Structural Abuse

[csd72]

Just thought this was an interesting topic.

When have you seen the builder effectively violate the structural integrity of your design because of a clash with services e.t.c.

Here is a good (meaning bad) example:

http://www.dbp.org.uk/cs/DBP00042.pdf

 

[JKW05]

A long time ago I had an architect ask if they could cut a 22" hole in a 20" deep concrete beam. Honest to God he did!

 

[csd72]

classic luvit!

 

[JedClampett]

I once heard from a guy who sold insurance about a claim he went on. It seems that when some guys in a garage couldn't use the full travel of their lift, they cut out the bottom chords of the joists to get more room.
The roof was somewhat saggy.

 

[civeng80]

JKWO5

Thats a beauty, I'll remeber that one too !

 

[JStephen]

Consider the current thread in view of this one over in the Boiler and Pressure Vessel forum:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=225000&page=1

Basically, the question is whether repads need to be provided under connection clips all the time. The answer is no, but some just do it anyway. But this kind of thinking gets applied to other things as well. So we'll commonly see pipe supports specified at a maximum spacing of 5' or 8' or some other arbitrary number regardless of strength/design considerations. So there is in fact a distinct possibility that in the original photo, the entire support may be superflous, and was furnished because someone just felt it ought to be there, and couldn't be persuaded otherwise, stress or no stress.

 

[apsix]

Good engineering practice means designing some robustness into the structure. We know that over the 50 year life it is going to end up carrying more than the 2 - 3" compressed air lines it started with.
It's also likely to have minimum maintenance and an average of 2.4 hits from a 20 ton forklift.

 

[aapl2k7]

I was thinking about starting a new thread about something i thought it was stupid, but since i saw and read this thread i will place my question here.

I work on a construction company in Nicaragua, a client who is going to be in charge of building a road called us and said he needed a temporary storage/work shop facility, following their ideas we ended with this (pic 1). They think its too expensive for a temporary construction (its going to last until they finish the road, about 20Km). Now they want something like the sketch on pic 2. The two boxes you see are containers, they are thinking of using them as office's and as a warehouse, they want me to place the truss over the container, i'm not sure if this can be done (probably it has been done before, somewhere), my major concerns are overturning moments(the horizontal reaction of the truss is right around 6 tons and the vertical reaction is around 2 tons) and the anchorage on the containers steel sheet, i fear it might tear. I designed a structure (pic 3) to substitute the containers as structural elements, but they still want to use the containers as columns, they really don't want to spend enough money on this warehouse.

I need some help with this. Thanks.

 

[aapl2k7]

pic 1

 

[aapl2k7]

pic 2

 

[aapl2k7]

pic 3

 

[Ussuri]

Further to Jed's saggy roof story. Back at University our lecturer relayed a tale about an equally stupid person.

This chap lived in a run of the mill english detached house (brick walls, timber roof truss). He was apparently an avid wood working fan and decided he wanted his own workshop, but lacked the space to put one in. So, he decided he would use his attic.

He installed a pedestal drill, lathe and belt sander. And to improve the working area he cut out the chords in truss.

This may be an urban legend, but snopes came up empty.

 

[csd72]

aapl2k7,

You need to start a new thread to ask this question as it is completely unrelated to the original topic.