Yeah, those drawings suck. If those were made by a PE, then whoa! Calling out steel sections by width and depth instead of by AISC designation and calling a column an I-beam are a couple of red flags that someone is probably clueless and unqualified.
@LOTE , I agree with most of what you said except the above. Rather than a small cabin with a couple of bunk beds, these vacations homes can easily be very large (by residential standards) $1M+ properties that accommodate sleeping arrangements for 12-20 occupants. They often contain elements...
@Bammer25 , this is all well and good, but I still question what it is that you are actually stamping. For example, what code provisions are you checking? What information is being conveyed by the drawings that you are stamping? I can stamp a blank napkin, but it is meaningless. Or someone...
@Bammer25, as to whether or not a stamp is even required, my state has the following exception within the law for architects:
(b) Construction documents for the following structures do not require the seal of a registered architect:
(1) One and two-family residences and domestic outbuildings...
I would say 20 psf tops, unless you want to analyze and verify capacity.
If you were designing these on the cheap you might even say only 10 psf if the required insulation depth is greater than the depth of the 2x6 bottom chord (per IRC table footnote).
I did a couple of these years ago and quickly decided that it wasn't worth the hassle, meaning that there wasn't enough money in the meager fees to cover the effort required, including crawling around underneath these things. I found that there was a good chance that the manufactured home...
@Bammer25 , kudos to you for asking questions and continuing to participate in this discussion. I do not want to "gang up" on you. I am curious about your circumstance though. Mainly, what exactly you are reviewing and why. You say that these are generic house plans, but you also mention the...
IRstuff, there is no "implicit concurrence with the structural capability of the house" implied by stamping floor plans that do not contain or convey any structural information. The stamp applies to the drawing and the information contained in the drawing and nothing more. The stamp means that...
Based only on the text of the quoted passage above, I agree with @Flotsam7018 that the 5% limit is for the magnitude of each load, not the total load or load effect. That is what the text says, but I do not know if that is what was meant. In practice, I would probably stick to 5% total load or...
Your statements above suggest that you aren't doing much of anything. This seems to be text book rubber stamping. Every engineering board I have any knowledge of would probably not allow this practice.
To the contrary, in fact you are indeed basically claiming the work as your own. That is...
I would do absolutely nothing to address these totally normal and common checks other than assessing them and arriving at the aforementioned conclusion, but if you are dead set on implementing a completely unnecessary, elective, cosmetic remedy to hide the checks, just wrap the columns with...
The crack doesn't look vertical to me. It looks more diagonal, so I don't think it is necessarily just cracked at the cover beyond bars. Also, if the crack, being so steeply diagonal is really aligned with the cold joint, then that is problem to me. The cold joist should have never been...
