takes a village, darn it, we gotta watch out for each other and not count on inspectors to catch everything.
I am a plumber not an engineer by any means but I know what damage hidden & obvious water will cause.water intrusion caused these problems Years ago & it was never repaired correctly.Water got in at the top to start.freeze & thaw cycles did the rest.
Yes, that was shockingly stupid. He deserves the loss now and I hope the insurance company denies his claims due to his negligence and not following the engineer's script.
This is a fascinating analysis. I live in Southern Africa where pretty much all buildings in cities are built with bricks and they are plastered and painted. Same applies in the UK where I spent a few years studying.
Yes, you are correct about the raker shores that were in place were not holding anything. You will see the Urban Search and Rescue team in the pics today put properly installed raker shores in to do their search work. They should have brought that team in the first day.
Oh no, they wanted to tear it down the next day. Bodies in the rubble notwithstanding. They did a cursory search, decided no one was there, and wanted to sweep it away. Then the protests started.
Could you find some photos of the shoring that the rescue people erected? It appears to me that even without internal beams added for shoring, that the contractor workers still didn't follow the recommended directions for external shoring (ie 4×4s and angle iron, and OSB). And didn't Jeff say that it appeared that they HAD started removing degraded sections of brick? Kind of like that game Jenga....
You hit it. Definitely required permanent shoring interior and proper bracing exterior prior to removing any bricks. I'm a little intrigued by the magical "computer glitch" that allowed a building inspector to sign off as "fail" on Friday and appear as "passed" on Monday? As reported by local ABC affiliates, the inspector resigned. Handed in a resignation due to an internal computer glitch? My opinion is, dude did a drive-by with the walls still up, went away and came back to catastrophe , so changed his vote. He could have mitigated the worst had he ordered engineer's approval or a stop-work. The town is also culpable as far as I guess.
![MISSING: SLIM SHADY [Expanded Mourner’s Edition Trailer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xh8qgHrOO1g/mqdefault.jpg)
Someone should being going to jail for this. It was clear 3 years ago this building was not fit for human habitation.
The landlord who cheaper out on contractors and told them to remove the shoring should be given a life sentence for manslaughter. In so many ways this collapse reminds me of the sampoong mall collapse in south Korea, such a great loss of life just to try saving the owner a few dollars.
@Rumpleforeskin I understand that's not a very long time but he was well aware of the structural issues, went against the advice of a certified engineer, had countless warnings and notices by the city, cheaped out everywhere possible especially on contractors. He definitely deserves whatever he has coming to him
@@get_a_job633 He took on the responsibility knowing what condition the building was in.
He's responsible for any damage and lives lost for being a cheapskate.
The previous owner should also be fined as well for even populating it full of people in the first place while in such abhorred condition.
Money hungry landlords who care more about money than human lives! Simply pathetic
I went to Palmer College of Chiropractic 2000-2005. Many of my classmates lived there and that place was a death trap then. I am surprised that this didn't happen years ago.
It doesn't take an engineer to see this building is falling apart. These pictures scared the hell out of me. If I had seen that on an inspection tour, I would have run.
The engineer told the city that the building will not collapse. He made that statement before the building collapsed.
@Kay In Maine
It's like the ppl on the news that said a certain bank wasn't going to collapse, so put your money into it, but then collapsed.
@@KayInMaine I don't see how he could have thought a building in this sorry shape was not in imminent danger of falling down. It should have been torn down!
@@edwardmiessner6502 Right but that's how government and business (building owner) work together against the people.
@@KayInMaine thanks.
As a brick restoration specialist it makes me happy to hear you say NEVER paint bricks, especially historic bricks from or before the 1950s. Also if my crew walked up to inspect that job we would have left immediately, straight to the city to protest the fact that people were STILL living in that death trap. Vertical separation near the foundation without proper shoring and internal supports would condemn the building. Also its Cement Modular Unit. CMU. Love the video
Concrete Masonry Unit
_"... historic bricks from before the 1950s."_
What about _prehistoric_ bricks from the 1800s?
(Are you a West coast guy?)
I live in a historic brick building... that was recently painted before I moved in....
@@77thTrombone Esoteric bricks?
@@ian_b dang spell checker. Corrected, thanks -- before I draw some gnostic mason out of the woodwork.
Thanks for all your hard work keeping the public informed.
Glad to help Nunya!
@@jeffostroff ruclips.net/video/T7Zevflne74/видео.html interview with a contractor who was told his estimate was too high (bc he wanted to do it right) He mentions the same bracing you did that was necessary before beginning any repairs
@@auntijen3781 sounds like what happened to the Sampoong Department Store that eventually caused its collapse in 1995.
Holy crap. These close up pics of the building are unbelievably bad. Just insane. It’s criminal that individuals knew just how horrible the condition of the building was and didn’t say anything or evacuate the residents. It was a disaster years in the making. Unreal
America's infrastructure is falling apart. Generations of neglect finally catching up.
@@drivenmad7676 Yeah, scream the sky is falling. It isn't everywhere. Get a grip.
@@653j521 youd be surprised
@@drivenmad7676 actually it's not THAT bad...yet... That is the direction some people want to see us go in though. They just do so surreptitiously by making it more and more difficult to get things done and done correctly.
@@drivenmad7676 It's a big problem in the northern parts of the country where extremes of weather in the winter take a big toll on structures causing water damage that over a long period of time results in hidden damage that causes similar collapse events in the absence of quick remedial action. There have been several such incidents recently in New York where building facades have collapsed but nothing as bad as this one.
Lipstick on a pig is a great description of so many "repair" projects. The City was very negligent. I wonder why?
As a PE for many years, I lost count of the number of times that the client decided that they were a better engineer and removed safety systems. My last 10 years working, I stopped doing private work.Good Video. Good Luck, Rick
How did they remove safety systems? Like fire alarms?
@@electrictroy2010 They didn't follow the original plans. Most things are designed with a factor of safety of 3 or 4. When calculating for the size of temporary columns, I designed it with 4 times the maximum expected load. One guy decided that I was ridiculously too expensive and used fewer columns to support an overhead slab pour. It collapsed. It cost him millions for the clean up and project delay. Several men were hurt too. When properly designing a structure safety factors are included in many places that most people wouldn't even think of. I've been retired for 12 years and am very glad to be out of it. 20 years ago we were starting to see substandard foreign steel come in and cause problems. Good Luck, Rick
My last 49 years working with few heavy commercial clients I only accepted industrial work. - Residential and real estate inverter types is a whore's business.
Thanks for the info.
As a tenant you simply have no idea how dangerous these problems are. You see cracks and it's not clear if that's cosmetic or structural when you have 0 knowledge about building. And then you see people working on it, you trust that they know what they're doing and it's being repaired.
I don't know if they are, but it'd be great if they make inspection reports available to all residence so they have some idea.
I’m a real estate agent. I had no idea either. But I am trying to educate myself by watching videos like this
Uninformed people are easier to exploit.
