Pinehurst Carolina Hotel Structural Assessment

Atlas visited the Carolina Hotel in Pinehurst to assess the kitchen floor system. Due to the age of the building, there were little to no existing drawings provided to Atlas prior to the assessment, therefore Atlas broke up the fieldwork into two phases. Phase 1 involved visiting the project site to produce both structural and architectural base drawings of the kitchen floor system and floor layout of both the kitchen and the warehouse space below. After the base drawings were produced, Atlas returned to the site for Phase 2 of fieldwork, which involved mapping the damage observed below the kitchen from the warehouse space, as well as testing the concrete floor system for chloride contamination. Samples of concrete dust were collected and sent to a laboratory to assess them. The results of the testing indicated that there was irreversible damage to the concrete slab, which was resulting in severe deterioration of the metal form deck below the concrete slab, as well as the steel bar joists supporting the form deck. Atlas recommended that the owner temporarily close the kitchen, remove the ceiling grid and tiles in the warehouse, remove sections of the concrete slab where there was the most damage, remove the damaged metal form deck and bar joists in these areas, replace the bar joists and form deck with new, and recast the slab in these areas. Minor bar joist repairs were recommended for areas where the damage was less severe.