Jump to content

Purdueenginerd

Full Member
  • Posts

    895
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    5

Posts posted by Purdueenginerd

  1. Ive worked on a few of his buildings over the years. I pulled up one the drawings for one of his buildings on our server right now, and for what its worth It Says Alfred C Finn Architect and the address is 505 Goggan Houston, TX.  That address and building I dont believe exist anymore. It was definitly a firm with numerous workers. I do not know if the firm was acquired in the 60's when he passed away. Here's a clip of one of the structural drawings. He subbed out structural in the 1920s, which wasnt as common at the time. Won't share the location of this building but of the few projects of his i've worked on-- the title block is consistent. 

    image.png.875db7d93ffa36d72e77ba4cf326023f.png

    • Like 1
  2. Just wanted to share for future home-owners the importance of proper waterproofing details and c raft work on their homes and future homes. I wanted to elaborate on my current experiences. As we all know most homes these days are constructed with a DuPont Tyvek. This material wraps around typical wood-frame homes and serves as a vapor/moisture barrier between the elements and the interior of the house. In order to serve as protection and an envelop to the home details pertaining to installation are very explicit. With the amount of rain in Houston, its important that your waterproofing details are done correctly. 

    Tyvek, by DuPont has a specification for the installation of windows: https://www.dupont.com/content/dam/dupont/amer/us/en/performance-building-solutions/public/documents/en/K27340%20Window%20Installation%20Up%20to%204%20Inch%20Recess%20After%20WRB.pdf

    Won't get in the weeds but basically Tyvek has to be folded and taped in specific manner around windows. The more important component is to fold  and tape your tyvek over the window Sill 2x4, before the window is installed. If you don't, even with Tape, any pin-hole or improper taping will bypass the moisture barrier and allow water behind it, Allowing for water infiltration. When this isnt performed properly, it can foul the structure. Want to walk through a couple of photos pertaining to things to look for. 
    TbdcMP7.jpg

    In the Image above you can see as we tear away the tape that the tyvek terminates at the window sill. The tape does not turn over the 2x4 window sill. You can see fastener holes within 6" of the window as well. Any hole in the system will allow water behind the Tyvek,

    XOTuaUL.jpg

    In this image as we cut away the tyvek you can see significant water infiltration has occurred at the window sill interface. 

    3Gnp1u6.jpg

    In the image above, as the sheathing was removed, Structural damage to both a load bearing studs and the primary support beam is obvious as a result of the faulty installation. 

    AXGAozb.jpg

    In another portion of the house, you can see again improper installation at the jambs of the window. The tape was applied underneath the tyvek, essentially making it pointless. 

    Obviously these repairs have been expensive. The original builder of the home, Ansari Builders, was not helpful at all pertaining to the addressing of these issues but I wanted to let everyone who's building and owning homes know that there are resources pertaining to how windows should be installed and the importance of proper waterproofing in the Houston Area. Be sure during inspection to evaluate the windows and if waterproofing was properly installed. 

     

    • Like 3
  3. • 4/9/20 – Discovery of trespassers living in the rectory. Windows on second floor broken. In addition, break-in through stained glass window of church.
    • 4/15/20 – Copper gutters and flashings stolen.

    • 4/23/20 – Second floor window of school broken out.

    • 4/24/20 – Air conditioning copper lines stolen; visible evidence of campfires burning along front wall of rectory.

    • 4/28/20 – Trespasser arrested inside rectory.

    • 1/28/21 – Interior patio door of rectory broken; basement garage raided for copper pipes, tubing, and wiring. Basement flooded.

    •12/6/21 – Pierce Street door and multiple windows found broken and used to gain entry. Electric wiring in old school was stolen.

    • 12/22/21 – Trespassers removed an 18-foot ladder from the rectory basement and used it to climb the school roof to access the wiring.

    • 1/31/22 – A 2-alarm fire at parish office and rectory. Extensive damage, holes in roof and windows, fire crews find the premises to be unsafe.

    • 2/1/22 – Break-in at the rectory through glass and sawing throughplywood that was supplied by an outside contractor after the fire.

     

    Looking at the case history, thats a lot of break-ins over 2 years. Its a huge bummer they went with surface parking lot. -- street parking downtown is free on sunday's anyway. Huge bummer. 

    • Like 1
    • Sad 1
  4. 1 minute ago, TacoDog said:

    1

     

    Also, the lack of bike lanes here makes me believe they won't continue along 11th St. to Durham's bike lane, which is unfortunate. 

     

    For what its worth, there is a proposed extension to Ella. No idea on the funding or status of it. 

     

    https://mycity.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4b5467e117d0459b84e2f2e94ba4fdc2&extent=-10619481.073%2C3470289.6806%2C-10609291.0617%2C3475071.7722%2C102100

    • Like 2
  5. Finally got a chance to ride the bike lanes on 11th on Sunday.

    I liked it. had a mild complaint going westbound and trying to turn left on to the heights bike-trail. I ended up going to Yale and turning left there. Not a big deal since I was doing 16mph pace... but with a slower bike/ride ---I coudl find this annoying. 

     

    Commenting on the traffic issue at shepherd. I drive from my house down 11th (west bound) every morning to drop my kid off at day care. at 730 in the morning, anecdotally, during construction traffic was backed up some... but now that its more or less complete - I've seen no appreciable increase my time to get him to daycare and get to the office. Going east bound on 11th over shepard, I feel like there needs to be better paint markings to partition the road from 2 lanes down to 1, but thats just an adjustment on my part. 

    Edit:

    Just want to add, I take my son to the heights library every 2-3 weeks and I generally walk there. Crossing 11th is drastically easier with a stroller than it was before. 

    • Like 5
  6. On 5/19/2020 at 11:17 AM, MexAmerican_Moose said:

    lol, structural PE here, i haven't done a parking garage design but i did have to analyze one for a construction addition we did to one of the interior floors...garage live loads vs office live loads is very non-intuitive until you run the math...typical garage live load is 40-50 psf with a point load of ~4 kips or so....for office live loads, its ~75-100 psf....if its a pool, i suspect the loads are way higher....anyways, we had to make our addition as light as possible

     

    I've got a project right now where the owner wants to add a swimming pool the roof an existing two story building. The roof framing is bar joists. Long story short, we performed a feasibility study to see what would have to be done. I think they laughed out loud when I told them the roof framing failed by a factor of 10, the columns failed, and even the foundations failed. They still want us to design new framing to support the swimming pool. Luckily this garage is new construction, but it does kind of concern me that theyre goign to put a swimming pool, full of chlorides over the top of the garage with all its exposed elements...

     

    This is going to be a maintenance issue for the owner

     

     

    • Like 4
×
×
  • Create New...