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Found out today that my "friend" who had mysteriously stopped asking us to design his houses for a 2 year period had been deleting the title block, adding the home address, and developing without us. What things can we do to prevent this from happening in the future? Some note on the plans...

I cannot find a clear explanation in the book.... I'm assuming that this is the shear value on a per foot basis for this particular metal decking. I'm sure someone here knows the answer. Thanks in advance.

Looking for a point in the right direction for a factor of saftey required for drilled concrete piers (bearing etc). Thank you.

So how do so many engineers design a basement retaining wall with a footing at the base that is barely wider than the wall, and claim "the loads balance out"? The footing below a 9 foot retaining wall is 20 inches wide, 12 inches thick. It has no overturning resistance and is clearly designed...

I have designed sonotube piers for many years for light use residential decks basically, where the reaction is around 2500 lbs, the sono tube is 10 inch diameter and extends 3 to 4 foot into the ground where it is supported by a pad footing. We never used ties. The guy who taught me never used...

I live in an area that has several markets. The markets exist because of geographic diffences. The 'mountain people' with very stringent building departments (engineering stamp required for literally everything) and the valley people, with little to no building department requirements. Mountain...

I have never experienced this until now, but this just happened. I was contracted on fairly complex duplex residential project; went through design and Building Dept Approval and then was told that they had 'sold' the project to a new developer. My scope of work, as usual, was for design, and...

Looking for some ideas on Heavy Timber Post Bases..... I'm just not happy with the prefabricated options, or the options we have come up with. We produced a similar post base as this with 4 bolts into the column.... It was large, clunky, took forever to install and basically not very builder...

In my 17 year career I have avoided pole barns. Until now. Recently landed a pair of jobs because we need the work. One mid size, one fairly large. Both jobs ended abruptly with the following converation: Us: We as engineers cannot do that or your building will collapse. Have you thought about...

On of my jobs has these cracks in the concrete. Bars are No. 4 at 18 inches on center with proper dowels. Concrete is a 20 inch wide x 11 inch thick strip footing. Concrete is extremely creamy (lots of cement) based on observation of the forms. Concrete guy mentioned that they 'routinely add...

I have a connection that the contractor was unable to bolt because of a field alignment issue. It is a moment connection. Their solution was to add on this external horizontal weld line. I'm not understanding how the weld can penetrate if there is no bevel on one of the plates (or bottom...

I was reading today in an article from Structure magazine that smooth WWF is not a recognized slab reinforcement in the ACI. I guess I have been doing it wrong for many years. Just curious if this is just news to me, or if it is commonly accepted with my peers. Thanks in advance...

We are the EOR for a house in an area with clay soils. The soils engineer has identified the heave potential and has made appropriate recommendations in his report. We have designed a floating slab in the garage. The contractor asked a good question, that for some reason has never come up in my...

Does anyone have capacity charts on a BCI 45, era 1994? 9. 1/2 inch depth. Thank you in Advance.

We design residential wood framed houses frequently with vaulted interior pitch (known as a scissor truss). Does anyone have a reference explaning or experience dealing with how far the truss can kickout (horizontal deflection) before the gyp board ceiling seem rips? In the attached example, the...

Has anyone ever used facemount hangers instead of top flange hangers for the member haning into the I joist packout? Why can I not find that (facemount) hanger detail on any of their literature?

After happily paying $90 for the ACI 360R-10, Guide to Design of Slabs on Grade so I can actually "design slabs on grade" I am now having regrets. No where that I can find, does it give a formula or table for minimum reinforcement requirements for plane old cast in place slabs on grade. I...

We are on a project where we have to add an egress window opening to an existing vintage era (1800's) rubble style stone basement foundation wall. The stones vary in size, and have mortar. Larges stone is around baseketball size. Smallest is around the size of my kids lunch box. Stones vary in...

I have run into this issue several times over the past 17 years and have been able to professionally talk it through. This time, it is not working. What happens is that the local building department for this rural mid size City sees my stamp on the job and immediately puts all inspection...

We have a client who wants to do a polished floor topping slab over a wood framed structural floor. The project is residential. We have seen mixed results with this type of finish in the past. The biggest issue is that they all crack in spots that are not control joint related, regardless of...