Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
(OP)
Any tips on how to evaluate the structural integrity of an existing pre-manufactured steel building with unknown MNFR.
When was the last time you drove down the highway without seeing a commercial truck hauling goods?
Download nowINTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS Come Join Us!Are you an
Engineering professional? Join Eng-Tips Forums!
*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail. Posting GuidelinesJobs |
Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
|
Pre-Manufactured Building EvaluationPre-Manufactured Building Evaluation(OP)
Any tips on how to evaluate the structural integrity of an existing pre-manufactured steel building with unknown MNFR.
Red Flag SubmittedThank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts. Reply To This ThreadPosting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members! |
ResourcesThe world has changed considerably since the 1980s, when CAD first started displacing drafting tables. Download Now
Prototyping has always been a critical part of product development. Download Now
As the cloud is increasingly adopted for product development, questions remain as to just how cloud software tools compare to on-premise solutions. Download Now
Engineering-centric businesses face a number of challenges today, but unmanageable design and change processes don’t need to be counted among them. Download Now
|
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
If very detailed, it is very difficult... you have to analyse the frames which may or may not have worked in the first place. Many PEMB's are designed for some other place and an owner picks one up cheap for his locale... different wind, snow and live loads...
Have fun...
Dik
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
BA
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
Just say no here, politely.
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
But there's no magic involved. You measure all the flanges and webs and calculate section properties. They're normally tapered, so that adds another complication. Then you rent a lift and measure the girders, purlins and bracing.
Then do your calculations. You're likely to find that the building doesn't work for current loads, nor did it work for its original design loads. So now you wonder if you made an analysis mistake, a loading mistake, a measuring mistake or maybe the materials were stronger than you assumed. So you start over with different assumptions. Or maybe you go out to the field and remeasure everything.
Meanwhile, the hours are piling up. You will literally have to put more time into this than the building is worth. And you will have to tell the client that the building that's been standing for many years is a disaster about to happen. Maybe if you warn the client that these tasks are usually expensive, you'll either be given an adequate budget or they'll give the job to one of your competitors. Either way, you win.
I agree with the posters above. These are the ultimate in no win projects.
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
I recently worked on a project that required metal building modifications. I took the project because I needed the work. I knew it was a metal building and tried to budget accordingly. Well this metal building had frames that were done out of trusses (didn't know that going in). Every single truss member need to be measured. I think there were 40 web members and chords that changed size all over the place. It took a 2 hour measuring job and turned it into a full day. I advised the client 5 times that demolishing the building would be better as he would get wish list vs settling for something else.
Turns out the building was a VP building and I knew the EOR who worked at VP at the time. He gave me some advice on how to look at the building. Spent 2-3x as long as I originally estimated only to have the project scrapped and now the client is refusing to pay his full bill.... so add that to the list. This project was not worth it at all.
There are guys who specialize in these things who can do these buildings in 1/2 the time. I hate to refuse work in this economy but sometimes you just have to.
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
RUN - do not walk from these !!
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
RE: Pre-Manufactured Building Evaluation
Ha! Glad to know I'm not the only one that has run into this. I remember some years back I got forced into this because my company put something near one of these house of cards and (as a result) was adding [snow] drift load to it. I remember at one point telling my boss: "...forget what we are doing to it...I don’t know what is keeping it up in the first place". We wound up doing something independent to the pre-engineered building to keep the load away from it.
I sympathize with anyone having to mess with it. You have to wonder if they are using plastic design and/or high grade steel to make those girders work.