Check this out, Chinese apartment building fell over !

You gotta be joking....

I agree with the post the other person said, would you like to rent space in the other exactly the same building 50m away from the one that fell over??

no way jose
 
the footings in the picture look no larger than the average home , piers look like pipes , and the ground is very wet too! engineer to blame on that one!
 
That building probably acted like a big sail and over she goes....
the building behind may now be subject to similar wind loading.
 
I've spent some time in China over the last year or so and have witnessed some strange building/repairing practices over there.

This does not suprise me one bit... They don't really have many rules when building or renovating etc. - Big margin for error.

I've seen some builders working off the side of a building while hanging from some rope like tarzan eek::eek:

I've also seen a guy installing a banner off the top of a 20+ story building while hanging completely over only being supported by two guys arms...
 
According to information, a 70 meter section of the flood prevention wall in nearby Dianpu River may have something to do with this building collapse.
Click to expand...

Or just possibly the lack of foundations might have had something to do with it too.
 
It's Shanghai, middle of a very muddy river delta. Do some reading on building practice where bedrock isn't available, they drive steel pylons into the mud and then start building, I guess they didn't put long enough pylons into the mud, or maybe not enough of them.

Crazy stuff. Regardless the building shouldn't have fallen over, engineers or builders must have stuffed up big time.

cheers
Graeme
 
After looking at it again, its foundations look small but there are pretty massive. look @ them compared to size of the guys on ground.

+ its on clay, so would be same effect as someone going a$$ over head walking on wet clay.

Still doesnt change my opion that its hilarious. Id love to see it for real. It makes that unit @ Lane cove that fell in the tunnel a pittance via comaprison.
 
The Y-man said:
Hmmm.... wait till they get arounbd to repairing this one - a big crane, some ropes.... :D

Cheers,

The Y-man
Click to expand...

and a WHOLE lotta spak-filla :D

those piles are steel rods encased in concrete.

that steel has sheared, not just pulled up out of the ground.

something is seriously a-miss here. i'm thinking some bedrock shifted due to a drop in the water table or something and has schnapped the piles clean off.

forty residents run to one side of the building to see a fire engine go past, and, well, it's like playing corners on the school bus.
 
Wow it's like a stack of lego blocks that fell over. Funny how the building is largely intact and doesn't have many cracks in it. Where's Superman when you need him. He'd have that upright again in no time. :p
 
There's no way that ANY engineer would specify hollow piles that short. I surmise the following:

  • The piles are probably meant to be much, much longer. Most likely the pile snapped when the building overturned (under wind load perhaps?).
  • The "hollow" footings shown there are actually only the casement for driving of the pile footings. After driving, the builder is meant to place reinforcement and concrete into the casement to create the piles.
  • I have colleagues who work/ed in China. Apparently it's common practice to put the reinforcing cages into the piers for the engineers/supervisor's inspection. After the inspection they pull the reinforcement out to use on the next job.

Bottom line: there are bad engineers, but not THIS bad. Even a fresh graduate would know putting hollow pile casings down does not constitute a proper footing. I would lay the blame firmly on the builder.
 
I'm not a builder, but I have lived in China and seen many many dodgey builds. Brand new apartments that have cracking walls and ceilings, every apartment I have ever rented, I have had to have air tests, due to the heavy heavy use of formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals used in building materials, not to mention incorrect or inadequate ventilation.

As an example I watched some guys build a brick fence out the front of some new apartments near my work. Day one, I watched them mix concrete with big sticks on the GROUND. That afternoon, I saw a whole bunch of guys standing around the hole for the footing, it was filled with concrete, but didn't make it all the way to the top. Day two after standing around, smoking lots of cigarettes, they decided to fill the rest of the hole with dirt, then concrete over the top until it was all level-ish.

Day 3, they started laying the bricks.

Now the fence looks great, but next time we get a big rain, the fence will either crack in halves or be about 30cm shorter than it is now.

Most of the "new" and "impressive" buildings will look like crap in 10 years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

geoffw
AirBnB
Replies
9
Views
3K
Gargamel
G
S
First property
Replies
2
Views
1K
knightm
knightm
S
Urgent - Pre approval - First loan
Replies
8
Views
3K
tobe
tobe
Peter_Tersteeg
100 one liners
Replies
7
Views
2K
D.T.
D.T.
P
China
2
Replies
25
Views
4K
Nemo30
N
Back
Top