Thanks Jeff for pulling all this information together. I am astonished that the building was allowed to be occupied given the extent of the remediation works.
Yes, and astonished that people moved into it too
@jeffostroff yeah but you blame the $20 an hour laborers for going along with a stupid plan put together by an overpaid "engineer". The "engineer" who saw every smoking gun photo showing eventual disaster. At least anyone with half a brain could decipher.
@@jeffostroff yes agree Jeff, I sure would not have moved into it.
@@jeffostroff I'm an Iowan. I keep reading rumours that many of the tenants were Section 8 voucher recipients. People who are on Section 8 usually don't have much choice as to where to live because very few landlords will accept the vouchers. Some people end up living homeless for months (couch surfing, living in their car, homeless shelters or even living rough--a scary proposition in a state that sees periods in the winter where the HIGH is -15F for as long as 2 weeks at a time) even though they have a perfectly good voucher.
So when they find a landlord willing to accept the voucher, they are often willing to live in some pretty awful places. And very few people have the knowledge to spot the difference between disgustingly dirty/grungy and structurally dangerous.
Yes it's so sad what people have to deal with because these slumlords refuse to do much needed repairs. 😡
So a few years ago (2016) we had gone down to Sofa City (that’s what we call it to the north) to take our son and his friends skateboarding. They had a really cool skate park and the guys loved it. We spent the night, then the next day we walked around downtown, basically following the guys long boarding before heading back north.
We were in front of this building, across the street, when a few bricks seemed to fall from the sky. It freaked us out a little, but since my husband is a contractor, he was genuinely curious as to what was going on.
We walked around the building to the back side (it’s painted red, now) and he literally gasped as we rounded the corner of the building (again from across the street) as you could visibly see the back wall bowing like the building was holding in a big burp. He said ‘if they don’t do some restructuring of that wall soon, the whole building is coming down in 5 years or less.’ That was when he explained to me how old brick buildings were constructed way back when, what tie rods with stars on them are for (no, the stars aren’t just pretty emblems implanted in brick lol and no, this building didn’t have them but I mentioned them as I’ve noticed them previously) and how buildings like these are disasters waiting to happen and it seems like nobody pays attention.
He said he’d bet there’s a binder full on infractions for this building in the inspectors office and yet, people still live there.
And here we are, 7 years later, and he wasn’t off by much. He about fell over when we saw this on the news Monday- turned to me and said ‘that’s that same building, isn’t it?’
Forgot to add- when we were ‘across the street’ we realized city hall was just across the street, on the same block (at the other end of the street). Not directly across but close enough to see the scaffolding set up to keep falling bricks from killing/injuring anyone.
So they were *well aware* of the imminent danger this building possessed, especially if my husband spotted it *SEVEN YEARS AGO*.
That’s nuts. And if your husband had marched into City Hall to raise the alarm, some low level employee would have listened and done nothing.
@@merrywalsh2809 it was a Sunday, but he actually did place a call to the city engineers office on Monday. He was brushed off and told they were ‘on top of things’, and well aware of the issues with the property.
We’re very aware of the old ‘when good people do nothing’ stories, and while generally speaking, are more of the ‘you do you’ mentality, but we’re property owners of an apartment complex that’s old Chicago brick, and he’s very knowledgeable when it comes to structural integrity. We’re not slumlords by any stretch, and take care of our property and tenants. But it’s a hard road to walk and know how small things can quickly escalate to unmanageable disasters, so he wanted to put his mind at ease, and made a call just to alleviate his own mind, if nothing else.
And now, here we are, with 3 people losing their lives, countless left homeless, pets who’ve likely perished, property losses that couldn’t possibly be completely calculated and this could have all been prevented had this reprehensible situation been fully addressed and resolved long ago.
@@JumpCutThis Exactly, he did all he could, and someone in the department blew him off, when the alarm bells should have been ringing, and the tenants evacuated.
Not surprised at all. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job
.
10:06 that is my apartment and that is when the inspector came after I made a complaint that the leak had started in April of that year and I was no longer receiving any response from management. I moved just weeks after this. I was unable to shower and they were not helpful in relocating me.
Wow. I'm sure you're glad that you left. Sounds like a slum Lord. He should be in jail, but I'm going to guess he has friends in high places in your city. Take care.
the almighty dollar takes precedence over human life again
@@pamparker4047 As always in the USA. The dollar needs to be made worthless.
@Edward Miessner your comment implies that there is only corruption and slum lords in the USA...when corruption is a global issue so the bias in this comment is evident. In my opinion all currency should be worthless since after all its just paper. There are other examples on internet and RUclips of the failing of many governments and people. There are bad people in ever corner of this earth. Not just the USA
These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job
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Thank you sir. I have lived in Davenport my whole life. This building has housed more than one friend. Just thankful non were living there at this time. We need people to expose what happened here and ensure this kind of shotty work does not continue to happen in our town. This is ridiculous that anyone was living there after 2021 without these repairs being done.
I also am a Life long resident of Davenport.
I agree with you this Building has been in horrible shape for Years!
How people were Allowed to Occupy this Building is beyond Understanding!
The Residents of this Building were Elderly, low income, and Disabled.
Affordable housing here is Horrible here in Davenport.
The First Things that comes to my mind is…..GREED!
My Son was in this building While it was Falling!
He was on the 3rd Floor! Thank God he Got Out Safely🙏🏾
He is Still having a Horrible Time Mentally (his Friend one of those Still Missing)😨
This Did Not Have to Happen!!!
Please keep All in your Prayers 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
I am so glad your son got out, Christy. I live in Davenport as well.
My coworker was telling me about this video earlier. She's got a close family-friend still unaccounted for. He moved into the building in April. His son just graduated from high school here. So heartbreaking. Especially after watching this video and learning just how bad things were/are with the building. I only moved to town a few months ago, so I don't know of the past history with it or anyone who has resided there.
@@LuckyLax702 .
Oh my God…the owner and inspectors needed to be locked up
Jeff, don't know if you have heard or not, but the city of Davenport have brought in 6X6 beams and osb to shore up the building. Some of the reports I read said it is to search for the 2 missing people due to public outcry. Kind of reminded me of Champlain towers when they couldn't search due to structural issues. The shame of this is that was such a beautiful building when I was growing up and to see it in such a state of disrepair over the dollars to do it correctly. I think as a country we are going to see more of these old buildings having structural issues due to owners not wanting to repair them correctly. Keep up the good work of keeping us informed
Thanks for the heads up! So many parallels between the 2 collapses
This is what happens when so much real estate is owned by wall street, reis, etc. That only care about return on investment not lives. They don't hesitate about RAISING RENT, but refuse to actually invest any of that money into the property. Just milk it for money for as long as possible then cash out to another slumlord
I think alot of the time owners just don't have the money to repair these buildings so they just make cosmetic patches to them and milk out as much as they can from them before they have to close them up 🤷♂️
@@willschultz5452 were lacking proper inspection and maintenance infrastructure in most places to properly deal with these things.
