I find myself working on repair plans for a series of structural problems at a recently completed building containing a certain big box retailer. Neither the original designer nor the original contractor is available to me (in case something goes to court), but—at least to my eye—the plans look complete, correct, and easy to build from. Nevertheless, there are now engineers and contractors working their way through the building finding and (hopefully) fixing errors.
My current problem involves the roof framing. Like almost every other big box, there are steel girder bar joists spanning wall to column to column, etc. with k-series steel joists the other way, and corrugated steel on the joists. The plans call for every k-joist to be welded to the girder that it bears on, as well as for the ends of the joists to be connected to each other through a weld to an 18” splice angle. There are several locations where these connections weren’t made. It’s on the order of dozen out of a few hundred. In many of these locations, the erection bolts that were supposed to temporarily connect the joists to the girder during construction are still there.
So the question is, how likely is it that I can send a welder up there to complete the detail as per the original plan? It was an easy build originally before the decking was down, but now there is only the 2” joist top chord depth of space to work in. You really can’t even see the connection unless you put your head sideways against the ceiling. The question ultimately is, “in how tight of a space can you effectively weld?” I guess a follow up question might be “considering the infrequency of this problem, do I really need to fix it?”
My current problem involves the roof framing. Like almost every other big box, there are steel girder bar joists spanning wall to column to column, etc. with k-series steel joists the other way, and corrugated steel on the joists. The plans call for every k-joist to be welded to the girder that it bears on, as well as for the ends of the joists to be connected to each other through a weld to an 18” splice angle. There are several locations where these connections weren’t made. It’s on the order of dozen out of a few hundred. In many of these locations, the erection bolts that were supposed to temporarily connect the joists to the girder during construction are still there.
So the question is, how likely is it that I can send a welder up there to complete the detail as per the original plan? It was an easy build originally before the decking was down, but now there is only the 2” joist top chord depth of space to work in. You really can’t even see the connection unless you put your head sideways against the ceiling. The question ultimately is, “in how tight of a space can you effectively weld?” I guess a follow up question might be “considering the infrequency of this problem, do I really need to fix it?”
