I have had several instances where I reduced the spacing for an overhang bracket because my hand calcs showed the controlling stress to occur in the cantilever of the horizontal arm from where the hanger rod connects and the joint of the horizontal to the vertical. The problem is that the...
I have an 100 yr old house that only has 1 layer of 3/4" T&G flooring. There is no Sub-Flooring. They are wanting to sand it again but I cautioned them about losing strength due to repeated sanding. Are there special design values for 1" or less SYP or does everyone use the NDS for a design...
It has been a while since I did a beam laid flat.
If your beam is a 2x6 or 2x8 laid flat, is there any need to calculate Rb, le, and lu since they go into the CL equation but CL=1 if you lay the material flat?
I have a friend who wants a 25' tall brick fireplace with 4 sides open on the lower 4'. The corners have 8x8 masonry columns about 4' tall. Other than that, the remainder of a 6'-6" x 4'-8" plan view all-brick fireplace is open for the 4' height. Above the 4', it is all brick. I have never...
I keep running into People/Client's with the idea of using an existing Statewide Soil Map for either design or forensics at a specific site rather than paying for a site specific soil test. I have tried to explain to them that these maps are somewhat accurate over a very large area such as a...
When specifying an allowed passive soil bearing, I generally see it cited as pounds per square foot per foot of depth or psf/ft. I occasionally see it presented as pounds per cubic foot (pcf) but this seems incorrect even thought the units will simplify to this. Doe this matter?
Also, when...
Does the NDS have any load provisions for using a dowel type fastener (nail, lag screw etc.) into the 1.5" wide face of a typical 2x4 stud? If so, what section is it in?
I do not see any mention of edge distance. We have a situation where we have to put multiple lags into a wall stud...
I was pushing laterally on a 20'Hx25'W Great Room wall the other day to show the builder how weak the wall was. With only me pushing on the wall at about 4' to 4.5' from the floor, you could easily see it moving in and out. The wall is almost all windows and doors. It was framed with 2x4 syp...
I am looking for information or articles about moisture that gets trapped in roof systems due to insulation causing problems. Examples would be a shallow parallel chord wood truss roof with un-vented insulation under the trusses. I have seen pictures of wood rot and rust on nails due to...
I have seen these 2 abbreviations on Electrical drawings several times but have not seen what they stand for noted in a legend or abbreviations table. I am assuming they are so obvious in the Electrical world they may not need to be stated, but I am structural. I also see UGPS stated and not...
Does anyone have a good source of estimated energy usage in watts/sf for different types of buildings? The most common ones we attempt to estimate are:
medical office buildings
1-story Office buildings
multi-story office buildings
Apartments (generally multi-story)
Mixed use high-rise such as...
I am trying to bridge the gap between structural design wind terminology and weather terminology. I am not sure if they use the same terms differently. I have asked many others in both engineering and weather but seem to get conflicting definitions.
In structural design, we use a 3-second...
For purposes of this general question, lets assume I have a building on 10' tall wood piles that were originally plumb. Even when the building was built on the piles, the beams were centered on the plumb piles. Due to this impossible ability to have no initial eccentricity, there should not be...
Not that I cannot weld the full depth of the groove for a Flare-Bevel weld, but assuming I did not want to, how do you calculate the effective throat? I have not found any actual examples.
In my case, I have a 5/8" diameter round rod to be welded to a flat plate. If I only wanted to go up...
I see several generic details for welding a rebar to the shear dowels sticking out of the top of a prestressed concrete girder. Are the dowels A706 or will this require chemical analysis for the weld design?
I assume the weld is a flare since there are 2 curved surfaces.
Anyone have any...
I have been trying to follow the design examples in the PCI publication noted above but I cannot find how to calculate the value referred to as "Δcg". It appears to be function that needs certain variables but I do not see the function or formula anywhere in the document.
Is anyone familiar...
Does anyone have a chart or reference that has the Iy values for the AASHTO Girders? I occasionally need the values but have never found a reference that has them. I can find Ix, but not Iy.
I currently need a BT 63 Mod but would like to get a reference if anyone knows of one. I can...
I am looking into Helix brand micro-rebar. I have just started reviewing their literature and presentation materials. Knowing these are their "sales tools", I was curious if anyone on this site has actually worked with it, designed with it or closely investigated it.
At first I was heavily...
In creating soil maps for a large area such as a state, is there some maximum spacing for soil borings or other observation methods? Knowing a common spacing would also be helpful.
I am not talking about soil borings we may request for a construction project or road, but I am talking about...