Investors buy these buildings often because they’re often priced at 25-40% of the replacement cost. Sometimes less. Then, they’re able to charge basically 10-20% less than newer buildings in rent due to inventory and market dynamics . So it’s cashflow and rental arbitrage opportunity..
At that point, they’re almost trapped in the investment as well because any significant repairs are likely more expensive than the building is worth AND there’s only basic safety measures in place to prevent this type of situation.
It’s a real problem that we’re going to be seeing in a real way over the next couple of decades as most of our housing inventory avg ages are going up significantly.
"Searching for people because of an outcry"?! 😳😡 This has to be the laziest rescue team and efforts in forever. The level of indifference to human lives by officials is appalling.
Soon as I saw the news, I immediately went to your RUclips page. I’m so glad to see you’re covering this. Too often these collapses are forgotten and then we move on until the next one. You guys are not allowing that to happen you’re investigating it and letting the public know what really happened. You’re educating us and I appreciate it.
Glad to help Jude!
@@jeffostroff Jeff, video of the collapse is now online.
This documentary was so well put together. If I may speak on behalf of all of the citizens of Davenport when I say thank you for taking your time in this investigation. My husband is a mason, has been for over 30 years and is simply appalled by everything you have shown us. The wrongdoing from the get-go is unacceptable. Truly heartbreaking and we can hear it in your tone and compassionate journalism.
Thanks so much for your kind words Michelle!
I live in central Iowa, and I've been watching the news conferences that Davenport's city people have been giving. They're sidestepping any knowledge of these conditions prior to the collapse. There will be many lawsuits filed.
Just like the condo building in Florida, this will be in litigation for years to come.
The Florida litigation was resolved quite quickly. Just over a year
@rcpmac NICE TRY but cities have been Democrat Party controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job
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Thanks for the update, Jeff. Great info. No one should have ever been allowed to live there, even just because of the mold!
It's amazing how people moved in, and did not notice anything right away
@@jeffostroff A quick coat of paint or whitewash would hide mold long enough to get a unit rented. Some slumlords operate that way.
Most of the ones who live there don't have much of a choice, mold or not. It is difficult to find housing here that will take rental assistance. Most of these people were faced with this place or the street.
@@Dallas_K Yeah, the last apartment my ex and I lived in had black mold ALL OVER the bathroom. It didn't show up for a little while, then the paint started to bubble and the mold seeped through, and it was obvious that they'd simply painted over the mold, and we knew they'd paint over it again once we left too. There was no ventilation in the bathroom except a window you could open, but of course much of the year it's too hot or cold for that and you'll have the AC or heat running. Funny thing is, it wasn't a traditional "slum lord" who orned it, it was a company, fancy building downtown and everything, they even had the apartment regularly insoected by a woman who nitpicked no matter what I did to the point we called them and told them I never wanted to see that woman in my home ever again. But the mold is no problem?
Same thing with my current apartment, when I moved in it was owned by a company that SEEMED professional, but within 5 months of moving in there were bed bugs! And they did what I'd seen done before, a couple apartments ago (that was why we left, actually, someone down the hall brought them in so we were having to pack up everything in plastic totes every two weeks for the exterminator and let me tell you, that was MIGHTY problematic when I was trying to write multiple college final papers. I never saw a bed bug, though.), and sent in an exterminator. Well guess what? Chemical sprays won't do much to bed bugs, they're highly resistant to it. So what did the company do? Have the building heat-treated? Nope, they sold it and didn't tell the poor guy until afterwards. Actually, I had to tell him. I ended up taking care of the problem myself with a bunch of food grade diatomaceous earth and some cinnamon, cinnamon sticks, and mint oil, and making interesting use of a chest freezer I bought.
@@crispytoast6936 HUD issues rental assistance and HUD actually has higher standards than Andrew Wold.
Even 4X4s pinned to the ground, and OSB held against the bricks, would not have successfully resisted the force of the wall outward. The masonry contractor whose bid was rejected is entirely correct about his prescription for shoring and his prediction that the absence of it cause imminent collapse.
Exactly!! Obviously they have no idea of the tons of force that is in play here🤷♂️. I had to laugh when I saw the "bracing" they put up😆. Totally useless
The engineers plan wasnt followed at all, so i dont think you can blame him. The only thing the engineer could have done better is make them vacate the building during renovations.. (yes people will be mad they have to move)
It's crazy, but it didn't take an engineer to see what was happening..
18 years in construction and related fields was enough to tell me that a collapse of either the brick exterior or of the structure itself, was likely.
I don't know how much experience the guys on the ground had, but I can't believe they agreed to keep working on the building with it looking that way.
@@williamhaynes7089 Honestly, I would have felt better about the proposed shoring than the pissant job that was actually enacted. Like, the crew that was working it, they were just addressing the cosmetic issues, not the structural ones. Its ridiculous. Even if it came down anyways, I would have said 'well at least they tried' if they did it right. But they didnt. They willfully did not do it right. This was blatant greed and ignorance, plain and simple.
@@zombieregime I’m not sure I agree. The workers had to shore up the areas they did simply to try to work underneath that wall. The exterior wythe alone could have fallen on them and killed them. They obviously pulled off the job after they brought the 4x4s to the job site and staged them there. I think they recognized the OSB plan was a suicide mission. It was not their job to die for their employer.
Buildings in this shape are rented out all the time where I am from, the landlord has a piece of plywood covering the bowed out brick wall at the base of the 3 story brick building, a burnt out apartment on the first floor with severe mold and water damage has never been renovated so when you walk into the building it smells horrific. Cities do not enforce ordinances and this is why people die and landlords get rich.
Uh huh. The landlord is probably broke and doesn't have the money for fire damage renovation. Or you're right and he's rich, leaving space boarded up creating no income. Tenants should be sentenced to own rental property and deal with tenants and their lack of life skills.
@@uptoolate2793 if you're really siding with Andrew Wold, the owner of the Davenport, then that's all anyone needs to know about your character. He deserves to be charged with manslaughter for the neglect of his building while still allowing tenants to occupy the deadly structure.
@@uptoolate2793 if he doesn't yave miney he should sell
As much as the owner and contractors are to blame here ultimately it's the city's job to protect its people, this building should have been condemned years ago until it was fixed properly. If you condemn it the owner will get it repaired ASAP because they're losing money but because it was kept open they took their sweet time and half-assed the repairs. People need to be jailed for this but we all know that won't happen.
Many notices were served. City officials have to walk a knife edge between enforcement and interference of private business. As a result the city law departments are enormous. Look to the antigovernment regulations party for responsibility for this situation. Most of the commenters blaming the city are the same anti regulation folks that are constantly ranting.
These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job
.
Shouldn't people be smart enough on their own to not rent in this building? The government cannot be and do everything for everyone.
