[drew]

Having done some structural inspections on a lot of older homes (large and small) and office type buildings around the city, it really seems to come down to blind luck depending on how well a structure holds up over the years.

The old strip footing foundations used back in the day for most smaller structures is woefully inadequate for our soil conditions here in the city (piles should be mandated here). The footings are usually too narrow and the drainage around the foundation collapsed or simply non-existent. Walking around these grand old houses today usually means cracking walls, useless foundations and shifty floors.

I would love to have a lot of these older row houses and homes around today, but just looking at that strip along Edmonton makes the structural engineer in me cringe. These type of buildings had they survived till today, would require a VERY substantial amount of TLC to make them even remotely viable.