Books/Software to learn: Structural Residential Design 2

[rcast044]

Hi Everyone,

I am a structural engineer with 4.5 years in bridge design in Florida and just recently obtained my PE license. I just got took a new job in residential design which is a big change in both code knowledge and expertise (AASHTO to ASCE/FBC/IBC). The main focus is 1-2 story residential dwellings with the occasional light-commercial building. I replaced the main structural engineer here so will do a lot of self-learning to grasp everything. It seems Enercalc is the software of choice that he used.

I was wondering if anybody had a good starting point on where to focus my time on, either specific books or software to maximize my learning efficiency in this new field. Anything advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[WARose]

Learn the IRC.....inside and out. (Or whatever the Florida equivalent is.) Also, get on-site to study home construction as much as you can.

 

[StrucDesignPE]

I would recommend you review a lot of the wood construction specifics, especially the IBC/IRC braced wall design for lateral loads. The APA has some pretty good publications (

https://www.apawood.org/publication-search?q=&tid=1).

Review their "Diaphragms and Shear Walls" document to get a good design primer for designing wood shear walls and wood diaphragms to better understand the specific issues and design considerations for wood construction. Also, the American Wood Council has some good info. These are just things that I run into a lot when designing residential and light commercial.

 

[DaveAtkins]

I assume when you say "residential" you are referring to multi-family residential, which is governed by IBC and not IRC.

I think your biggest challenge, coming from a bridge design background, will not be designing for gravity loads (because a floor or a roof is basically a bridge). It will be learning how to design for lateral loads (wind and seismic). Like StrucDesignEIT said, APA has good publications. The key thing to remember is, follow load paths from source of load to foundation. You will need to learn how to design diaphragms (wood and perhaps steel), shear walls (wood and masonry), and perhaps steel braced frames and moment frames.

DaveAtkins

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

I kind of did a slower but similar transition in reverse; I did a lot of buildings and slowly got into bridge design and essentially taught myself along the way. Big difference though is I tackled things slowly and at a manageable pace, rather than rushed in. You're diving in headfirst and at less experience than I had. Not saying you can't make it work but I'd make sure you either do lots of self-checking of all your work or have someone else to verify your work.

Assuming you're doing wood design, pick up Breyer's Design of Wood Structures book. Not only is this a fantastic book on wood design it's also a great summary of how residential building structural design works. In Florida you're going to have lots of slabs-on-grade, expansive clay, flood conditions, etc.; you'll want to make sure you can design for those conditions. I'd make sure you understand the wind loading provisions of ASCE 7, there is plenty of good references for those but wind is going to control your lateral design for sure.

Assuming you're doing more than just the structure, you'll want to get familiar with the FBC, IBC, and the IRC. Things like stairway provisions, egress, handrails, drainage, etc. you should understand. Probably a lot of cracking the code and just reading the provisions, but there are some handy design guides out there that can help summarize commonly referenced areas.

And, of course, I'd use eng-tips to the max. There's a lot of very smart building engineers on here who can point you in the right direction and make your catching up that much more efficient.

Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL) Structural Engineer (IL)
American Concrete Industries

https://americanconcrete.com/

 

[rcast044]

Wow, thanks for all the great responses. Yes, it is multi-family residential. I will look into Breyer's Design of Wood Structures and try my best to learn everything I need to know. From the looks of it, a lot of the new houses are block houses because they are shying away from framed houses for now due to recent hurricanes. Sometimes I get a hit of analysis paralysis considering how much information is out there and not knowing where to start.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Rcast: Understandable about the information overload. I'd start with design example and follow along as you do your design. Lots of great examples out there and they'll help make sure you don't miss any major steps.

One big caveat though is to make sure you're actually prepared for this. If you're entirely inexperienced in the designs you are performing and have no one to oversee your work, then you should not be the engineer stamping the designs. I'm operating under the assumption that you know how a building structure works in general but just need the details fleshed out.

Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL) Structural Engineer (IL)
American Concrete Industries

https://americanconcrete.com/

 

[rcast044]

Is there an equivalent level of fantastic book quality for masonry design for residential structures?

 

[DaveAtkins]

"Reinforced Masonry Engineering Handbook" by Amrhein is my old stand by for masonry design (both CMU and clay masonry). It also has really good examples of lateral analysis, including how to distribute lateral loads based on relative stiffness of shear walls (note--this would only apply to rigid diaphragms, and wood structures would consist of flexible diaphragms).

DaveAtkins

 

[DaveAtkins]

For what it's worth, I developed the attached checklist when I was doing a lot of wood framing design. It captures some of the issues that "tripped me up" from time to time. For example, you will notice "girder trusses" are mentioned--these are roof trusses which support other, perpendicular roof trusses, and are generally located between 6' and 10' from the end of the building. They can have very large downward and upward reactions to contend with.

DaveAtkins

 

[KootK]

Yes! I've been waiting for this thread for months. Like a panther... waiting to pounce. You need the two books shown below.