Jeff, as always you have done an impeccable job in both investigating, and providing valuable information to this unfortunate building collapse. You indeed are very thorough in both your insight, logic, and how you present your facts to us, your viewers. It boggles the mind that these building collapse occur, especially like you said "this building is screaming for attention", and the building owners fail to see the real threat to loss of life. Again, it comes down to saving a few dollars for the owner, higher rental cost to the tenants. Little do the tenants realize that the building owners are playing Russian roulette with their tenants lives. Thank you Jeff for all the awareness you provide in your videos.
If appears to me the owner wanted to get the work done, but not being a structural engineer, probably didn't realize just how dangerous this was, it didn't have the money or didn't want to spend the money to have it fixed. But really, of the workers had done what was required by the engineer, this would not have happened. This is what it was like to live in eastern block countries for the past 80 yrs. & this is what we are getting... I'm sure we'll see more of this to come...
@@laurae.4285 This guy was sheisty and shady. He was a slumlord that owns (not for long) many properties. The list of infractions is long with Andrew Wold.
I live here in davenport. If you have questions just ask. We are angry! No reason he should have been allowed 145 incidents and still allowed to own property. 3 strikes your done!! He needs to be made to sell all properties and all $ should go straight to the cost of the horrible damage and aftermath to this situation. No insurance company should have insured that building. He shouldn't be allowed to collect any insurance $. He needs to sell his $2 million dollar castle and move into one of his glorious slum holes!
Makes me mad because my home insurance company had an inspector drive by and saw palms touching my roof and had me trim the tree or they would cancel me
@jeffostroff I really appreciate the time you put into these videos! They finally released 1 surveillance video but isn't the best view. I know the police station has a better view but they haven't released anything. The police station is literally diagonal from the side that collapsed. They have to have a better surveillance system then the one they released.
Jeff, its amazing that you were able to obtain all of these reports, from the engineer and from Davenport Neighborhood Services, and then provide pictures of the shoddy shoring attempt that was performed versus what was actually specified by the structural engineer. The bracing that was built was useless. Honestly I don't know if the engineer specifications would have saved the building from collapse either. Takeaway is that even with building inspections and engineering reports, corners are cut and danger results. Thanks Jeff as always.
I for one am convinced that the inspection reports and engineering plans don't reflect the dire nature of the building's unsafe condition and suspect that both the field inspector and the design engineer wanted it torn down but were overruled.
Thank you much for the update. Me stalking your channel as soon as it happened. I appreciate the information you provide. 💕
+ It's sad the owner paid 2 million dollars for the building but didn't put any money into it. He clearly knew the condition on purchase.
+ the city failed all the tenants past and present. No way should this building have been occupied with the mold and leak issues alone.
+ it's too bad previous tenants didn't break their leases and sue in small claims court with the condition of the building. They surely they would have won.
+ Tiktok has more older pictures from tenants that had moved out and email communications with the property management and city.
Such a shame.
It is interesting to me that we always criticize China for lax building standards but so many buildings are collapsing in the USA.
Building standard are fine here, it is when people cheat that something goes wrong, or they fail to properly maintain
Also the building was 100 years old without structural maintenance or structural updating.
This building was bought by a Chinese company in the 80s,they then hacked lofts into it without reinforcements, suprised it lasted that long
@@deeannemason7003 I’m looking at a house built in 1926 but it’s been relatively maintained since then so the bricks look almost new. My only worry is the possibility of asbestos and the homeless people living on porches
Iowa has the 4th worst building regulations in the country.
Let’s not forget the real issue. There’s 3 folks inside who are believed to have passed and are trapped in the rubble
From what you've shown me here, which I haven't seen compiled so thoroughly anywhere else (thanks Jeff), it looks like the collapse was the result of a lack of adequate shoring (support) during the repair process, which was performed in a contrary manner to what was prescribed by the Structural Engineer. Hope the contractor has lots of insurance. So sad that there was loss of life. This was preventable.
I hope his insurance rejects him
@@jeffostroff Who was acting as "contractor"? The permits said "owner", so owner might have hired crews with no licensed contractor in the loop.
I don't think his LLC will save him.
The owner, Andrew Wold, liked to do things as cheaply as possible. Sadly, Wold owns MANY properties in downtown Davenport and elsewhere in the community. I'd like this to be on him, as opposed to the workers, so that he can be held accountable.
@@bradleystraincrashchannel2498 Whomever was responsible for NOT performing the work the way the Structural Engineer said to do it, including the required shoring (temporary support), is the "bad guy" here. If both owner and contractor colluded to do the work on the cheap, without the proper supports, they're both liable. The real story here, yet to be reported on in depth, is the City of Davenport's response (or lack thereof) to the numerous signs of a potential failure/collapse. As the news reported yesterday, the fire department responded to a 911 call and visited the site the day before the collapse and left, after apparently doing nothing. Was Davenport's Building Inspector contacted immediately after the FD"s visit? Was the Building Inspector at the building the next day, the day of the collapse, when the work started? If he/she was, they would have noticed immediately that the work being done was not in accordance with the Permit (the Permit was issued to do the work as prescribed by the SE), and shut down the work.
One other thing, it's a BIG DEAL for the City of Davenport to tell residents to evacuate their homes. But I'm at a loss to understand why it wasn't done in this case after the 911 call the day before. The City has liability here as well, imo.
@@Harry_Gurvich yea so many factors at play. I think bottom line is no one thought anything like THIS could happen. That it was something that could wait. It’s the only way my brain can make sense of how so many people missed the opportunity to save the residents.
Regarding the workers - it is very possible they were just following orders from owner and didn’t know any better.
I will share with you the same comment I've been sharing since I heard about it Monday morning...THE OWNER OF THAT BUILDING IS CLOSE FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE IN THAT CITY'S GOVERNMENT... Friends doing favors for friends, narcissism, nepotism, city land owners being elected to city council, local construction company owners being elected to city council... My hometown of Auburn NY currently has all of that as well...
Yes what this person says is true.
Many notices were served. City officials have to walk a knife edge between enforcement and interference of private business. As a result the city law departments are enormous. Look to the antigovernment regulations party for responsibility for this situation. Most of the commenters blaming the city are the same anti regulation folks that are constantly ranting.
Thank-you for bringing this to light and thoroughly explaining what the conditions were.
I am horrified seeing those pictures of how unsafe the building was for occupancy going back 3 years until the day of collapse. . because the Mayor and inspector at the initial press conference acted like they had no clue to any complaints except the exterior wall repair.
●Unfathomable how many reports and photos are on file with the city showing how untable the building was and how the tenants were lives were disregarded.
●Many contractors abd City officials have seen the pics., reports, and building in person yet not one person involved stepped up, advocated for the safety of those tenants by declaring the building uninhabitable; just so their businesses could secure the contract.
●The fact that the contractor on Sunday, hours before the collapse warned his employees twice to leave the site because the building collapse was imminent; but never warned tenants to get out or call 911 to get help to evacuate the tenants...is deplorable.
● Very suspicious the City wanted to demo the building 16 hrs. after collapse; we were all immediately suspicious.
