Whale a Wash Unique Damage Yesterday (Sunday)!?

[mjwalsh]

I think many of you remember our friend & fellow car wash forum member John Lynn from Whale a Wash who I believe transitioned his car washes into new ownership some time ago?! This was carried by our local Bismarck, ND TV news but the link below might be a bit more thorough:

Moorhead Whale Of The Wash Has Wall Collapse Inside Wash - KVRR Local News

MOORHEAD, Minn. -- It was a normal Sunday at the 32nd Avenue South Moorhead Whale Of A Wash for Toby Peterson.

www.kvrr.com

BTW ... yikes ... we get a whole bunch of that style of pull behind trailers that come into our car wash. Our specific concrete block walls at my self service go clear to & connected to the ceiling-roof (concrete 6" prestressed hollow core sections)???!!! Also at my wash there are below frost (4' footings) below & connected with every wall with plenty of rebar etc.???!!!

Anything that is observed that we can learn from?

 

[OurTown]

Anything that is observed that we can learn from?

Yeah. Make sure your dividing walls are tied into something. Who thought this was a good idea to build it like that? Also make sure your dryer booms fall back to the walls easily.

 

[Waxman]

WOW!! Some excitement for the new owner early-on in his career!!!

 

[mjwalsh]

Waxman & others,

Considering what the new owner had to work with ... I thought he handled the interview with the news media very good!

 

[Axxlrod]

LOL at the bikini calendar in the background.

I bought an abandoned SS wash that was about 50 years old a few years ago. I planned on remodeling/upgrading it; however one of the divider walls fell over just like in the video. Had to demolish the entire facility and rebuild from scratch.

 

[Randy]

He’s lucky there wasn’t anyone on the other side of that wall or they would have been seriously injured or killed. Whoever built that wall did a terrible job of building it, no rebar, no poured concrete in the wall and it’s not connected to the main building structure. Poor, low quality construction.

 

[mjwalsh]

Randy & others,

I have no experience & am pretty much a dummy when it comes to what car wash wall construction is needed in places where earthquake tremors are common. I am wondering how vulnerable some of the lower height walls between some car wash bays are or could be. Magnitude on the richter scale resistance??? Hmmm.... I see Axxlrod is from California??? I remember Pat Crowe from Kansas City used to advocate for no footings under car wash entrance & exit spaces??? I guess Crowe might have taken a cue ... not sure ... from the way many pole barns out in the country are built with the least amount of footings possible???

 

[soapy]

Very poor design. Our building codes do not allow a single wall that is not tied in another wall. I have built 3 concrete block car washes. Bond beams with rebar every 4 feet horizontal and bond beam every 5th course vertical. Various size rebar according to engineer. My last 4 ss bay and 2 auto bay car wash had over 1 mile of rebar in it.

 

[Waxman]

Well, in a way, isn't it what we all aspire to: the place falls down after we sell it??????????????

 

[mjwalsh]

Waxman,

To be fair to John ... I am not sure if he was the one originally responsible for the build. My thread intent definitely was not to make him look not quite as good on somewhat hidden building technicalities that he possibly was not aware of.

 

[Waxman]

Waxman,

To be fair to John ... I am not sure if he was the one originally responsible for the build. My thread intent definitely was not to make him look not quite as good on somewhat hidden building technicalities that he possibly was not aware of.

No One is disparaging JL. He was an awesome owner! 36 bays of SS ??? That's a KING.