Anyone have any experience with repair mortars for old stacked stone/rubble foundation walls? I have a situation where a contractor is wanting to keep existing foundations for a home that is having some work done on the wood floor framing. The foundations are stable and mostly in tact so I...
A contractor client sent me some photos of a precast parking deck that has some damage. At one location it looks like the bearing connection at the end of a double tee has failed and the tee has displaced. Can't tell from the picture if this double tee has a dapped end or not. Has anyone seen...
I'm reviewing some plans from a designer for a residential addition project (these have not been engineered yet so ignore any errors you see in member sizing). They want to make a really long opening (28-ish feet) in an existing exterior wall and extend out the rear of the home. I have a few/a...
Looking for folks with experience evaluating steel structures that have been exposed to fire/heat. I've read some reference material/articles about general evaluation processes but its a bit of a mixed bag. Some say more or less that if it hasn't deformed than its generally ok. Others say...
Ok this question is for the residential experts out there. See the photo, I see this type of system frequently where I live where homes have sloping grades on the property. Essentially a CMU foundation wall that extends anywhere from 1 to 4 feet above crawl space grade and then a wood framed...
Anyone ever design a new foundation for an existing residential structure that is going be lifted, moved, and set down on the new foundation? I've seen (pictures) of contractors moving an entire house, normally with steel beams to support the structure on some type of trailer/rig, so I know it...
So a contractor I do work with from time to time called me out to look at something. The inspector failed his floor framing because he over-notched the joists due to an existing 2x4 ledger strip (dark colored wood) rather than the typical 2x2 strip (it's a renovation job). So now I'm trying to...
See sketch below. I have a situation where I'm trying to extend the interior space of a residential structure by cantilevering the ground level first floor joists (apprx 2' cantilever and 11' backspan). There are similar "bumpouts" to this on the home already, so the goal is to just make the...
I see this a lot in my area but have never understood why from a structural standpoint this is allowed without much thought. There is the argument that it has been done for years and years without issue, which is valid in a sense, but I would like to be able to rationalize the acceptance. Tell...
Did an evaluation at a townhouse property earlier this week and came across a truss profile I haven't seen before. It's a gable roof, but the ceiling has vaulted rooms at each end of the truss and a flat ceiling in the center portion. My guess is that the perpendicular wall below the...
What's the standard approach/detailing for supporting a new elevated floor off an existing exterior wall that supports an existing elevated level? It would seem that the existing wall could be opened up to thread new floor joists in between existing floor members, but I think the wall sheathing...
Doing a residential screened porch addition and need some input on how others would approach the lateral design for this. Generally I wouldn't be too concerned here except this particular design does have a fair amount of wall area that will receive wind pressure, see plan below, wall on left...
Working on a situation where I've got to raise the floor level in an existing depressed room at a residential property. It's old construction from the 60's. Existing floor is slab on grade of unknown thickness poured separate from the perimeter walls (floating slab). Perimeter walls in the...
Are there any code provisions (residential) that prohibit the use of brick masonry chimneys for support of beams (likely multi-ply LVL)??
I have a project where the owner wants to do a rear addition and vault the ceiling. The new ridge happens to line up with an existing fireplace chimney so I...
See sketch below. A client of mine has asked to have a 2-story loft built inside of a pre-fab pre-engineered steel barn structure. Due to the barn structure being engineered for only its on weight and wind/seismic as applicable only for itself the loft would not be attached and completely...
I have a project where a client wants to remove a portion of an exterior load bearing wall in order to make a large opening to a rear addition. The wall supports the 2nd level floor, roof trusses, and brick veneer. I've seen some threads about brick veneer support with wood as it relates to...
I have a potential project where the client wants to remove a portion of a CMU wall that separates different areas of an industrial building. The CMU wall is part of the lateral system for each side of the building so I am envisioning using either steel moment frames (or braced frames if I can...
Went out to do a residential evaluation today and it ended up being a cluster of issues. Lots of stuff going on based on the visuals. Needing some opinions on what items in this list warrant addressing and what can just be monitored. See my sketch for issue numbers corresponding to the list...
Anyone on the forum here know of a person who would be a good technical resource for dealing with any number of issues that come up with wooden floor trusses? Seems like lately I get more calls about these things and they can turn into research projects real quick if you don't have a lot of...