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Mixed masonry and steel supports

Mixed masonry and steel supports

Mixed masonry and steel supports

(OP)
I am curious in your area if the contractor's preference is to keep all the support systems the same or mix steel support systems with full height masonry walls (in lieu of using the walls only for lateral)?

My experience has been they want all the steel (beams and joists) to go up at one time on steel columns/beams, and bring the masonry after so there does not have to be coordination with steel and masonry construction. However, I have had some requests recently to use any full height walls as load bearing when the rest of the building utilizes steel columns.

RE: Mixed masonry and steel supports

When I worked in the Midwest US I did a ton of steel joist on masonry wall systems.

Now that I'm in western Canada, I get a lot of requests for the masonry as infill systems.

I much prefer to use my block walls as load bearing. There's just something fundamentally inelegant about having redundant vertical structure side by side. And I hate using infill masonry walls as shear walls. The detailing's always sketchy and you engage less dead load to resist overturning. Tough to argue with the cost consultants though.

A colleague of mine is working on a water treatment plant where they want concrete vertical frames, steel infill roof, and masonry infill walls for similar reasons. It's a festival of goofy connections. Switch out the steel for thatch and you've got third world residential construction.

I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.

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