Sometimes, what may seem at first to be the simplest of problems turns out to be involved and complex. This is one such case. This multi-family project had been red-tagged because a contractor was installing railings without a building permit. The complicating factor is that the railing system is proprietary, […] Read more »
Unusual Framing
As a part of a second story remodel for this client, we investigated some rather unusual framing, including sloping braces and offset walls. These were discovered after the contractor had begun the remodel work, and we needed to provide an assurance that the unusual conditions would not affect the final […] Read more »
Clunky Little Garages
Many charming old Seattle houses have these clunky little garages, often built into the hillside below the home, and usually made of unreinforced concrete. Many of them are failing in some manner. Often they are not used, because the were built when Model T and Model A ruled the road, […] Read more »
Continuous Cantilevers
Remodels can be enlightening. This fellow owns a 60s style home, you know, exposed 4×12 wood beams, lots of odd shaped windows, big overhangs and cantilevered beams. Anyway, the question was, how to remove an exterior “privacy wall” that was built between two 4×4 posts. The posts extended from the […] Read more »
Damage By Plumbers
Plumbers in general do their job well, and can be a boon to you when something is flooding or stopped up. Or, I suppose, if you want your plumbing to be improved, more modern… However, they must typically be supervised, or you might find you require repairs to some of […] Read more »
Removing Fireplace Monstrosities
Some of you bloggers out there may live in a house built during the 1950s to 1970s. A few of those houses have an ugly, awful gigantic brick masonry fireplace, that probably dominates your main living space, and makes any kind of decorating difficult. This was a fad that I […] Read more »
Narrow Homes In Seattle
More and more, new homes constructed in Seattle are of the narrow type. Typically, a developer will buy several older, run-down homes, which are often on larger lots. They will then revise the lot lines and build three homes where there might previously have been two. Now, some of you […] Read more »
Converting A Basement To Recording Studio
A remodeling contractor we know often brings us small bits of design work. Typically he requires only a short site visit, some advice, perhaps a few calculations, and something to show the building department that what he wants to do is feasible and conforms to the current building codes. I […] Read more »
College Structural Drawings
The building you see here is part of a local college campus. The buildings are maybe 40 or 50 years old, and very little is available in the way of recorded structural drawings. Luckily, in this case, pretty much everything we needed to know is visible and accessible, even without […] Read more »
CSES Almost Ghostbusters
It was a lovely, breezy, sunny day as I drove out to Redmond on another engineering mission. The gentleman who owns this home had purchased it less than one year ago. Within a few months, he had become worried, because one corner of his house seemed to be rising mysteriously. […] Read more »