A while back, I was lucky enough to drive the full length of the Columbia River Gorge on a crisp spring morning. For those of you not familiar with this iconic geographical area, it is beyond bucket list worthy. Cut into the Cascade Mountains by the Columbia River and located just east of Portland...
The traditional crop insurance and claims process is costly, time-consuming, and sometimes contentious. Valuable customer relations depend on trust. Trust that the insured feels they will be treated fairly.
EDT was assigned to determine the cause of damages to a single-story residence. The residence, constructed in the 1950’s, was renovated in 2015. The work consisted of a complete teardown of the structure and cladding. The replacement structure was constructed on the existing timber floor beams and...
We’ve all been there – started a load of laundry, the washer gets past the agitation cycle and is in the middle of the spin cycle when – Bang! Bang! Bang! And the washer is jumping around as if possessed.
On January 1, 2020, the phase-out and ban of R-22 and R142b refrigerants required the consumption of R-22 and R-142b refrigerants to be reduced by 99.5% below the U.S. baseline.
The most common effect of hail is cosmetic indentations. For roof coverings in general, one form of functional damage is a reduction in the long-term service life of the roof. As related to metal roof panels, functional damage is associated with compromising the factory-applied coating (or field...
What is a gas turbine? Let's first look at an engine that most of us know well; the gas engine in your car. In a gasoline reciprocating engine, the piston compresses the air fuel mixture, the mixture is ignited and the expanding gases push the piston inside the cylinder, the exhaust is purged from...
In a perfect world of consulting engineering, every investigation would result in a single, concise cause of damage to the product, structure, or system under investigation. In the real world, this rarely happens.
Most of the time, damages to marine vessels and structures are straight forward: there’s a collision, allision, or sinking due to mechanical failure, procedural failure, negligence, or an unfortunate concurrence of events. The involved vessels/structures are damaged, the damages are tallied up, and...
During rain events, water was intruding into a Church. The Church was concerned that damage had occurred to the roofing of the building, which was allowing rainwater into the facility.
There are different types of damage that can take place on concrete and clay roof tiles (tiles). During a roof inspection, it is important to be able to differentiate the damage to properly reach a conclusion regarding the cause of the observed damage.
EDT was called to investigate a case where a victim was burned at a gas station due to static ignition of gasoline. Based on the measurements and the unique circumstances, we found that the victim created a static charge when he left the nozzle still pumping gas to return to his driver seat...
Earlier this year, I was called to investigate a fire in an attic of a single story home. The fire damage was minimal, mostly related to smoke. The residence was occupied at the time of the fire, and the occupants turned the furnace electrical breaker off when they observed smoke coming out of the...
When working on scope of damage/value of loss files, I am frequently asked how long should electrical equipment last? In this case, I was tasked with a fire origin and cause in a lumber yard. Upon first look, it was obvious that this was not actually a fire - it was something else...
EDT was asked to review a proposal to replace a fire alarm system in a large multi-story hotel. The existing fire alarm panel had been damaged when a worker made a wiring error while connecting a new HVAC component to the fire alarm system.