●City Hall is directly across the street. There is no way the Mayor did not see the exterior condition of that back wall. And there's no way with documented images and report's of the horrible condition of building that it would've been flagged as "passed".
I wanted to send you a few online pics. of a pre-painted back wall and a Zillow rental pic. but i had no way to contact you. The Zillow rental pic. showed a wall crack that ran diagonal zig-zag from left lower corner of an apt. window there.
Unbelievable the failure at all levels with no concern for tenant lives.
Iowan here. The corruption of many, many officials here just keeps getting worse and worse. They all use the excuse that they didn't know.
@@drfreud65 I called your Governors office yesterday voicing my disgust on how everything has been handled.
@@Tee19691 thank you for doing that! I hope it helps, but she's ALL about less government, so I doubt it will help.
@@drfreud65 You're very Welcome! Anything I can do to help the Davenport tenants/citizens have their voices heard. I know all about less is more govt.; I live in NYS with Kathy Hochul as Gov.
@@drfreud65 Don't be complacent, putting up with falling bricks until buildings collapse. The remedy is in the hands of the voters. Throw the bums out.
City released all the information because they are trying to lay the blame on the property owner when they have the authority and power to just condemn the building at any time. I hope the victims bankrupt both the property owner AND the city.
There are a number of things that tie the city officials and property owner together in this mess. But you're right, the politicians saw that they were sinking and tried to shoot out ahead of the news cycle. I think they might have done too little too late after a ton of questionable cover up attempts, though.
Can't believe no one's security cam caught the collapse.
I heard one was released today, I need to find it
@@jeffostroff NBC news has it on it's main channel came out like 4 hours ago "Three people likely still trapped in Davenport building collapse, officials say" is the title of the video, ruclips.net/video/qnNQ3maHGdg/видео.html
@@johndewgames horrific. It collapsed right at the point it looked like it would. And the fact that that guy took videos and pics of it just hours before it collapsed is insane. He was trying to help too and was ignored
@@jeffostroffKWQC news 6 had footage this morning
@@jeffostroff I posted the link to the very short clip on your last video.
Similar antique brick structures are inhabited in every city and town. My hobby is driving in alleys and looking at antique bricks of the buildings. The history of brickwork will interest me.
I'd suggest you do a video on things to look for if you're going to rent or buy a place. When they ordered the workers to leave they should have vacated the whole building
Really enjoy how you dissect and explain the good, bad and ugly of construction screw ups, Jeff. Any time I'm in a parking garage, first thing I do is look up. Great work! Take care.👍
Same here! In fact, I'm very uncomfortable, to the point of claustrophobia, in parking garages after Jeff's Champlain videos. I'm grateful to have learned what I have.
Here in Las Vegas we have a casino with water streaming into the parking garage. I think “Why did engineers think this was acceptable?” So far all the columns look solid with no rust, but the building is still young. Maybe in 40 years it will collapse
.
I think you have to go back to the 1980's renovations into apartments to get to the root cause. Something was done then with the walls, air ducts, elevator shafts, and that large A/C roof unit to change the building's rear structural integrity!
Nah just 120 years of aging. Bricks don’t last forever
WQAD just released a 911 call from the day before the collapse of a concerned person saying the wall was buckling. Fire department spent 4 minutes on the call. What a shame.
I felt physically sick looking at some of those photos.
I have no background or expertise in building or anything like that, and even i can see that people should not have been allowed to stay in that building until it was made safe.
That's a lot of people to evacuate with no where else to go Kind of a perfect storm
I worked on a project recently that required a great deal of shoring. When I asked the engineer for specification on how to shore I was refused and told it was my responsibility as the site manage. So, technically the engineers left this to the ‘grunts’. I figured it out and found the right people but always though it would have been nice for the engineers to give some confirmation on the shoring integrity. So, perhaps these people were told to shore but not given a game plan and they didn’t know an old Irish builder with old timer knowledge.
If its that sketchy, they need to take the building down entirely!!
That's because that engineer didn't know how to shore it up. He just didn't want to tell u he had no idea how to shore it up
@@cathiwim it was a hundred year old double brick mansion undergoing extensive renovations. The building wasn’t the problem. Heavy beams, underpinnings and other work drawn by the engineer but the engineering behind how to support the structure in order to implement this work was missing.
@@Kyle-gb9dq agreed, a very important step that needs to be addressed from the engineering side otherwise the site will just figure it out and sometimes it will work and other times it will not. I would visit the house at night while it was shored up, listening for movement, measure cracks and eye changes in the joists. I think a lot of these jobsite miss a very important ‘part’ which is someone who cares.
@18:43 those two pipes that have been cut back to above the masonry repair area are the downspouts that handle much of the roof runoff (roof looks to be pitched to flow to this wall). If they got any rain without creating a temporary downspout diversion away from the wall, it would have dumped tons of water right into the repair area.
I'm not sure if it's unpainted area due to being previously behind the removed downspout or if it's water damage on the paint, but there's at least possible telltales on the wall that you're correct and the water was just dumping out several feet above the ground.
It's been dry for weeks here. Rained a bit this morning but obviously that was post-collapse.
And now we know the reason that the city wanted the building leveled in 48 hours.
People may think I’m nuts, but after watching your channel, now when I travel if I’m booked in an older building that’s been turned into a hotel, I am looking for cracks, water stains, and if I saw separated brick and that they had to put a roof over the gas line due to falling brick?! No way I’m going to sleep in that hotel. If these folks were Section 8, their options were probably this building or nothing. Poor souls. And probably the only people who will get charged will be the poor guy who was told “go put these bricks on that wall,” not the people who kept saying it was fine for people to be in the building.
Probably also the contractor who was dismissed because he never warned the TENANTS or the City. But how could he notify the tenants? Usually buildings like this are locked so you can't get in without a key.
Use the mailboxes.
Not surprised at all. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job
.
Why engage an engineer if you don’t do what he says!
You got that right!
CYOA> That's the only reason they did it . Had to do it because of the city and the permit process. My own opinion based on what I saw is the building should have been vacated . 2 that the entirety of the inside of the wall should have been removed to determine just how much damage was there to the wall on both faces. From what I saw it was obvious to me and I'm by no means an engineer that this building had or had previously suffered from a leaking roof and bad plumbing problems. This what explains the bulging at the upper story lintels as well as the bulging of the wall . Freeze and thaw cycles will do this .
@@danielbackley9301 Thank You. Yes, it needed a lot more than 4x4's.
Your conclusions seem very sound. I am not an engineer but the logic and forces make perfect sense to me. The first time you showed the picture of the ‘bracing’ that was done I actually shuddered. Vey scary sight. Thank you for you clear analysis.
Good lord, that wall is bulging like Mt. St. Helens! Unbelievable that they let the residents stay in there.
Wait a minute...didn't St. Helens blow after it bulged?????
Last month he was cited for another building. His fine? $300. Unreal! And it's interesting how you cannot find a pic of the dude, or the news, protecting the rich, aren't publishing any pics.
