"Research86" wrote in message
om...
Thanks to the few folks who provided some response to my posting a
couple of weeks ago on "BLASTING DAMAGE TO MY HOUSE". But I still
need documentation sources or references to help me proceed with this
thorny problem. With millions of homeowners in our great land, I am
certain others with common house construction have experienced a
situation such as ours. Surely we are not alone!

More details of our situation are in this message. I WILL TRULY
APPRECIATE any response or guidance specific to our problem.

Several blasting sessions were done in our neighborhood at a
construction site, about 1/4 mile from my house. The measured level
of blasting recorded by a small engineering group shows only lower
levels at their few monitored locations, which did not include our
property.

My basement is a 2-car garage and large finished room. When first
discovered and shown in photos taken by my insurance company's
engineer, there were several slightly noticeable, hairline cracks
"stair stepping" down my foundation. . The stair-step cracks start
at the top of the foundation, and extend several feet down to
approximate outside ground level. Previous to discovering the cracks
our foundation and basement had always been very tight and dry. My
wife and I saw no cracks during 11 years of ownership, including
accompanying a pest control person in annual foundation inspections,
and my daily parking about 2 feet from the foundation . I have
documented the foundation cracks with many good photos and have a
copy of the insurance engineer's photos.

In both bathrooms the tile was previously intact, but both now have
long horizontal cracks through the tile. Also, we discovered several
interior door frame mouldings throughout the house that separated
slightly from the wall. There were no separations before the
blasting. During the blasting period my wife found picture frames
throughout the house hanging un level, but none fell off the wall.

Initially by phone, several repair contractors and people with basic
knowledge of blasting all confirmed with me that we had no previous
foundation cracking, and asked if the cracks were horizontal or
"STAIR-STEP" in appearance. All said stair-step cracking is a
characteristic of blasting. And that horizontal-lateral cracking is
characteristic of outside earth pressure on a concrete block
foundations. A structural engineer who inspected for us discovered the
hairline cracks in the bathroom tile, and said that is another
characteristic of blasting damage. He said "you have plenty of things
to work with" related to the blasting.

My homeowners insurance company continues to maintain that because
measurements of the blasting show only lower levels it didn't cause
any of the cracking. Yet we had none of this before!

I've had to file my one and only law suit (in 60 odd years of life)
against my home owner insurer and the blasting company. But my lawyer
has not been able to find any DOCUMENTATION which supports the common
knowledge that shock waves from blasting cause "stair-step" type
cracking in concrete block foundations. My lawyer in the small firm
has no experience in blasting related cases but he and the owner have
a reputation of being very honest, meticulous, tenacious, and
successful attorneys. They came very highly recommended and have
definitely lived up their reputation in working with me.
SNIPPED
try here
http://www.nvcc.com/fet-forensics/
http://expertpages.com/engineer.htm
and the last googled
http://www.jansenkiener.com/Forensic.htm