Recent content by Rabbit12

Use screws.

I can't wait to deal with 3rd party/vendor designs for the new snow loads. I recall a conversation with an OH door vendor a few years ago when the wind load changed from allowable to ultimate. They were all up in arms about the wind load on my drawings. We wanted windows in the door and the...

The images of the family photos just prior to this incident are heartbreaking. They are excited about a sightseeing trip not knowing their lives are going to end in a few short minutes. Always good to remember you aren't guaranteed tomorrow.

It is simply amazing how quickly the exact cause of this collapse was determined by simply looking at aerial pictures of rubble. Less than 48 hours. Well done.

The cope looks great too!

I have access to a PEMB manufacturer's program. It's something our company negotiated with one of the big players in the industry. It's definitely a black box and I'm not an expert user but I can use it well enough to get decent preliminary loads to use for initial foundation sizing, but I...

This almost doesn't even need designed (#5 @ 16" work easily). Someone competent in masonry construction could have built this successfully.

Pretty hard to tell from that picture. I don't think we have a complete breakout cone failure. To me it looks like a spalling around the bar.

I think the main issue is there are no bond beams in this thing. The vert rebar also looks to exceed 16" but the dowels embed into the concrete sure don't look failed. Really really lucky someone wasn't between the building and CMU wall when this happened.

Looking for some input on typical corrosion allowances for D100 welded steel water tanks. Working on a spec and I want to be reasonable compared to an industry standard. The D100 standard doesn't provide any specifics that I can find. Any experience on this forum?

I'm not saying to over engineer just to compensate for lack of maintenance, but I know if a deck fails (and there are many examples) there are frequently serious injuries or deaths. I don't want to be scrutinized because I attempted to justify a lighter design load or high duration factor even...

Lots of examples of deck failures that make 100 psf not seem ridiculous. What if that 180 lb person and all his friends start jumping up and down? Now you factor in lack of maintenance that could reduce capacity. I'm probably not going to try to cut hairs on a deck design to save a few bucks.

Nothing like cheapening the profession.

There are a lot of places in this country where building departments, building officials, and permits do not exist.

In the technical sense even if KootK stays unbiased there is still a conflict. By definition a conflict of interest is defined as when personal or financial interests conflict with professional or fiduciary responsibilities potentially compromising impartiality or judgement. IMO the key word...