FREEMASON / SHRINER.....
That building owner and contractor needs to be charged with homicide. Unbelievable.
Couldn't agree more
Came across your channel while I was looking up stuff about this collapse. Thank you for keeping us the people informed.
The scary thing for me is that my wife and I drove by this building while leaving a baseball game just an hour before the collapse.
The NBC News channel has a video clip from a surveillance camera showing the moment of the collapse. When I play it at 0.25 speed it seems that the unsupported bricks at the top of the area being repaired began to slide down first, bringing the upper part of the exterior wall down in one sheet. Have a look and see if you agree.
I saw it as a few seconds on their site, is there a full length raw video somewhere?
@@jeffostroff I don’t know, sorry.
@@jeffostroff They said the segment stopped because the power went off to the camera due to the transformer for neighborhood is under the rubble.
"You know why, they were putting lipstick on a pig; they were hoping that sealing the brick would make the problem go away."
That's what ignorant people do
@@jeffostroff Watching you explain the Champlain Towers collapse a year or two ago put big emphasis on what dramatic water damage looks like. For years I've tried getting my parents to fix the water leak in the house.
I’m a minor home repair guy yet I know enough about old buildings to know that that place should’ve been closed down a few years ago. I haven’t looked into many details about the building itself but those bricks looked like they were from before the Great Depression. If what you said is true, the owner of the building should be charged criminally, depraved indifference and negligent homicide. I can’t believe someone would be so careless and only concerned about the bottom dollar. I hope he’s having issues sleeping for many long years to come.
Beautiful coverage and teaching us all about how to do something right: and how people w/lack of conscience and who are also possibly used to being dishonest and having low standards in general can kill people. In other words, stupid people kill. Thank you Mr. Ostroff for your high intelligence and your high standards and conscientiousness.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it Karen!
You are welcome Mr. Ostroff. May Yahuah The Most High God Bless and Keep you and your family Always.
The owner and his staff didn't even do the bare minimum - which is why the city had to get involved with almost every tenant complaint, it seems. Perhaps they felt the tenants didn't matter because they were low income and just 'lucky to not be homeless,' so to speak. It's just sad.
But Democrat politicians tell us how much they CARE about the people & their welfare. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job
.
Solid report Jeff, thanks for following this one......let the finger pointing begin.....kind of looks like the PE is in the clear except for hindsight of clearing the occupants out of all the apartments on the weak side of the building....so far...no mention of what condition is of the other walls/structures of the rest of the building.
I blame the city & the landlord. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job
.
And the landlord should have made proper repairs
@@electrictroy2010 But as a lawyer reminded me, local governments, like all governments have IMMUNITY from everything and it would be very hard to bring legal liability against the city....so the Mayor was right, tear the thing down and move on....nothing to see here!
Another excellent video Jeff, thank you for the amazing work you do. This building was rotten to the core and no matter how much they patched it, it was doomed. One would think that Surfside was a wakeup call, but clearly not. The landlord should be jailed.
Thanks for a great video and being so responsive to questions in the chat! 💜❄️👊
Glad to help Julia, and thanks for joining us tonight on a late night release!
@jeffostroff Thank you for researching and compiling the extensive info seen here! While the building collapse and loss of life is a catastrophe, I do enjoy hearing your take and expertise when these things come up. Keep up the good work!
I live in a house built in 1865. The house has a brick foundation. I pray every night the house won’t fall down. I’m renting so I don’t have any say on repair. Then in my son’s room the ceiling had a diagonal crack across the ceiling. I live in Dekalb IL .
Wow, sorry to hear that. If possible, I pray that you get another place. Meanwhile, maybe call the officials to lodge a complaint and document all of the issues. Good luck.
I read somewhere that 911 was called only a few hours before the collapse and they stayed 5 minutes and left. It seems that many people on many levels are culpable. I hope the people who are displaced and the families of the three deceased residents get restitution from all levels. This tragedy could have been avoided if ALOT of people had done their jobs.
He had called the fire department a few days before. They showed up and cleared it in minute's
Excellent research and insights once again…. very informative. Thank you!!
When you look at the twisted bulging around the window at the 19:22 mark, that looks the same as the slow motion beginning of a building implosion video.
Yes it is the buckling of the walls
Your videos are very well done. The music is low in the background and your voice is well modulated. Your opinions in this situation are spot on! PS. I hate painted bricks too. ;) Thank you!
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it ARM!
You have a voice like a radio DJ
Insane that this entire building wasn't evacuated YEARS AGO for a full reconstruction/remodel
Everyone was getting paid... no one cared about saving lives
Excellent analysis & breakdown. Thank you for explaining this in such detail. I learned a LOT!
Glad to help Laura!
Jeff, I heartily agree with your synopsis of this event. Even from the photo's you can see this building should have been at least partially evacuated so as to give access to the areas where permanent support should occur. It's always a matter of going from the ground up. Fiddling with the exterior brick was fool-hearty. The economic concerns of the owner outweighed the actual needs for repair and this event was just a matter of time. Money spent on numerous repairs and paint could have been, should have been spent on providing sturdy columns from the base of the building up to support all the beams that relied on the deteroriatig brick structure. And from what I've seen the front and sides of the building were not too much better than the rear. Brick, over time, without proper maintanence becomes rotted from being wet then freezing. The outer surfaces of clay brick is hardened in ovens when made. The insides don't have as much strenght at the outer edges. As it ages it's composition becomes more powdery and less able to support weight. It has a limited lifetime. And the mortar is even more prone to deteroration due to the wet/freeze cycles that occur over time. Older mortar used lime and sand composition rather than portland cement base. Alll brick buildings should be treated periodically with a sealer such as 5% silicone solution to help prevent water infiltration. I seriously doubt this building ever saw even one such treatment. Absent the required maintenance and the subsequent need for internal suring, this building was on it's way out for quite some time. What is amazing to me is the lack of knowledge city inspection workers have in situations such as this. Even a basic seminar requirement for such people might have kept the tenants safe. So I blame all parties responsible for this building for this collapse. Once the pieces of this disaster are sorted out, those responsible should be held to account.
Painting the bricks was probably the death nail for the structure. You can't paint those old brick and mortar walls anywhere, but especially in the North where we get hard winter freezes. The moisture trapped in the bricks expands when it freezes and crumbles the brick from the mass of the brick itself. The expansion destroys the mortar joint allowing more moisture to permeate the wall creating more leaks and adding to the snowball effect of degradation.
Can newer brick walls be painted without causing problems?
@@arribaficationwineho32 I believe this applies to old clay bricks but I would consult with an expert before covering an exterior brick wall with paint.
@@WesForster thank you. I have no intention of painting brick but was curious of the way it was stated.
@@arribaficationwineho32 All brick has to transpire…breathe on all sides. Bricks have pores that take on moisture and then release it. Paint clogs their pores and forces moisture inward, where over time it dissolves the cement in the mortar, ultimately leaving nothing but sand. The only safe way to “paint” brick is with a lime wash. It’s basically a very thin colored cement layer that is also able to breathe, so it doesn’t prevent the brick from transpiring.
