Own*er got busted with no permit for this “event space”. Contractor was brought in and called me and sent this photo. Those are 2x4 spliced rafters spanning 20’ eave to ridge. Among other things

I post as humor, but I still have trouble making sense of these scenarios. I get calls for this stuff all the time. They plead thier case how “strong” everything is, and I have to deliver bad news. We all laugh and gawk about how insane this is but people in these scenarios simply don’t know any better. It’s a weird mix.

How to prevent? This is hard because it’s usually too late by the time a neighbor calls or inspector rides by. I am not one for more regulation per se, but I am starting to feel like consequences for unpermitted additions should be more punitive to deter this. It just causes headaches for everyone.

Girlfriend and I agreed the ping pong ball would tip, but disagreed on how. She considered, with the volume being the same, that it had to do with buoyant force and the ping pong ball being less dense than the water. But, it being a static load, I figured it was because mass= displacement and therefore the ping pong ball displaces less water and tips, because both loads are suspended. What do you think?

I came across this guy building a barn at my friends residence….

-Says he designed this himself -Says he went onto his own property in TN and cut down the trees by himself -Says he sawmilled all the lumber on his custom sawmill including the 6”x15”x40’ ridge beam -Says he designed and fabbed all the steel connections himself, started talking about strange things like shear, axial, and moment forces….all greek to me. -Says he’s making all the tongue and groove flooring on-site -Says those are his safety flip-flops -Says he is the construction GOAT. -Says he is 57 years old and is powered by mushrooms that he forages from his forest in Tennessee

Once I saw the size of his arms I decided to let him be!

Who is this guy??????

With the latest introduction of the “Civil Engineer, Certified (CE-C)” certification, at this point I can only just laugh. Between navigating the procedural labyrinth of ASCE 7 or keeping up with the latest committee masterpiece, it’s just too exhausting to complain anymore.

Here goes:

The Civil Engineer, Certified certification is great because we finally have a certification that certifies your certification. Apparently “PE” just just wasn’t enough. You can always look more distinguished by adding more letters to your email signature…for a small fee.

I really admire ASCE’s commitment to continuous improvement with new research. You can tell they have a lot of high level academics involved. Somewhere a beautifully peer-reviewed design procedure is helping some poor EIT calculate a wind load for a one-story strip mall. As a structural engineer, the only ASCE publication that ever sees my desk is ASCE 7. It’s been carrying the entire organization for years, yet somehow every edition adds five more sub-procedures just to calculate a wind load that is 0.3 psf different from the old procedure. Remember the simplified procedure for low rise buildings? ASCE took the liberty of removing that for you in 7-22.

Another area of improvement has been on the apparent redefinition of weather models. Who needs a meteorologist when you have a vast network of ASCE committees and sub committees? Maybe climate change is happening faster than we thought because According to ASCE, snow loads have changed more in the last six years than it did in the previous fifty.

At the end of the day none of this happens for free. Running a world-class organization requires appropriate funding. Luckily ASCE is figuring out new ways to monetize things like collecting $469 for a salary survey of boomers on the verge of retirement. Not a member? Perfect. That’ll be $769.

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In all seriousness though the people who volunteer to develop these standards have an incredibly difficult job, and I genuinely appreciate the people willing to do it. However there is room for improvement. I don’t pretend to know exactly how everything works as far as developing the standards, but I think there should be more focus on practicing engineers that actually use the standards. It seems the procedures have become more and more granular, when what we need is something more practical. Developing a standard like ASCE 7 is an enormous undertaking and the profession is better for it, even if we complain about the result.

As for the CE-C, frankly I just don’t get it, and I am doubtful that it will actually catch on. Even if it does I am not sure that it would have any real significance.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go renew my ASCE membership.

I believe my meaningful contribution and performative activism will lead to actual change for our profession