11
That engineer who redesigned my lintel on the fly still bothers me
I was on a job in Columbus last year, replacing a steel lintel over a garage door. This young structural engineer walks in, maybe 30 years old, and tells me my 8-inch channel was overkill. He said I should use a 6-inch instead, right there in the middle of the demo. I told him I'd been doing this for 25 years and he just shrugged and walked off. Has anyone else had an architect or engineer second-guess your field work without even looking at the load?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
wilson.kelly24d ago
Ugh, fresh-out-of-school energy at its finest.
3
evan_wilson1823d ago
Oh man, that's exactly the kind of stuff that gets my blood boiling. It's like these fresh-out-of-school kids read one textbook and think they know better than decades of actual hands-on experience. They come in with all this theoretical math but they don't understand the real world factors like old brick that's been settling for 50 years or how the frame might be tweaked. That engineer probably ran some quick numbers on his phone and figured a 6-inch was fine, but he didn't stop to think that overbuilding a lintel costs nothing extra and gives you peace of mind. In Columbus you get some wild weather shifts too, and that extra metal can save you from a call back when things start sagging. Honestly, I'd rather have the overkill than have to explain to a homeowner why their garage door is sticking five years down the road.
2
holly_walker7623d ago
Fresh-out-of-school kids" might be a little harsh on someone around 30, they've usually got a few years of field experience by then. Still get that the theoretical vs. practical thing is frustrating, especially when they won't talk it through.
-1