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Maintenance Plan: Myth or Reality?

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 17:55:49 GMT

The PMPS - Preventative Maintenance Program Study
Maintenance Plans do matter - And you most likely don't have one !

I was honoured to be invited to participate in the Condo Adviser Crew's Podcast (webinar) earlier today. Many people asked for the slides and background information; I thought the preparatory notes I made might make for a good CEL Blog Post.

I want to thank Rod Escayola and the other guys again for inviting me to present. It was a fun, and I think quite informative, session.

Here are my notes, including some anecdotes, and I hope they are helpful...

The Reserve Fund process was instituted into law in Ontario in 1998. The threshold for inclusion of a part or element for replacement was set at $500. It was not indexed.

In 1998, when I took my girlfriend to the movies, it cost us $20. That’s now closer to $50. If we look at the consumer price index, it was ~$91 in 1998, and it is ~$162 today. Some metrics show a higher rate of inflation, including construction materials.

So costs in real terms are two to three times greater than when the RFS Process was implemented. While the RFS threshold value remains at $500, which does increase the scope, we need to think about the $1000 and $1500 range for the intended threshold.

The RFS isn’t a maintenance plan, and was never intended to be about routine maintenance.

The RFS process, mandated under Ontario's Condominium Act, 1998 (s. 94–97) and O. Reg. 48/01, was engineered for major capital planning , not holistic upkeep.

The Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO) Guide on Governing Condos mentions the word ‘maintenance’ a total of three times. The first time recommends that a preventative maintenance program be implemented. The second states that “Condominium boards are often faced with many more risks than they can reasonably insure or respond to, without skyrocketing maintenance fees.” The third openly states that governance may be contrasted with condominium board operations [ ] which may be thought of as dealing with repair and maintenance work or handling day-to-day owner requests [ ]. It all comes down to risk management. The issues covered by an RFS are major, but while the flashy major problems may have attracted enough attention to get legislated, it is the minor works and routine maintenance issues that truly suck up funds.

You need to be focused on your risks, and on the long term Total Cost of Ownership.

Risk is a measurable factor, only very poorly understood by most people. We do not have a good feel for the intangible risks of deterioration and quality. By leveraging an analytical model, we can make the risks tangible, and thus prioritize them properly.

Risk = Probability x Impact

While we can clearly see that large dollar items will lead to high risks even with low probabilities (roof replacement, parking garage rehabilitation, foundation repairs), I want to stress that the risks of small dollar amounts with high probabilities are in the aggregate just as high.

In this presentation I argue that as you are required by law to engage in major works planning program and have an RFS produced for your condominium’s capital planning, you are required by ethics and duty to engage in a routine and minor works planning program to create a study for the Minor works. At CEL we call this the Preventative Maintenance Program Study (PMPS).

Deferred Maintenance is a Gamble

The risks exist, and ignoring them or deferring routine and required maintenance only leads to emergencies and far higher costs.

Preventative Maintenance Program Study - PMPS

For your RFS, you have the Common Elements > $500 replacement.

For your PMPS, we have all Common Elements.

The PMPS should touch upon all equipment, without exception. There is no dollar limit involved. The document encapsulates every needed, recommended, and scheduled action.

The PMPS - We begin with the identification of Risks.

With the PMPS process, we create a Risk Register in which all Common Elements and their probable failures are listed . Then we look at how we can de-risk the entries .

What we are advocating for is that, with everything you do, you look to Plan - Do - Check - Act . Think about this in your planning, and discuss it in your documentation.

Plan with the Reserve Fund Study (RFS) & Maintenance Plans (PMPS)

Do the interventions, minor, and major works.

Check with monthly checklists, annual visual inspections, and routine monitoring.

Act to address negative change, and produce positive results.

Here are some sensible “rules” to maintain by:

Water is your enemy, and never your friend. Never ignore a stain, drip, or other issue.
Salt water is the nemesis of every property, element, surface, and asset. Wash it away.
Paint is Cheap - Section Loss is Expensive. Paint early, and paint often.
Dirt destroys, and hides deficiencies. Keep it all clean.
Touch up, tidy, and track. Record and know your conditions.

