This may be a bit of an unintuitive question, but it is mostly geared around how software treats lateral earth pressure loads on footings of retaining walls and keys of retaining wall footings. In this instance, I am speaking of RetainPro but I believe other software treats it similarly.
In...
So long story short, I have a detail where an A325 bolt is threaded into one side of a coupling nut and the opposite side is rebar embedded in a wall. I originally specified a specific Lenton coupler that the fabricator apparently didn't use. What was supplied was a "Grade 2" coupler which in...
Has anyone ever done the structure for a saltwater pool before? We were tasked with designing the containment walls for a rooftop pool, where the EOR already designed a big tank for it and we designed the supplemental walls for the pool that sit inside the main tank. The owner just changed...
The energy conservation code has - apparently for some time now - had a requirement for insulation at the perimeter of a concrete slab-on-grade. This requirement is pictured below.
The key language in there is "The insulation shall extend downward from the top of the slab". Up until...
Ran into a first today. We got a call from a contractor that discovered that several feet of water had gotten inside the HSS columns as the fabricator had omitted the cap plates on several of them. Many of these columns already had drywall around them, so they've got to do a bit of work and...
So this is a strange one...
I'm doing some of the work on a rooftop pool in a cast-in-place concrete building. The roof uses these pavers that are elevated 18" above the concrete roof surface. The pool wants to have a cover on it that has those straps at about 4'-0" o.c. or so. The...
Hello all, I'm dealing with a design issue that crops up numerous times each year and I'm curious on your opinions. We have a situation where a load-bearing building perimeter stem wall needs to act as a cantilevered retaining wall and laterally resist about 18" of net exterior grade...
We have a client that wants to install aluminum cantilevered sunshades attached to the face of steel tube columns. They'd like to use 3/8" thread cutting screws (such as these: Link ) to fasten the outriggers to the column walls. I cannot find any information at all on the tension capacity of...
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I have a very similar question to the above referenced thread where ASCE 7-10 and 7-16 seem to have nonsensical requirements for leeward snow drifting where there is a separation between buildings. If the separation is less than 20 feet, 7-10 and 7-16 are requiring the full...
We are starting to see more jurisdictions go to more recent energy conservation codes which now require rigid insulation to pass between the perimeter edge of the slab-on-grade and the perimeter concrete stem wall. Prior to this, we always just placed a 1/2" expansion joint between the edge of...
I am working on a podium-style apartment building with a parking garage on its ground-level floor. It's about a 250'x60' slab-on-grade and is located in an area of the country where de-icing salts and brines are commonly used. My question is, is reinforcing the slab - either with WWF or rebar...
I'm designing a base plate for a wide flange moment frame column. I have the plate design done without any issues, but my question revolves around the anchor rod detailing. I've typically seen that it's good practice to pre-tension the anchor rods, and I've also seen the detail used where the...
We're currently in the construction phase of a project in Las Vegas, NV with Clark County being the supervising jurisdiction and we are the EOR. They have been the biggest nightmare of a jurisdiction that I've ever dealt with, but that's a topic for another thread. In Vegas, we are required to...
So this has been harder to figure out than I would have thought. I am trying to determine the concrete block coursing dimensions for standard European (and possibly Canadian) construction. The best I can find is that the actual blocks are 400mm long by 215mm tall. However, I cannot find...
Here is a strange "What was the Code thinking?" question...
In the NDS spec, section 11.5.1 deals with minimum bolt edge/end distances and spacings. 11.5.1.3 and Table 11.5.1.C states that the minimum edge distance needs to be 4D from the center of a bolt. So this begs the question, what do...
I'm working on a three-story wood-framed apartment-style building down in Charleston, SC. We have anchored brick veneer going up at least two stories around a majority of the building. In the central "Core" portion of the building, the lateral system is a special moment frame, and on the...
I'm designing a wood roof diaphragm that is taking a significant amount of shear load using the 2008 SDPWS manual. On Table 4.2A, it gives nominal capacities for blocked wood diaphragms. I'd like to use just a single nailing pattern for the entire roof but it appears this table makes you use a...
I'm reading through requirements of shear wall fastening in the 2008 SDPWS. Section 4.3.6.4.3 deals with washer plates on anchor bolts in shear walls. Normally, they require washer plates within a half inch of the edge of the sill plate (which would be fairly large 4 1/2" square washer plates...
It seems to be common practice for CMU control joints to occur at larger openings starting at the top corners under the lintel, going outward 8", then continuing up to the top of the wall (see attached upper right detail). That's the way NCMA shows to construct it. However, doesn't this cause...
I've got a fairly unique problem. I'm designing a structure with wire cables that is to have LED Christmas lights hung on it from a tall tower. The tower has a ring beam attached at the top and there is a ring beam of larger diameter at the bottom that is anchored to the ground with columns...
