I am currently waiting on the original fabricator of a building to send me information on the installed OWSJ in a building. The current occupant is looking to add a 700 lb RTU between two joists. Additional snow drift surcharge can be ignored by my local code for a unit this size. Whats the best...
A client is placing a new RTU on two existing composite trusses. The trusses are in the style of the Redbuilt "Red-L" trusses, with wood top and bottom chords and steel webs. The building is from the 50's or 60's, so I believe the trusses were likely manufactured by Weyerhauser before they sold...
I'm being asked if the concrete capitals below the teleposts shown in the picture attached can be removed. What is the purpose of these? I have no information on the footing below. The house is from the 50's or 60's.
Just wondering how others look at situations like this attached picture. .
The electrician notched two holes, for some reason, a few inches from the end of the floor joists span. These are 2x8 joists spanning about 11'6". Would you take the net section remaining above and below the holes to...
I'm wondering if there are any ethical issues in this situation:
A newly poured foundation settled and caused cracking in a house foundation wall. The builder was working with another engineer, who would have checked the soil bearing capacity of the site. That engineer proposed a fix for the...
From what I've seen in installation manuals for ICF walls, they call up 2 additional vertical 15M rebar at all point loads on the wall. It was discovered at a house we are looking at that this additional reinforcement wasn't installed. I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to add additional...
We typically specify a monolithic pour for a slab on grade with a thickened edge, but we have a contractor requesting to construct it in two pours, with the slab resting on the footing. This is for a small garage. I don't see any issues with doing it this way, and it may in fact be better for...
For an unheated garage built on a thickened edge in Canada we typically spec insulation under the garage slab (and out a few feet horizontally all around as well). We are basing our design off of a design guide called Frost Protected Shallow Foundations put out by the National Association of...
Has anyone here worked with the load combination for extraordinary events? From ASCE 7 - 2.5.2.1 Capacity - For checking the capacity of a structure or structural element to withstand the effect of an extraordinary event, the following gravity load combination shall be considered:(0.9 or 1.2)D +...
I'm really having a hard time figuring out who to talk to about questions regarding liability insurance. Should I be talking with a lawyer, my provincial association, Engineer's Canada? I currently work for a consulting engineering firm in Canada, and the company is closing down at the end of...
We have been asked to look into the possibility of reusing existing concrete pedestals for the installation of new poles. I have attached an example picture of the pedestals. When designing the anchors for the new poles, I am having difficulty making it work using cracked concrete state, but I...
Does anyone know where one could get snow and wind loads to be used in design for high elevations in the Rocky Mountains in Canada? This particular project is at roughly 2100m A.S.L.
I've been asked if I would be able to approve the attached glass guards (is balustrade the correct term?). I've never come across this before and I wanted to ensure I knew what all the considerations are for these designs. Looking through the code (Canada), it appears that the critical...
This is a general question about the assessment of old residential foundations. We regularly get asked to look at the structural health of 100 year old concrete foundations, usually for the purposes of potential renovations, or possible sales. Often times with these old foundations, there are...
The attached pictures show a void found in a 10 year old ICF basement wall. The void is almost all the way along a 16' wall, halfway up the wall, with backfill behind. We are being asked to provide a fix detail. There doesn't appear to be any deflection of the wall. Wondering if anyone has come...
The footing on a new build for a 2-storey townhouse complex settled and separated from the foundation wall by a maximum of 1/4". The settlement occurred at a service trench under the footing. My thought on a fix would be to support the foundation wall off screw piles on either side of the trench...
Looking for a bit of guidance on designing slabs on grades with large wheel loads. I have the specs on the crane they will be using (attached) and I have requested a geotech tech report with the modulus of subgrade reaction. The PCA charts only go up to an effective contact area of 200 sq. inch...
We have been asked to provide a repair detail for a walkout retaining wall (see attached picture). We don't have details on the reinforcement or footings, but the wall has a bow to it and it's about 10 years old. It's about 30 feet long, 6 feet high and 8 inch thick concrete (icf). The...
The screw piles a structure I am designing will be designed by others, I just need to provide the loading criteria. My question is what value for lateral loading is significant enough to show on our drawings? The highest lateral load the piles will see is roughly 1 kN (224 lb) factored. Most of...