1) I discovered the Complete Book of Framing Recently and can't recommend it highly enough. Wherever possible, I like to read books designed for construction personnel as I find that's the best way to sort out what "normal" looks like for a particular construction morphology. And this book absolutely kicks ass in that department. In my opinion, the engineering for these buildings is pretty simple. It's understanding what "normal" looks like that trips folks up.

I've been doing light frame wood on and off for about 20 yrs and got started as a component manufacturer. So I'd say that about 15% of what's in the book was new info for me. But, man, I tell you... this would have been a huge help to me back when I get started. And I plan to make every EIT that I work with read the book from this point forward. It's just high quality, accelerated learning. Like a bunch of field visits in a can. The one drawback for you is that it's west coast based and, therefore, not as heavy on prefabricated components as the Florida market is. I still think that you'll find the book immensely helpful though.

2) As Dave mentioned, to the extent that the engineering challenges you, that's likely to be mostly about lateral design. I consider the Irregular Diaphragms book shown below to be the gold standard for reference material on that, outside of straight code mastery.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

KootK; I have looked at "Complete Book of Framing" in the past but being somewhat advanced in wood building design is there any value to us graduate level students of residential design? If so, I'll need to add it to the reading pile.

Irregular Diaphragms I think I've seen you mention this book like 3 or 4 times now and I still haven't bought it. Shame on me.

Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL) Structural Engineer (IL)
American Concrete Industries

https://americanconcrete.com/

 

[KootK]

is there any value to us graduate level students of residential design?

I would say that the value would not justify the expense nor the effort in your case. That, particularly given that your outstanding reading list is already quite long

My outstanding reading list is quite long too but I've taken to having a subcategory on the list that is basically "industry stuff that doesn't hurt my brain". You know, StructureMag articles, Eng-Tips threads, AISC videos, ect... The framing book was on that list. I read it entirely on my iPad, over the course of a few weeks, while on our elliptical machine. It was an altogether pleasant experience.

 

[rcast044]

Wow, my god, I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you for all the quick responses. I have asked my new boss to buy me:
1) Breyer's Design of Wood Structures
2) WFCM 2015

Books I am debating to not get so not to be overwhelmed so quickly:
3) Complete Book of Framing (Do I need this if I bought "The Complete Visual Guide to Building a House"?)
4) "Reinforced Masonry Engineering Handbook" (would this book jump-start me on block-house design?)

Irregular diaphragms would just be an extra elephant at this point lol but thank you for the book just incase.

 

[KootK]

Oh, and the Irregular Diaphragms book is absolutely NOT on the "doesn't hurt my brain" list. It's very diagram heavy and the diagrams are often somewhat far from the related text. I basically had to have two copies going at all times in order to read the thing. That did not happen on the elliptical machine.

 

[KootK]

3) Complete Book of Framing (Do I need this if I bought "The Complete Visual Guide to Building a House"?)

I couldn't say as I don't have first hand knowledge of both books for comparison. It certainly appears as though they might have intersecting Venns though.

When you're ready for a PhD in wood frame, check out the book below. I've always had a particular fetish for complex roof framing. Prefab roof trusses was my "in" to begin with.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

I've got to agree with KootK on the irregular shaped structures book. Great book..... But, it takes some real time trying to figure it out. I kept having to have my own notebook where I took his problems and broke them down in to much smaller steps showing how I got from one step to the next.

 

[TLHS]

The Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation (a government owned corporation) has made their guide to wood frame construction free now. It's not a design guide so much as a heavily explanatory simplified version of Part 9 of the national building code (our equivalent of the IRC)

It's targeted a little bit differently towards how you would build different systems rather than how to size them, but it also gives examples of details, and other fun things. It's not going to help you solve unusual problems, but it will make sure your conventional construction looks like industry practice (well... Canadian industry practice).

http://chbanl.ca/wp-content/uploads/CMHC-Canadian-Wood-Frame-House-Construction.pdf

 

[SlideRuleEra]

"Residential Structural Design Guide, Second Edition (2017)"
Free download, approximately 400 pages, published by the US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD).

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

OP: Reinforced Masonry Engineering Handbook isn't really a jump-start book; more like a great reference for practical design. Unfortunately I don't have as good reference on masonry jump start as I do wood but I wouldn't recommend the Masonry Handbook as such a book.

I agree with your plan; buy and digest #1 and #2. Then, pick up a masonry text and whatever other reference you feel ready to digest. Finally, I'd use whatever project your currently on to direct your reading to the more advanced topics. If you're in a project with a non-rectangular diaphragm then pick up KootK's Irregular Structures book.

I also heartily endorse KootK's concept of having regular light reading. I browse eng-tips during quick breaks at work, read various trade magazines during lunch, and fall asleep with some complex reference manual often. It's a much easier way to digest engineering and you'll be surprised how much you learn.

Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL) Structural Engineer (IL)
American Concrete Industries

https://americanconcrete.com/