Structural Engineer in the Avenues, Salt Lake City
The Avenues neighborhood deserves its own page because structurally, it’s much more than just another part of Salt Lake City. The engineer’s files include homes there from the late 1800s and early 1900s, along with later hillside construction toward the upper Avenues. Many of these homes are beautiful, but structurally, things can be weird.
At a home near 600 East and 6th Avenue, built in 1899, the engineer found a shallow crawl space with decades of improvised structural repairs. One previous owner had used a car jack and a cantilevered 4×4 to support floor joists. Joist spacing was inconsistent, supports had been added wherever someone thought they were needed, and parts of the crawl space were too shallow to access. The solution was not one clever repair; it was to create enough working room and systematically rebuild the floor support system.
Another home near 850 East and 2nd Avenue, built in 1898, had a rock-and-mortar foundation, rough-cut 2×8 floor joists, and a combination of organized and improvised basement supports. Some posts were sitting directly in soil, and one had termite damage. Even so, the foundation itself was actually in relatively good condition for its age. That is common in the Avenues: old does not automatically mean failed.
A 1908 masonry home near 600 East and 3rd Avenue presented a much more serious condition. The exterior masonry walls were bulging, with long vertical cracks on both sides of the chimney. Because the masonry itself was part of the structural system, this was not simply a cracked veneer. The concern was lateral stability, particularly during an earthquake.
The upper Avenues bring in another layer. Homes near North Hills Drive and the higher numbered avenues are built into steeper terrain and often have additions, decks, unusual floor plans, and structural modifications accumulated over decades. One upper-Avenues deck required substantial reinforcement before it could safely support a roughly 4,500-pound hot tub.
The Avenues are full of homes that have been added onto, remodeled, propped up, reinforced, and modified for more than a century. Rock-and-mortar foundations, shallow crawl spaces, rough-cut lumber, old masonry, rolling floors, improvised posts, and hillside construction are all part of the landscape.
The important question is rarely whether the house meets modern construction standards. Most of them do not. The real question is which old conditions have become structurally important, and which ones are simply part of owning an Avenues house.
The Avenues is one of Salt Lake City’s most distinctive neighborhoods, with its historic homes, tree-lined streets, and spectacular views overlooking the valley. Developed primarily in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the neighborhood features beautiful Victorian homes, historic brick construction, and architectural character that is increasingly difficult to find.
From a structural engineering perspective, the Avenues presents some unique challenges. Many older homes were constructed with unreinforced masonry, stone foundations, and building practices that predate modern seismic standards. The engineer frequently encounters aging foundations, settlement cracks, and structural modifications made over several generations. The neighborhood’s steep terrain also creates drainage challenges, particularly where water travels downhill toward older foundations.
The Avenues is a remarkable place to live, but preserving these historic homes requires an understanding of both their original construction and the structural challenges that come with age. A home that has stood for 120 years deserves thoughtful maintenance to help it stand for another 120.