Exterior elevator shaft

[WWTEng]

Exterior elevator shaft addition to an existing building with cmu walls. Dimension are 20'x22'x28' tall.

The question is, would it be incorrect to design the cmu spanning vertically? Are the walls supposed to be designed to span horizontally in the shorter direction?

Obviously the shorter direction would likely cost effective but ignoring the numbers, my question is more about the design approach.

 

[kylesito]

I had a boss tell me once to design walls with the "belts and suspenders" approach. Design it to span horizontally and then check its strength vertically. If it works in both directions or only needs some nominal change to make it work in both directions, then you will be covered if it behaves in either case in the real world.

I like this approach too in this case because some day an architect is going to want to put a giant bay window in it or rip out one of your perpendicular walls and then it's going to be a problem.



PE, SE
Eastern United States

"If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death!"
~Code of Hammurabi

 

[jike]

We would normally design it to span horizontal (in the short direction).

 

[hokie66]

The principle should be that you analyze to find out how a structure behaves under loading, then design accordingly. That said, for strength considerations only, any load path will do. The same cannot be said for serviceability issues. With the dimensions given for this shaft, it will span in both directions.

 

[grantstructure]

That's one ginormous elevator.