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I guess my problem with it is that I've never had a problem putting lintels into existing walls for new openings. I suppose if you've never had the opportunity to work with old guys who've been around, and then eventually become one of the old guys who's been around, you need someone to do some...

Sorry, forgot one comment re hole location: it depends if you are collecting or distributing. I don't want to disagree with concretemasonry but I wouldn't collect with pipes intended for distributing, which is what pipes with holes in one half are for. Use fully perforated pipe for foundation...

I have to say, I have never heard of anyone building a basement in our area without exterior perimeter drainage in more than 75 years, maybe 100. It is simple, easy & cheap to do when you are building, and the opposite of that next year when you have problems. And if you do it without...

Your concrete guys are not going to pour a wall 14' high in one lift, especially if they typically only do house basements. If the wall is prohibitively expensive you can keep the footings the same level throughout, & insulate them for frost. Far easier to design and build, and costs quite a...

I'm in Canada where our official system is metric, most people think in imperial, and we build in a bit of both. As briancpotter said, the bolts are either metric or imperial & there is no calling one by the other's name. You specify the bolts & that's that.

As I just said in another post, look at physical realities. 100 psf is an incredibly heavy load to impose on a floor that must have circulation space, gaming tables, chairs, etc. If you want to do it with people, you need a 200lb man in every single 2'x1' space in the room. How did they get in...

Why is it so common to ignore physical realities? The room is 15x20,x 40psf = 12,000lb. 200lb/person = 60 people & we're asked if it's okay for 20? Put 60 200 lb. people in a 15X20 room & I want to see them twist & shout, never mind putting 150 people (100psf) in that room. Give your head a...

Any hole parallel to the grain will most often get smaller, not larger if the wood dries, depending upon its location with respect to growth rings. Also, the wood in question is existing in its existing service conditions and is unlikely to change much. Trust me, 35 years of experience with...

The fastening of plies has an awful lot to do with the way the beam is loaded. If a beam is loaded from one face, the fasteners must transfer the load to the other plies. If the beam is loaded from the top, the fasteners must simply hold the plies together, providing lateral restraint if an...

Okay, except that DL is 1.25, not 1.5, so we're still cheated.

My point was that I can buy stone sliced to 1/2 or 3/4" thick just like a tile and possibly lighter than ceramic of the same thickness, & if I glue that to a wall, adhesive is perfectly acceptable. If I decide to glue 4" thick veneer stone to a soffit, I deserve whichever pieces hit me and...

I have always (okay, maybe not always, but usually) used an allowance for dead load for design instead of trying to figure out an actual, just as SteelPE says: X psf DL for whatever the area is, and X live load, and do your design. Then when it comes to uplift, figure out the real weight of...

As Ron says, the configuration (weight, orientation, etc.) has a lot to do with the answer to the initial question. I wouldn't count on adhesive to glue a thick stone soffit in place, but I have used it for a thin veneer on walls many times. What is the difference between stone & ceramic tile...

You jack it to take the weight off while the new connections and members are installed, then remove the jacks to load them. Without jacking, the remedial work does not do anything until the beam deflects further. Whether or not you can remove an existing unsightly deflection is a different...

Many years ago, I went to a highschool with the cafeteria & kitchen under the gymnasium. As a matter of fact, my father built the building about 2 years before I went there. The floor was wood: hardwood finish on heavy timber deck on glulam beams, somewhat bigger than what is discussed here; I...

Insulate the perimeter or you will have problems. You can insulate horizontally or vertically, just remember that the frost has to travel the same distance regardless of direction. 2" of R5/inch rigid foam will replace about 2' of soil cover.

You can insulate out horizontally and cover the insulation with soil, however concrete floors and pole buildings are a poor combination in most circumstances. As a farm building it might be acceptable, but not for commercial use.

Are you sure they are dry set? That is not typical construction; lime mortar in the walls is typical but it could have been leached away, giving the appearance of dry set. Removing joists is obviously easy, installing new is not so straightforward. Without a lot more details, it's hard to...

Timber checks. Period. It always has & even our new codes consider this. People who don't know timber get bent out of shape about things they don't understand. Learn the difference between checks, splits, shakes, etc. & then learn to evaluate a structure based on what's going on. Your best...

I was speaking to my foam grout guy yesterday on another matter, & I asked him about your pool & the exterior application. This is not a definitive statement but he said he has done various adhoc tests on samples for moisture absorption and freeze-thaw resistance & they all exceeded his...