First time home owner and a complete renovation rookie here. Last year we hired a structural engineer/contractor to remove a 16-17' load bearing wall in my single story home that sits on a slab foundation. To make a long story short, the contractor did some shoddy work and tried to cut corners. I had to rip the drywall for the engineer to inspect and he claimed that even with the shortcuts, everything is safe. Potential issues included:

1) Are the posts adequately secured to the foundation? Currently the posts are resting on a 2x4, which is resting on top of the engineered wood flooring. Ramset nails were driven through all of this and into the foundation. See picture below.

2) Are posts and beam adequately secured to the rest of the structure? Currently the beam has a large bracket attached to each post but the posts/beam are fastened to the surrounding structure with nails and plywood.


Fast forward 6 months and I'm seeing hairline cracks where the surrounding walls meet the ceiling. The engineer still claims everything is fine and cracks should be expected. I'm hoping the experts on this forum can chime in and give their opinion! I live in earthquake country so obviously I want to make sure my house is still standing when the "big one" hits

 

I forgot to add that the load bearing wall/new beam sit beneath the apex of my roof and essentially in the middle of the structure. Not sure if it matters.

Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome to the forums!
1) The supports are proper. A little overkill on the Ramsets But it is stable. You may encounter problems with the flooring since now the flooring will not float. I would have either removed the piece of flooring or at the least cut around it with a saw so the flooring and the section under the wall are separate.
2) That is how all this is put together. All is fine

What type roof do you have? Hip roof, gable roof, and which direction are your joists running in relation to the new beam?

It is difficult to anticipate the amount of shrinkage of the wood when making walls like this. I am sure they did their best, and the wood shrinkage is normal and can be repaired.

 

Thanks for your reply Chandler. The roof is spanish tile and the joists run perpendicular to the new beam with the ends of the joist resting on the top of the beam.

With the post resting on top of the wood flooring, I anticipated some cracks as a result of settling/compression of the wood plank. I've read online that posts under support beams should be "bolted" to the foundation itself with a large metal bracket on the bottom of the post. After reading that and looking at how my post is secured to the foundation, I started to worry! My fear is that the entire post/beam/post segment can topple over as it is not anchored to the foundation or surrounding walls with large brackets like you see where the posts meet beam.

Overly cautious as it's earthquake country and I have two little kids running around the house all day long

 

It looks OK to me, I'm in California. Also, the engineer would have pointed out what needed fixed.

In CA you can never have too strong of a wall. If you want to beef it up while it's open, you can use Simpson Strong Tie brackets to connect the posts and studs to the plate.
In addition to the brackets, you can replace the OSB with Structural 1 grade plywood. Nail the entire perimeter every 4" with 8d nails.

The cracks are expected and a nuisance in CA. They will usually return, but there are tricks to getting the repair to last longer or possibly be a permanent fix.

 

Unless your local California codes call for that type attachment, I would not worry too much. The pressure from the beam and the lateral support provided by the Ramset pins, the wall is firm.

This method is commonly used for deck post attachment to footers, not so much with inside house wall construction.

 

As Larry stated, the metal post bases are not needed in your situation.

You might have been doing research about seismic hold-downs required in California. It's true these are required, but not in your case. These hold downs were designed for much higher strength than what you need. They are for exterior walls only.
Here's a diagram for one type of seismic anchor, it's overkill in your case.

 

Thanks guys. That's excellent to hear as I feared this would be costly to correct. I'm leaning towards putting up some of the Simpson brackets as you have recommended just for peace of mind!