I'm helping out with a dedign to finish about half of a basement to make a playroom.
The basement walls are 8" concrete block, and the floor is poured concrete with a weep well around the whole basement perimeter that leads to a sump well and pump. The sump pump and well are not in the area...
Most deck designs I've seen specify 16" max for deck spacing with Trex as the deck board material. The Trex installation handbook recommends 16" as a max joist spacing as well. Do you folks usually use 16"? I've heard some other designers say 12" should be the max, but 12" is tough to justify...
Can 2x deck ledger boards be lag screwed directly to 1-1/8" engineered lumber rim boards (under 1/2" sheathing) without extra reinforcement? The American Wood Council’s DCA6 Prescriptive Residential Wood Deck Construction Guide seems to suggest that they can while other resources cite tear-out...
If you have a 6x6 deck support post supporting a 3-2x10 beam, can you use structural screws to fasten a 6x6 knee brace to support the end of a cantilevered beam, essentially eliminating the cantilever since it's now supported by a knee brace?
If the structural screws are insufficient, then...
I've been asked to design a 12'x15' deck in upstate New York. It would be placed with the ledger (long side) against the back of the house and the shorter side against a sunroom that's 12' deep and 15' wide. So, it's intended to go in an inner corner of the home footprint. The home (and fill) is...
I was asked to look at a set of plans for a deck that were prepared by a large local lumber and building supply company. It's a simple rectangular deck off the back of a house.
The joists are treated 2x8's, all supported by a single beam that's spec'd as 3-2x10LM. I haven't seen "LM" on a...
It's probably a minor issue, but what is usually specified for footings or supports for the end of deck stair stringers where they meet the ground (soil)? The area I'm interested in is upstate NY where the frostline is usually assumed to be 48", so there is an annual freeze/thaw cycle.
I've...
I'm designing an attached, 24'x30', two car garage for a friend's daughter pro bono in upstate New York. The house it will be attached to is around 15 years old.
I've done a few other residential designs for one and two story homes (foundation and structure), but luckily, the soils have always...
I need to place an 8" stem wall for a proposed unheated garage immediately next to an existing stem wall for an existing garage that was converted to habitable space.
With the slope of the driveway being moderate, I'd like to start the new garage floor 6" below the existing floor to try to...
I'm planning to specify the use of a 9.5"x3.5" LVL as a header over a 16' wide garage door opening. In placing the LVL to allow for the required vertical rough opening, there will be 4" of space between the top of the LVL and the two top plates of the wall.
The garage is being built with 2x6...
I've been asked to design a two car garage to be placed at the gable end of a raised ranch. The gable end is 24' wide. The owners would like the garage to be 30' wide (wider than the gable end) by 24' deep. The new garage would be flush with the right hand side of the house shown in photo Raised...
