Interesting question OP and thanks for the well written post with accompanying sketches! A couple comments/questions that I have:
1) What does the base of the pole look like close up? If it was installed plumb and rotated afterwards, there may be signs of cracking in the pavement surrounding...
I don't know much about underpinning but the one residential project I was involved in, a similar detail was used (without the the stem extending above existing footing). The underpinning designer specified dowels drilled up into the bottom of exiting footing. It might have been less than 12...
For sliding issues, do you have a slab on grade to depend on? If so, I would include all the friction resisting force between the slab on grade and soil, in addition to the total weight of your building too. Like others have mentioned you should also include the sliding resistance provided by...
What is the maximum width of the RTU on plan? If it is less than 15 feet then you don't need to consider any additional snow drift.
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I've done a couple of these. Can't remember what our fee ranges were in the past. Keep in mind, it's the PEMB designer's responsibility to make sure they give you the correct gravity and lateral load reactions at each column location. Using those reactions it'll be pretty straightforward design...
We have specified this in the past but you will need a way for the horizontal shear to get into the slab from the column. You can do this by specifying "hairpin" tie bars that wrap around the concrete pier base below the column and each leg of the hairpin extends at 45 degrees into the SOG. What...
In all honesty, I'm not familiar with swell tests and how that affects your foundation calculations. But regardless, shouldn't a geotechnical engineer/report determine what exact soil improvement or modification is required to obtain the required 2,000 psf? If a geotech report/testing is an...
What @Enable said. Nothing of what you have presented so far warrants demolition.
I'll also add that you shouldn't be sealing the crack from below since it can trap any moisture in the slab if it does eventually get in there. What does the top surface of the slab look like? If you can see the...
I agree with all of the above. We shouldn't be fixing Contractor issues for free regardless of how much fee or how many hours we have left in the job. We should make it clear to our clients in writing but also in person, that any deviation from details, construction issues caused by the...
First I would verify with the owner that the foundation wall is actually concrete and not CMU block especially since you're saying it's 8 inches thick. Don't take their word for it, visit the site yourself or ask for clear photos showing exposed concrete aggregate faces.
If it's CMU block...
That didn't seem right to me at first so I ran it in ENERCALC and got about the same width (9 feet) to meet 1.5 F.S. for sliding. Another option would be to use a key. Even then to get to 1.5 F.S. you would need about a 24 inch deep x 12 inch wide key which gets you to about a 5 foot wide...
1) The length of the wall is 22 inches or you're saying the wall is 22 inches thick? That would be way too thick of a multi whythe wall unless it's hollow with cavities between each wythe.
2) The brick wall bears on a brick footing? So basically the same wall just continues straight downwards...
Can you provide a sketch of it? It's not clear to me what the issue is based on your description.
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Structural Engineers
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I also think some Contractors ignore some of our repair details too because they don't want to spend the 20 mins figuring each component of the detail out. Using isometric views would be a step in the right direction for some of our very typical repair details and most new construction details...
If you're not responsible for the pier design itself, I would have the Geotech Engineer somehow sign off on the reactions you determine from the structure and grade beam onto the pier.
EcoGen Consultants LLC
Structural Engineers
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The Contractor thinks that there is a simple solution to this all and wants to schedule a call tomorrow to go through this magical simple solution with me.
I think you're right. If you don't remove the floor sheathing, you would have to preinstall all of the top mount hangers in their exact...
The it sounds like a more sophisticated Contractor would have been able to make all of this work without RFI's and a million emails back and forth. I just got another RFI for this job where they've completely misplaced a new steel beam's elevation. Now the beam and the HSS posts supporting it...
I don't think 2 inches of compressible material is going to resolve any potential differential settlement cracks either way. 1 foot below the SOG you have a rigid element that won't compress much at all and everywhere else you have several feet of soil that can compress over time.
EcoGen...
I understand your logic but would this be technically compliant with the current IBC? Like does IBC provide an option to override frost depths specified by local by doing some sort of specified field investigation/testing?
The only other time I didn't bother with complying with minimum frost...
Per your left sketch, I think the torsion in the beam would be (Joist Reaction) x (Distance from joist end to beam web).
Per your right sketch, assuming that the blocking distributes the load evenly onto bottom flange, the torsion would be (Joist Reaction) x (Distance from blocking center to...