@@maud2739 thank you!
Another great video Jeff! Thank you for assembling and analyzing all of this information for us, this collapse never should have happened.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked the video!
Thank you for your work here. It was useful to see the inspection reports and photos of the building & interior up close. I don't know how people continued to live there - especially since the owners told tenants that they wouldn't do repairs other than emergencies. You'd think that would be a big warning that you should get out.
My limited understanding is that the building used a building method that either isn't used now or is not used frequently. The owners haven't had it for very long. Had there been no collapse, could the building ever be adequately rehabbed or should it just have been demolished? Why buy a building with such structural flaws? Do you think the new owners just thought they could do patch jobs and not address the major issues?
This apartment building was affordable for the low income families. And they accepted section 8, so for many people it was either this or the streets. And some tennants- like one of the men who died- was placed here in cooperation with some of the local homeless shelters. So quite literally these people didn't have a choice. And this is my hometown so I've seen plenty of things on fb. The owner of this building didn't just buy it, he bought it from one of his other LLC's. Different name but same owner. I don't feel bad for the slumlord one bit. He knew the condition of this building and chose to do the bare minimum while collecting every penny he could from his poor residents that had to pay rent no matter the condition of the building. I hope he loses all his wealth and faces jail time for the manslaughter of three men.
I hope the city get sued. These cities have been Democrat controlled for decades. Put the blame on the people actually in charge. The Democrat leadership should have condemned it. But they failed to do their job
.
Thanks for speaking about this! The more people that speak about this, the better.
Thanks for watching Kyndall!
That building should have been condemned years ago.
In the boating world, when it comes to corrosion of steel boats and rot of wooden ones, it is said that you usually only see about a quarter of the actual damage.
There seems to have been a lot of water damage in this building. Perhaps even the steel parts of the structure were compromised as well, especially at their connection points.
If those were to fail, the bricking would be doomed to fail in column.
When I was getting ready to move to the area, I had an appt to look at an apartment in this building and the apartment looked great. I walked in about 10 ft and turned around to walk out. My mom was started to walk in and I told her, “absolutely hello no was I living there”. I told mom everything I saw in just the 10ft into the bldg. We found a great place on the Illinois side. This was in October. On the local news, a young girl, fresh out of college and was shown the great apartment and then she had the same thing happen, the ole “bake and switch” She decided to go ahead and move in Sunday morning and by Sunday afternoon, luckily while she was out at Walmart and Hy-Vee the bldg fell.
Stay in school, it's "bait & switch".
Same thing here; I walked in and got to the first floor. Nope nope nope
This bracing looks like the plot from a Three Stooges movie
That's a good one!
Don't insult the Stooges they wouldn't be this stupid.
- The city is at fault for letting the owners of the building drag their feet on repairs they also should have just evacuated the building completely until it was fixed. Take away any potential of the owner making money off the building and than he would make the repairs.
- Also the owner is a pos. Shopping around to avoid costs and cut corners that led to this tragedy. He had the engineers recommendations and the contractors plan. He had what he needed and he decided to not to follow the advice of people who are educated to deal with these type of repairs. Also just a fun fact. The guy who owns the building is currently building a multi million dollar house. I guess $50,000 to make sure the repair is done safely is too much to ask. But millions of dollars for a new house is completely fine.
- Oh and I forgot to mention that the owner at this point has only been fined $300. What makes it even worse is that a man was arrested yesterday because he was trying to search through the rubble and was fined $600. While he probably shouldn't be searching through the rubble on his own it just highlights how people like Wold get away with things in the society we live in.
Sadly this reminds me, albeit on a smaller scale, of the collapse of the Copper Lounge in downtown Sioux Falls, SD.
A company with a questionable track record who might've had friends in City Hall, was converting a century old building into a club and drug store. What little that ever came out was that the building was stable and structurally sound. A set of plans that explicitly laid out what needed to be done was drawn up -- and ignored.
The city is supposed to inspect large scale jobs like this, but appears to have felt the code was too onerous. As work proceeded, a critical load bearing wall was removed, but a beam to take its place was not installed. Cost? Time? Who knows? In fact, a photo was posted to Facebook of the very spot, which quickly was taken down by the company after the tragedy.
As anyone knows, a previously solid building that begins to develop cracks, and audibly groans and creaks, is in distress and sending out warnings. The residents of the upper floor were concerned and spoke to someone with the company, but were assured everything was fine. The warning signs continued and the residents contacted the former owner. I think he went to City Hall to voice his concerns just a day or two before the building reached its failing point and collapsed.
One man, a single father, died in the basement. A resident and her dog were trapped in the rubble for hours but were rescued. As questions started being asked, and a local media started quickly uncovering unsettling evidence, the city had the structure demolished post haste. Sure, there was the public safety concern, but it seems suspicious that it was done before OSHA could begin inspecting everything.
The family of the man who was killed sued for workers compensation. The woman living in the building sued for health reasons. Ultimately the state Supreme Court ruled that Sioux Falls and South Dakota were immune, even if they were known to have committed wrong doings.
I don't know what OSHA found or stated in the final report. The construction company suddenly declared bankruptcy but turned around and sued the architects, their insurance company, etc. Unflattering facts about shoddy workmanship in past projects, worker safety, etc, started being published in the local media. It tried hard to claim itself as the real victim of the tragedy.
A new building was constructed in the spot. It is a nice building but there is no memorial of any sort to the memory of the man who died pointlessly. The city has moved on quickly. Except, it seems to have had problems with other downtown projects repeatedly since.
See the coverage at KELOLAND: www.keloland.com/news/copper-lounge-collapse/
Great post-mortum of the collapse. I think I've seen 3 other post-collapse videos of yours - as well as your Sam's Club, Costco, Lowes, and Home Depot videos. I'm late to the party, but have become a fan.
Thanks for coming back for more!
Thanks for taking your time to do all this research. As soon as I saw the news I was like "oh the Miami condo collapse guy on RUclips will figure this out" So terrible, I hope this isn't something happening more often and I hope this owner doesn't have any more properties. I appreciate you sharing your interest in this.
😂😂😂😂
Looks like huge problems arose as a result of converting the building to apartments in the 80s. That resulted in more bathrooms, kitchens, and internal moisture. It looks like the conversion was slipshod with no additional ventilation to exhaust moisture and cheap drywall slapped up everywhere to cover up.
The recent renovation work appears to be even worse. This poor building was ruined by repeated botchwork. Everybody today wants instant gratification and an easy way out. These old buildings were constructed with what today seems like excessive labor. They must be repaired the same way.
I am surprised we have not seen stuccoed styrofoam patches.
