Lets say an architect prepared a complete set of house plans and did not use an engineer. The contractor has now requested from you as an engineer to provide an alternate foundation construction detail. Is there any reason why you shouldn't do this? My concern is that the architect is the...
I am looking for repair options for split timber piles. Although wood is new and generally good condition, some of these piles are severly split with material missing. Most of the splitting occurs above the water line but some is below. The repair must strengthen the pile's axial capacity and...
I am looking for repair options for split timber piles. Although wood is new and generally good condition, some of these piles are severly split with material missing. Most of the splitting occurs above the water line but some is below. The repair must strengthen the pile's axial capacity and...
I want to see if I could use a large U-bolt to attach some diagonal bracing to a timber pile to reduce cost of underwater construction. The diagonal brace could deliver both tension and compressive forces. The way I see it the horizontal componenet of the tension or compression force will result...
I am not a geotech...I need a ball park figure for the capacity of an 8" tip timber pile driven below water into fine sand 6ft. The first 2 ft was reported to be dense fine sand with N=40. After that it is medium dense fine sand with silt with N=20.
What would be a resonable bearing capacity...
I sometimes do residential structural engineering work and have recently got into discussion with this contractor regarding design fee. Some of the time the jobs I work on our small enough where I am the only professional involved preparing the plans (i.e. no architect). I told him I thought...
I am making a composite wood beam out of a double 2x5 with a 2x4 flat on top. The beam is spanning 16 ft and is supporting 40 plf. Using shear flow to calc the fastened spacing for the flat 2x4 I am coming up with 50 lb/in! This seems very excessive to me. Anyone want to double check for me?
I have a structure with 4 rows of identical wood bracing such that in each orthogogonal direction their area identical and perfectly "shielded". I am using ASCE 7-05's lattice frame work coefficients; my question is whether I need to apply my calculated design pressure to each plane of bracing...
I have an existing structure supported over approx. 10ft of water by timber piles. I need to increase bearing capacity, uplift, and add fixity to the pile for lateral resistance. I was thinking of having a concrete block placed at the mudline of the pile underwater. The block would be secured to...
Looking on advice for modeling wood shear walls as plates in RISA 3d. I know the program has a wall module but it seems to be limited to rectangular shapes which I don't have on my gable end. I would be content with just accuarately modeling the force transfer in this case. Should I use a shear...
Looking for opinions on risa 3d. Will be using it for mainly small size projects a lot of residential but want an all purpose program. How do you find its capabilities for small masonry or wood strucutres? How well does it do wood diaphragms and shearwalls? Will it do diaphragms on an inclined...
I have a structure supported by a grid of shallow (approx. 4.75ft to 5.75ft) embedded timber piles extending through 10ft of water braced above just above the water line. Some of the methods I am aware of for analyzing piles for lateral loads include the p-y method (I believe this is the method...
I have a conventionally framed roof with a collar tie in the upper third. The pitch is 9:12 and the there is no rafter tie or ceiling joists. The ridge is not sized to be structural. The rafter tie needs to be there to prevent thrust which has already pushed these walls out some.
My question...
It is my understanding that most small sawn lumber used in light frame construction is typically kiln dried w/ <19% MC, what about pressure treated small dimensioned lumber is it reasonable to assume it is usually >19%? It is also my understanding that lumber greater than 4" nominal width is...
I have a two story timber pile supported structure over water the first floor is enclosed only by screening but the second story is fully enclosed. I am trying to develop wind loads for a mwfrs analysis. Does any one have advice on how to treat this structure per asce 7? How will the wind see...
I have a covered porch open on three sides on the coast (high wind area) but no seismic. The open two corners are supported by brick columns. I am tasked with designing a new roof at a higher height (2-3ft) than the exising roof. I plan to design the porch roof as a cantilever diaphragm to...
In reading my truss drawings i have a "RL" reaction which I am assuming is the horizontal (lateral) load in plane with the truss in this case from wind loading since the thrust would be taken up by the horizontal bottom chord. what do i need to consider for this load? i have generally thought...
Does anyone know how to calculate C&C loads for a hip roof with an angle greater than 27 degrees? Also in looking at the international residential code the c&c pressure tables listed which I understood as coming from the simplified pressures in 7-05 show a hip roof diagram up to 30° as oppossed...
Do you find jack trusses are only connected to girder trusees by toe-nailing? shouldn't bearing be provided with a hanger? Is this connection typically the buidling engineer's responsibility or truss engineer?
