Recent content by C-S-H

From what I am seeing in your photo, you have a wall with 2 hinges in it. The lower hinge is stabilized, and forces taken, by the king studs. The top of the king studs are delivering force to the upper hinge. The upper hinge is stabilized by parallel struts, so essentially the entire wall is...

You still need to build support for the top ends of your king studs to take wind forces on the wall. The truss co. seems to have shook off the lateral design of the wall if you read the fine print. Imagine the gable end wall as a floor supported by the floor diaphragm, and roof or ceiling...

If you put a vapor barrier in the assembly, like the metal ceiling or 6 mil polyethylene, then you need to design the assembly to prevent condensation coming from either side. This usually involves adding rigid impermeable insulation board like XPS in proper thickness so that the temperature on...

I coil into figure eights, but not like that. I firmly grab cord 5' from end with right hand, palm up. Then firmly grab cord with left hand 5' out, palm down. Then bring fists together thumbs up without letting cord slip, and transfer new figure 8 loop to right hand. Thumbs always point...

That is scaling from freeze-thaw. I would say that your concrete lasted exactly one freeze-thaw cycle. I see that in all new concrete residential replacement driveways around here. Likely the concrete has too much water at the surface, and that destroyed the air void system. But you had no...

I coil my electric extension cords the same as a surveyors' steel tape. So 100' tape is coiled into about 17 figure 8 coils, then hung. They pay off easily with no twist after decades of usage.

Your first priority should be proper site drainage. You do not ever want to channel water under your pavements through an open graded base. I like this article from FHWA https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/concrete/pubs/hif16005.pdf . There are potentially 4 layers: The pavement, the base, the...

A concrete slab-on-grade would be load rated for a specified vertical force(s) and contact condition. If there is also an applied moment, like for 2-post lifts, then rating effort is more complicated. A psi rating is for soils and flexible pavements where loads are diffused, not carried to the...

Your 2-post lift needs a reinforced concrete structural slab. Your 3'x3' thickened areas will help with punching shear under the loaded edge of the post base plates, but otherwise are not the ideal shape of thickened slab that you need. The post is a cantilever with substantial moment applied...

The floor diaphragm will rotate about the one post under the top of the stairs with little resistance except from the post-to-beam connections. Draw the deformed shape and you will see why. I see you have installed some knee braces that will help with stability a little bit. Maybe you could...

No.

Cast-in can be best if you build a good jig and template. But hard to go wrong with the drop-in expansion anchors provided by BendPak. The general pecking order is: 1. Cast-in anchors 2. Post-installed adhesive anchors 3. Post-installed expansion anchors You can get all three types in...

You have made great progress. In general for a free-standing, one-story frame structure there are 3 modes of global stability failure. 1. Sway side-to-side 2. Sway fore-and-aft 3. Twist You have cross-braced against the first two modes (if adequate), but have no cross-bracing for the third...

I like the idea of a wooden floor for your woodworking shop versus concrete floor. Its use is analogous to fishing out of a wooden skiff versus an aluminum jon boat; the difference in bodily comfort and overall feel and sound is immense. You need to accommodate about a 3000 Lb load whether it...

I crushed a disk in my lower back about 35 years ago, and took me 25 years to stop abusing it so it could heal up. And it did after about 5 years much to my delight. Stay strong, no gut, don't lift anything. I don't have experience with the rubber mats in my garages, but I use plywood plus...