Recent content by the Paper Owl

Good Evening Everyone, Although my posts are few and far I truly appreciate how much knowledge I receive from this community, so thank you. I have a residential remodel project that I am in the beginning stages of design for. A deck will be built and attached to an existing concrete masonry...

Thanks Kootk, I'll add him to my list. Enjoy your Friday.

Happy New Year Everyone, With the changing year, I always try to ride the momentum in the air and assess new ways I can improve as an engineer and small business owner. My question is: What are your go to publications that you subscribe / pay for in order to continue to learn about ever...

KootK, Great suggestion. I like the simplicity of the LTT connection and the load path that it creates, thank you for the response. I'm sure the contractor will be thankful that they do not have to saw cut a few continuous plywood sandwich pieces to exact dimensions. Doublestud - I do not...

Jerseyshore, Thank you for the insight. Aspects of this design are potentially over thought. With the mountainous lot that it is, it is my goal for it to be a fortress. A fortress within budget. :) Enjoy your day.

Jerseyshore, Thank you for the response. I have opted out of using a structural ridge, as the entire loft is open (under the ridge) and the structural ridge beam would need to span 28 feet (exterior wall to wall). Additionally, for a majority of the ridge (roughly 24 feet) I am able to...

Good Morning Everyone, After a client meeting, it has been decided to 'open up' a space a bit more and utilize a vaulted ceiling for an area of the structure that does not have a continuous floor joist (rafter tie) and would not have a collar tie (conflicting with the ceiling desired). I am...

I appreciate the response KootK, I have spent a substantially amount of time within this thread over the past few years and will say that I have learned much from your posts / answers in various other structural discussions. The design in all of its glory (attached below), both 3D and...

Good Morning everyone, I am in the process of the shear design for an A-Frame residential unit and am wanting to model the shear response of the structure properly. At one end of the unit (Elevation A), the gable end wall is balloon framed and is not connected to the second floor platform...

XR250 that is a great question and thank you for the advice. I don't have a validated response in lieu of just having the goal of wanting the header / jack assembly to be the prevailing solution over using SPAX screws that need to be placed dead center of the studs / plates. I'm reminded of my...

XR250 thank you for the quick response. The home owner is doing the repair. I want to ensure that if the temporary condition is left in place for an extended period of time (I can prescribe a limit but can't predict the actual length of time) that nothing compromising happens to the structure.

Good Afternoon all, I am tasked with the preliminary design of a fireplace renovation in which the header will be revised from a dropped condition to a raised condition. This is in part due to the new gas burning fireplace that will be installed in the fireplace insert that will need more...

Pretty unique I have to say, I don't know if I've ever seen a rotated block in a CMU wall before.

Thank you for the input and agreed on the differential stiffness of each assembly. I had pictured a house with a sealed crawl space where this new 'full height' CMU shear wall mimics the perimeter wall design apart from the fact that it now runs to the ceiling joists in lieu of terminating at...

Howdy Everyone, I had an interesting thought this afternoon after viewing an Australian documentary on architecture. The architect had placed a CMU block wall inside of the single story house (using primarily as an aesthetic feature) BUT rotated half of the blocks 90 degrees (along the...