But how thick is that exterior wall? Some people have stated that it is up to 5 wythes thick. The exterior wythe is going to suffer from water exposure and freeze/thaw cycles. If the exterior wythe deteriorates the other wythes should still be capable of supporting the load. However people tend to cut all kinds of holes and notches through the brick wall so at some locations there might be questionable support.
Everybody can guess the primary characteristics of bricks- they are very strong and they are brittle. So with damage inside and outside you can have cracks through the wall and delamination of the wythes which can cause layers to buckle.
The building could have been saved at any time, the remaining part of the building could be saved right now. It would take time and money, the building might not be worth it. Rebuilding sections of exterior wall would require shoring, lots of REAL shoring.
Your photo at 23:26 shows severe buckling of the exterior wall. This might be just the exterior wythe or it might be the entire wall. A wall buckling like that could lead to collapse of a section of the building. And yes they are not effectively shoring/bracing it. I'm sorry but sometimes you don't just put in a few 4x4 braces, you have to get serious about it and put in real structural steel bracing which might even require construction of new exterior foundations for the bracing to attach to. Then do the demolition and repair work.
"Width".
@@KB4QAA Width? We were talking about thickness. "Wythe" is a masonry term relating to thickness of a masonry wall.
P.S. I just have to see this! Thank you Jeff 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Glad to be of service John!
Hi Jeff, i happened upon your channel because of the Titan emplosion i am a total novice in engineering terms, i know nothing about this field at all i found your channel really interesting and i have now subscribed Thank you for your expertise on this awful disaster, which should never have happened. These experts need to take action when they come face to face with these big red flags.
After all these collapses all i can think about everytime im in a tall building......
I'm in a two story house, likely to survive if it collapses
Having worked in 28 story hotel and went throught high rise disaster training at 18 yo. I learned to always look for exits and have an escape plan. Hotels really dislike me because I always ask for the current maps with exits and location of fire extinguishers when I travel... lol
I live in earthquake prone Seattle, so you know a big one is coming.
Iowa resident here. Thanks for giving this some coverage and shedding light
Someone did call the fire department the night before the collapse ! They came and left in a few mins and said it was ok. You can find the phone call on RUclips.
Imagine if your kid would move to study to another part of the country and once you would pay him a visit, you would find out him living in this sort of nightmare 😮
Are you taking into account the original design structure of this 1907 building? It seems to be a cage steel structure with a load bearing masonry outer wall which seems to have been five bricks thick, at least where it's visible in the post-collapse drone shots of the wall at the second story level. The steel cage was not meant to hold up the structure. It seems crazy now but it's the load bearing brick wall that holds up the steel beams. The steel beams were just lateral bracing for the load bearing brick wall so that it could be thinner and there didn't have to be internal masonry sheer walls to provide lateral support for wind load. It's all to give more usable interior space.
In New York and Chicago this was obsolete technology by 1907. The outer brick wall is just a façade. The load bearing brick wall seems to be what failed. Not to take away from the fact that other things failing could help that along.
Was the original construction shoddy? Did they use pressed bricks or common bricks? Water damage? Poor repairs over the years that weakened the wall rather than strengthening? Sheer age past the expected life of the obsolete design? Did the debris at the bottom damage the load bearing wall, not just the façade? Did the knuckle-draggers doing the repair work dig into the load bearing wall? All of the above plus... whatever?
Thumbsup for being one of very few comments mentioning the underlying load bearing here.
Great detective work putting the facts together. Such a preventable tragedy that was years in the making.
I am at a loss why that building was not condemned a few yers ago.
I think we might see changes in the future about evacuating buildings
@@jeffostroff Indeed.
Wow! Txs Jeff! This building was crying for help! Criminal for sure!
Yup, I see another 2 Billion lawsuit!
I LOVE your videos. Thank you sir.
Glad to help Billy!
I see some shady stuff as an electrician, but there's pressure not to inconvenience via cost or money, at least as far as repairs to existing structures go. My experience is that old isnt always bad, its the diy or unprofessional fixes that are worse. I know a lot of generals on remodels or flips who do their own electrical and get away with it! As a tech, I have to constantly use judgement as to what's dangerous enough to call out, there is so much of it. There is craft to my job. If you don't do it for a living you don't have it, so don't do it. We did have a restaurant shut down due to egregiously crappy wiring done by the owers buddy - the repairs were re-done correctly and the restaurant re-opened - was the place gonna burn down otherwise? Hard to tell, but my boss on that job made the call and may have inconvenienced or made someone angry. We are still in business and in demand.
I cannot believe those poor tenants weren't evacuated and the building shut down before the collapse. The sad thing is, a bit of money will be paid out but probably nothing will fundamentally change. Ticks me off. It takes a village, darn it, we gotta watch out for each other and not count on inspectors to catch everything.
Just wanted to let you know your awesome. Your detective work is top notch👍🏽
How many more buildings in this condition are out there with people living in them? Ugh.
Probably many more
I am a plumber not an engineer by any means but I know what damage hidden & obvious water will cause.water intrusion caused these problems Years ago & it was never repaired correctly.Water got in at the top to start.freeze & thaw cycles did the rest.
The building owner wanted to save on shoring?! 🤯
Yes, that was shockingly stupid. He deserves the loss now and I hope the insurance company denies his claims due to his negligence and not following the engineer's script.
"Yes yes, by all means let's get the low estimate".
Gotta save that all mighty dollar!
The city is completely at blame , this building should have been condemned..
This is a fascinating analysis. I live in Southern Africa where pretty much all buildings in cities are built with bricks and they are plastered and painted. Same applies in the UK where I spent a few years studying.
Yes, you are correct about the raker shores that were in place were not holding anything. You will see the Urban Search and Rescue team in the pics today put properly installed raker shores in to do their search work. They should have brought that team in the first day.
Oh no, they wanted to tear it down the next day. Bodies in the rubble notwithstanding. They did a cursory search, decided no one was there, and wanted to sweep it away. Then the protests started.
Could you find some photos of the shoring that the rescue people erected? It appears to me that even without internal beams added for shoring, that the contractor workers still didn't follow the recommended directions for external shoring (ie 4×4s and angle iron, and OSB). And didn't Jeff say that it appeared that they HAD started removing degraded sections of brick? Kind of like that game Jenga....
I was wondering if you would catch this in the news. I'm GLAD you did! I followed you from the Florida mishap.
Thanks for the analysis.
Glad to help Derek!
You hit it. Definitely required permanent shoring interior and proper bracing exterior prior to removing any bricks. I'm a little intrigued by the magical "computer glitch" that allowed a building inspector to sign off as "fail" on Friday and appear as "passed" on Monday? As reported by local ABC affiliates, the inspector resigned. Handed in a resignation due to an internal computer glitch? My opinion is, dude did a drive-by with the walls still up, went away and came back to catastrophe , so changed his vote. He could have mitigated the worst had he ordered engineer's approval or a stop-work. The town is also culpable as far as I guess.
I need a glitch like that to lower my income tax by $20k
If this happened in Illinois that inspector would be worried about CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE charges being filed. Just way too many mistakes on this one.