Structural Work in Burbank
Structural work for Burbank garage conversions and ADUs, planned around drainage at the slab edge, moisture under new floors and engineered footings.
Keeping the soil dry around a converted Burbank garage starts at the roof edge. Gutters on an old garage may empty straight onto the driveway beside the slab, and a footing that sits in soaked ground can settle unevenly under a new bedroom wall. Our drawings show each downspout carried to an outlet clear of the foundation, the yard graded to fall away from the house, and a vapor barrier under any new floor.
Grading and outlets at the slab edge
Ground next to the slab should drop away from the wall, and a planter or patio poured tight against the stucco can undo that. We note where irrigation heads throw water, whether a neighboring yard sheds toward the garage and how the driveway pitches. Each finding goes on the site plan so the engineer can size the footing for the soil it will actually sit in. Downspouts get solid pipe running to a splash pad or a drain outlet shown on the plans, and planting beds are pulled back from the wall where they hold water against it.
Moisture under a converted floor
Concrete lets ground moisture travel upward, so a garage slab that becomes a bedroom floor needs a barrier between it and the finish. On a slab worth keeping, that can mean a sealer and a sleeper floor laid over a membrane. Where the slab gets replaced, plastic sheeting goes down on a gravel bed before the new pour. The curb that fills the old door opening needs the same care, with flashing and a weep screed where stucco meets concrete so trapped water has a way out. These details appear on the structural and architectural sheets together.
Structural Work in Burbank: common questions
That depends on what the site check shows. We drill to read the concrete depth, scrape the edge to see if it thickens under the walls, and test for moisture rising through it. A slab that passes stays in place below a membrane and raised floor. If the edges come up short, the engineer draws new footings and we price them before work starts.
Any change to how loads reach the ground calls for stamped engineering: a new footing, a widened garage door opening with a header, a bearing wall taken out or a floor added overhead. The City of Burbank reviews those calculations with the plans. Moving a partition that carries nothing may skip that step, and a look in the attic tells us which kind of wall it is.
The City of Burbank can require one, and a new foundation or a heavier load on the ground makes that more likely. Reusing an existing slab for a conversion may not trigger it. The engineer reads the design and tells us whether a report is needed, and any footing change it brings is priced before you sign.
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