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Structural engineers will engineer trusses generally and there is a stamp on the trusses themselves or on the data sheet, but they are not normally engineered for a particular house.
Things are built differently across the nation and this is apparently one of them. EVERY truss here is designed for every individual house including those cookie cutter houses that everybody builds cheap. Around here an east west orientation difference may make a difference in the wind load calcs and the roof trusses will be different.
Glulams are not engineered here for every job although engineering values are used. Most of the lumber companies stock these in 36 ft lengths and cut whatever length you need on whatever radius that is speced. Most around here is at 1600' radius but we do use a few at 3200. I've never seen locally any at 5000'.
Like you I work with a lot of engineers. We're the guys that do the fixing per their specs. Most of the failures we see are foundations and that's due to our clay soils and the PI being near 100 in a lot of locations. But we also see where the supers are not near as trained as they should be and cold joints can be an issue. Specs being changed at the builders office has seen roof trusses designed for asphalt shingle roofs be changed to tile roofs- man, that's a major oops! We've fixed panel wall construction where the framing crews installed a wall backwards and now the stack framing doesn't work or the supports for a girder are on the wrong end of a wall panel. I've seen floor trusses that are cantilevered installed per makers label but the label is on the wrong side meaning the truss is upside down and the point load is on the wrong side. I've seen where the design calls for brick running up the rake of the roof with zero material installed to carry the load- it just sits on the roof deck...until it starts to come apart. I've seen garden windows with brick loads about with aero flashing and no lintel to carry the brick. The list is endless it seems. Makes ya wonder how a house stays together here.
I know, a lot of you are asking, "don't you have any inspections there"?. Most of our new homes are built outside of the city. While the city has strict inspections, the county has none. The builders build outside the city so they don't have to fool with inspections and because there are no city taxes, can qualify more folks on the mortgage. All homes in Texas are required to be built per IRC 2003 but any idiot can sign off that the house was inspected so it pretty much never sees any inspections except the one by the super which most likely hasn't got a clue or could care less. As long as the house stays on schedule and the computer system is up to date, the builder is happy in most cases. Yeah, pretty dismal situation but it makes for a good living for some of us.
Any decent contractor can tell you whether the walls are load bearing. For that matter, I could tell you if I was at your house or had blueprints. It is not rocket science. There was no PE involved in the design or construction of your house, you hardly need one to remodel the interior.
We like having out kitchen seperated form the rest of the house. There is a double door we can open for socialization or close to contain and conceal smells, noise, children, or dirty dishes. It also allows us to contain pets in the kitchen if desired. We like it far better than the open plan houses we lived in in the past.
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Originally Posted by Coldjensens
Well I have been involved in projcects for thousands of homes in Southern California (drafting or negotiating constracts, reviewing and analyzing problems or contract disputes and getting them resolved, working on financing issues, disputes between deginers and developers, etc.) and have never seen an SE involved in the desgn, nor an SE stamp on any of the plans. Once in a while an SE will get involved in defect cases, but not that often, usually it is only an archtect or a civil engineer or a contractor. Come to think of it, in hundreds of millions of dollars of litigation claims for residential construction defects, I have never seen a structural defect alleged. Lots and lots of civil issues and architectural/building issues (roofs and windows mostly), but I cannot think of one matter with a structural failure. I have heard of some instances where new houses simply collapsed, but I would not think an SE would be necessary for that. If your house falls down, it is not too hard to prove it was not supposed to fall down.When I had complete failure cases, the house collapsed due to foundation failures caused by civil problems, not structural. Those great rooms often have problems because they are built incorreclty, with stacked stick framing, but an architect or even a builder can and does identify that problem.
Structural engineers will engineer trusses generally and there is a stamp on the trusses themselvees or on the data sheet, but they are not normally engineered for a particular house. Even microlams are not engineered for a specific design that I have seen. Glulams often are individually engineered, but I have only seen two houses that used Glumas and they were huge - commercial construciotn really even thought he end use was a esidence. Tyopically the architiect simply selects the type of premaunufactured trusses to be used and specifies them on the plans. In the addition for our house, the architect did nto even select the trusses, he drew rafters, and the contracotr came up with a type of truss as a value engineering idea, the township approved it when he gave them the stamped data sheets for the trusses and that was that. The truss engineering is done by the manufacturer, but it has not relation to a particular house or design.
Likely engineers were involved at asome point but noe necessarily directly. If you did consult an engineer, which in my opinion is not unreasonable in this case, I don't think it would be necessary to see a PE/RPE which means a registered professional engineer. That's overkill for your needs. Any structural or civil engineer could evaluate this for you.
PE/RPE means they have extensive additional apprenticeships, education and training, and are only needed for certain things. Those guys are (rightfully) expensive!
Granted, there are different degrees/levels, but of all the "structural engineers" I have hired on various projects over the years they were all PE's.
Those that would only qualify as "structural engineers" are probably stuck behind a desk, at some firm working as an intern, hoping they can put their time in to qualify for the PE exam- or depending on the state in which they work can by-pass the exam.
The whole point I was making in this thread was this- pictures don't tell the whole story, no one has x-ray vision, and most H/O's don't know the difference between joist, rafter, stud, then throw in load bearing, non-load bearing, tributary loads, and deflection ratios- please!
It's the cheapest "insurance" a H/O could buy to have piece of mind about a possible project. Remember, GC's are generally NOT engineers- think they're going to guarantee a framing issue w/out a engineers letter?
Well, I agree with your point about the pictures, etc. I will only add that there are a lot of engineers out there who are not PEs who are also not interns. Probably 90% of the engineers in any given trade are not PEs and have no reason to become PEs.
...there are a lot of engineers out there who are not PEs who are also not interns. Probably 90% of the engineers in any given trade are not PEs and have no reason to become PEs.
Now you're just stretching the truth-
We were specifically talking about structural engineers- not mech., elec., chem., etc.!!
Yes they are bearing weight...and are structural. The joists run from the window to the load bearing wall by the stair case. You can get around it by possibly running a steel beam the length of the area...if you decide to take the wall out - you will need to stick in a few jacks to hold things in place-- one writer mentioned going into the attic...joists run from one load bearing wall to the other- usually the shortest span and not the length. I may be wrong...a pro can come in and tell you in 5 minutes at no cost...it's not a big mystery...The reason why the builder did not go for a more open concept is because they probably are load bearing walls..and was stuck with the design. ANYTHING can be accomplished with a pro..but it will cost you.
"I may be wrong...a pro can come in and tell you in 5 minutes at no cost...it's not a big mystery..."
Yes, you are wrong. Load path, and bearing points are not always obvious. By the way, some roof trusses can span front wall to rear wall with not support at all, while others require a support wall/beam in the middle of the span. It all depends on how the truss engineer designed those particular trusses.
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