This is a crazy effective sales technique and I hear it far more often than I ever thought I would. I get that the average homeowner has no clue about structure, but this type of statement wins people a lot of jobs it seems.
As others have said, spec the steel beam and all connectors galvanized or stainless, don't mix.
I like the idea of welding the hangers directly to the top flange of the beam, but they aren't going to like field welding to galvanized steel a bunch of times.
I'd prefer adding PT blocking in the...
Always interesting to hear how things are done in different places. Similar to how many people have concerns with expansive soils, but that's low on the list around here.
I've put a steel beam on a wood post maybe once or twice. Never liked it even if the loads are low.
But this detail seems fine and having a positive connection is always important just for construction loads, someone or something bumping into it, etc.
Really depends. Most structures have a basement or crawlspace so going on both sides is not impossible for exterior walls. For interior or unit demising walls we like to alternate if possible.
The contractor that I mentioned above that we do 95% of this repair work with will never jack a...
Helical piles w/ underpinning brackets onto notched footings get the load as close as possible to concentric for retrofit conditions. When we have heavier loads or special conditions we'll try to alternate pile installation on both sides of the wall.
I will say that these helical piles...
I think one key thing that a few people mentioned here is jacking vs securing. Jacking a foundation is a totally separate service/ approach IMO. That is very rare around here and needs careful consideration. Geotech is a must and a thorough analysis. I usually only see those done w/ push piers...
One of our biggest clients is a structural contractor who does a large amount of this type of repair work. As mentioned above, there are many many many shitty companies that do this type of work though, especially in my area. We have come across work for the other companies and always turn it...
Most things stand, but a lot of older lower slope hip roofs definitely have sags or separation of the rafters along the hip-nailer.
The folded plate action with the sheathing helps hips last a lot longer than valleys just due to the fact that the wood framing is being compressed at the...
Didn't know someone sold printed copies of those, but very cool. Happy to help. I prefer digital because even in those older codes you can still search the PDFs. The NYC codes from the before times are the best.
Are younger engineers learning LRFD and actually using it? Yes we learned LRFD in college, but the firm I first worked at everyone used ASD so I still do now. The LRFD-only steel manual (from early 90's?) was a great paperweight. My professor in 2010 said ASD is old news, but here we are in 2025...
Very minor. I believe AISC lets you ignore any eccentricity as long as it's not an "extended" connection. A simple knife plate that's a few inches long with a single row of bolts isn't going to be an issue.
We use OneDrive for same reasons as pham said. I have had a recent issue that is renaming word docs to temporary name/ folder while in them, but otherwise easy to use.
Very few people we work with still use Dropbox I've noticed. Mostly old timers. Smaller archs use Google Drive usually since...
I have a 21ft long W12x26 in my kitchen on two steel columns and the price of the steel vs 18" LVL's was cheaper for the steel. Engineered lumber is expensive these days.
The cost difference is usually in the installation because not all contractors want to work with steel beams. Also they can...
Whenever I have to check something old I usually start by checking one of the older NYC codes. They are so simple and well written I am envious of the simpler code days (as we discussed in that other thread).
Looks like the 1922 code has a whole chapter on plaster so that would be my...
You would be correct.
Had a big apartment building years ago with this issue. They only noticed it because they did work on a balcony and realized the outer 2 screws barely hit the 2x rim and the inner two screws were only in the trex. Had to shut down like 50 balconies for a while until they...
