These are two elements of a home that should not be separated the way the are. Not only is it missing bolts, but it has a gap bigger than the Grand Canyon.

Image 1: This is a retaining wall failure that happened up the Hollywood Hills.

Image 2: As you can see, the soil began to give way under this driveway and retaining wall which caused quite the problem.

Image 3: It began to pull away from the rest of the concrete driveway and started to tilt towards the down slope of the hill. You can clearly see the separation take place with the cracking wall and concrete slab in this photo.

Image 4: This even effected the home itself, causing the now undermined foundation to settle and dip down on that side of the home.

While doing this inspection there was a section of the foundation that was undermined by previous contractors. We ended up having to squirm our way under that stem-wall and come up on the other, much tighter section of the crawlspace. For those with claustrophobia, this would have been a nightmare.

A brick pyramid made by the ancients to hold up this post.

Similar to a BLT sandwich, this is a concoction of random materials used to hold up a girder! Wonderful!

This was a foundation that had very bad spall damage. Spalling concrete occurs when water penetrates the concrete and causes the rebar to rust/oxidize. This will then cause it to expand and break the surrounding concrete.
That piece of concrete fell right off with not much effort at all. This exposed the rusted rebar underneath. The cause of this is usually due to poor waterproofing or an area of land being graded towards the structure's foundation. With nowhere else for the water to go, it penetrates the porous concrete. This section will have to be replaced.

This was some very bad wood rot caused by years of leaking water and neglect. As you can see, the cantilevered area is starting to bow down due to the weight of the now very damaged and saturated framing. Tis but a minor leak.

This is another property with burrowed holes going under the concrete foundation. This time there were 8 of these... It's like a maze down there.

Being under a house with a decayed foundation like this isn't your biggest concern when it's also littered with mousetraps. This foundation should definitely be replaced as the aggregate is exposed and crumbles on contact.

This is a very poorly done cripple wall with DIY shear walls. A cripple wall is simply a wall with "cripples" (or short studs) to help with lateral movement in seismic activity. They act as a cushion for when the house shakes. The shear wall is used to reinforce these cripple walls so they don't just collapse to the side. They help resist lateral motions.

Possibly the best earthquake safety/prevention I've seen so far. Also looks like the middle bin is a spider and is telling secrets to the other bins in the corner.

This is a few generations of post & piers. The one in the foreground is the oldest, to the right of that you have one built a little later on, and the other two are from the past few decades. A supporting family.

This property had very bad drainage and began sinking on one side. At length, this brought the perimeter foundation and exterior concrete pathway to wedge together at the connection point. This caused the concrete pathway to crack and break apart and lift. Gnarly.

This is quite the shabby foundation. I've showed many like it but this one shows a bit more detail. You can clearly see the degradation of the concrete with the exposure of aggregate. There is also many signs of water intrusion, such as the white, chalky substance known as efflorescence (mineral deposits left behind after water intrusion). This foundation can't even be properly retrofitted because the concrete isn't capable of holding in the bolts.

This is a concrete foundation that had some pretty bad stress cracking on one side. Somebody had tried to epoxy inject the cracks, but the settlement caused them to simply reopen and expand even further down the wall.
The cracking continued for about 10 feet before stopping. There were also some signs of water intrusion.

This is what we call an undermined footing. It sits below the post & pier for deepened support but is exposed and could fail if the dirt was moved.

A fake foundation made of plaster that could easily be punctured by an accidental kick.

This wasn't really a structural discovery, but a satanic one for sure. I'll let you decide what this is and why this is.

There is a lot going on in this one. First off, the post and "pier" to the left is made up of damp wood and decaying bricks. Secondly, in the back you can see that there is some parts of the framing/cripple wall that aren't connected. The foundation is brick and has settled drastically. The framing above that has been covered in concrete on the exterior, done as a sort of "sister foundation." Lots of moisture was also discovered.

As you can see, the slab foundation has a decent sized crack running through it, causing sloping and other areas of the home to crack.
Here is another photo of the kitchen tile that has separated and cracked down the grout line. To the left of that gap is a large retaining wall on the front portion of the home. The hillside in the back was giving way and pulling the rest of the home with it. This then created a gap between the retaining wall and the rest of the structure. It was sloping about 8 inches down toward the back and creating many cracks along the way. You can see down into the crawlspace from this gap.
This is a shot from the exterior of the home. This isn't your normal stucco crack, it's a massive structural fracture caused by the severe settlement. These are the cracks you should be worried about.

The illuminated aura around this post makes it seem like it has a quest for me.

This is what we call "spall damage." This occurs when moisture gets into the concrete from either side and the rebar inside begins to rust. This particular property in K-Town had plenty of spall damage.

This is a bird-of-paradise plant. A very beautiful but destructive plant from South Africa. These plants, if next to a structure, can make its way under a property and lift the entire foundation. That was the case with this particular home. Nature 1, homeowner 0.

We inspected this house that had some pretty bad fire damage from a recent blaze. Much of the underside of the home was torched and needed to be completely replaced. There is some good news: termites are similar to humans in a sense that they don't like burnt food. This was the underside of the deck with a charred platform to walk on. Watch your step, you might fall through!

A bunch of different wood members acting as supports for the center foundation wall. Might I add that the whole property wasn't seismically retrofitted at all.

This was some pretty bad spall damage on an old 1900's foundation we inspected. This section will probably have to be replaced.

Our office manager was in Venice, Italy and saw this poor little wall in need of some help.

Do you see all that white, chalky stuff on the CMU foundation? That is called efflorescence. Efflorescence is caused by traces of mineral deposits and calcium build-up resulting from water intrusion. This wall was subterranean and had zero waterproofing done to the exterior. Also, free cotton candy all over!

Here we have a concrete masonry foundation. Usually these are completely filled with steel reinforcement bar and concrete. This is almost always a part of city code, but this property had nothing. No concrete, no rebar... nothing. You can see the mudsill above, which is somewhat hanging over the hollow foundation.

Many people will call us out to check why their floors/home is leaning and sloping. It could be settlement or missing structural elements, but half the time it's caused by rotting supports under the home. Things begin to decay due to water intrusion and termite damage, which results in some serious issues down the road.

Post on a brick on a pier... without any bracing. Again, these were seen all over under the home.

Now, i'm not entirely sure if this was left on purpose as a joke or if Satan himself resides here, but by far one of the creepiest things we've encountered crawling a home.In addition to the foundation being decayed beyond belief, this was the true danger while under the home. I can't help but feel the shadow from the light makes it worse! The doll was one thing, but the actual home itself was in terrible condition (as they usually are if they're built in the 1800s). Decayed brick, rotting beyond belief and infested with bugs and mold. I feel it's a very fitting exterior in comparison to what was seen underneath.

Nothing to hold back this little wall from falling over. The concrete was brittle and just fell over the heavy rains.

This was a gnarly stilt home we inspected for seismic reinforcement. I'm not entirely sure what the outcome will be but it should be an awesome project!

A nasty, old brick foundation under an early 1900's home. This house was resting right on top of these dusty and decaying bricks and had no other reinforcement. Scary.