1928 Live Loads 1

[kevinwschmuhl]

I am currently working on a renovation of an old historic hotel designed in 1928. Any idea what the required design live loads were in the 1920's (for the rooms and the assembly areas)? There are no surviving drawings of the building. The entire structure is cast in place concrete.

 

[JAE]

Go to this site:

http://www.slideruleera.net/miscellaneous.html

And click on the 8th line down titled: "Carnegie Pocket Companion - 1923".

This brings up a pdf file of the document - go to page 265 of the document (page 135/189 of the pdf file) and it lists common live loads of the era.

Tip of the hat to SlideRuleEra!!

 

[BAretired]

Why do you want to know? Why not assume 40 psf for rooms and 100 psf for assembly areas?

BA

 

[msquared48]

Like... Maybe a change of use?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask

 

[BAretired]

No change of use was suggested, Mike.

BA

 

[JAE]

BAretired, for old buildings, sometimes it is a good idea to establish the original design intent and calibrate your own knowledge of the floor structure with what it may have been designed for. Doing this before you renovate or alter an older structure for new use is a good practice.

In most cases, this is simply back-calculating a live load capacity from the member sizes, reinforcing, material property assumptions, etc.

Having at least a historical idea of floor live load requirements, while not essential, might be a bit enlightening....in other words, couldn't hurt to know.

 

[msquared48]

Granted BA.

Is this old historic hotel on the National Historic Register? If so, there may already be a write-up on it's history in DC. Might find some information there.

It's a long shot, but you never know.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Thanks, JAE. One of these days I plan to add the 1934 CPC. 524 pages is a of scanning, though.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[kevinwschmuhl]

Thanks for your insight. The information from the Carnegie Pocket Companion was very helpful. Looks like the loading requirements have not changed much over the years!

 

[cntw1953]

Even as a nation (we are in) grew bigger and fatter (over-weight .