Now, let’s discuss motivation - Deferred Major Maintenance

Statistically, minor maintenance is the key to legitimate deferral ; postponing major needs through prevention, not neglect.

Industry data shows:

Preventive actions can defer 70–80% of major repairs by extending service life.
Every $1 invested in routine upkeep yields $3 to $5 return in reduced total costs.
Deferred maintenance compounds at ~7% annually.

Ex: Neglecting stack flushing (saving ~$10,000) can turn into a $50,000 in burst pipe in 5 years.

Contrast this with financially motivated deferral , which prioritizes short-term cash flow (e.g., low fees to attract buyers) over sustainability. Boards might "save" 10-20% on budgets today, inviting catastrophe: 81% of condo associations report surprise infrastructure failures from neglect, costing 3 to 7x more in emergency repairs. In Ontario, this manifests as balcony failures or envelope leaks—exacerbated by un-indexed RFS thresholds that undercount inflation-driven needs.

Earned deferrals (through Minor Maintenance) builds equity and avoids special assessments; Un-Earned (ie: financial) deferral erodes it, passing a ticking time bomb to the future.

Key Elements of a PMPS

While each PMP should be building specific, and relatively unique, they should all break down and organize the required routine actions of running the building and engaging with the maintenance support companies involved.

Your PMPS Should Include:

Scheduled inspections and servicing : For building envelopes, HVAC systems, elevators, plumbing, electrical, and common areas (e.g., roofs, parking lots, lobbies).
Preventive actions : Cleaning, lubrication, minor repairs, and vendor coordination to catch issues early.
Documentation : Logs for compliance, budgeting ties to common element expenses, and integration with the annual budget or RFS updates.
Frequency : Often annual or seasonal, with some items (like elevators) requiring monthly/quarterly checks per Ontario regulations (e.g., Technical Standards and Safety Authority for elevators).

Every Day Actions and Omissions

Maintenance is more than planning, but implementation of details.

We’re going to discuss several competing interests which push and pull for your financial resources. Let’s establish some basic language to make the discussions easier: Interventions, Minor Works, Major Works, Deferred Work, and Emergency Work. Awareness is your need to be knowledgeable and informed about your property, such as monthly property inspections, Condominium Management checklist walk-throughs, Annual Site Visits from your Reserve Fund Study Engineers, and the RFS Cycle itself. Interventions are the regular and inexpensive tasks like power washing, touch up painting, and patching. Minor works are best summarized as the work undertaken under your maintenance contracts, localized repairs, crack filling, new coats of paint. Major repairs are everything else; the catastrophic and planned but necessarily massive. Deferred Work is that which has grown due to deferral (sometimes, if rarely, wise; always expensive). Emergency Works are, in a well run Condominium, the result of unpredictable or sudden failures; they happen to everyone, and should be planned for financially. There is no building like the Parson’s One Horse Shay.

If you remember nothing else from my presentation, please remember this: Every $1 in minors yields $3 to 5 in deferred required major repairs.

The Dutch say "onderhoud appartementencomplex," the German I cannot pronounce, but is "Gebäudewartung Tipps," the French "entretien immeuble collectif," and Japanese "マンション維持管理", which I cannot even begin to read.

At the core of all maintenance and operations should lay a methodology to make your work predictable and regular. I recommend the formal adoption of the Plan - Do - Check - Act .

Roadways: Cracks and Bird baths become pot holes, pot holes destroy your subgrade. Fill your cracks and bird baths; do not wait. Pay attention to the condition of your riding surface, with annual patch repairs being undertaken each spring, and crack filling each summer. Hot, low-viscosity, rubberized asphalt sealant will flow most in summer. Clean out the crack completely, and blast it out with first water, then air. Ensure it is dry through torching. Torch the existing asphalt to both sides immediately prior to applying the hot-pour rubberized asphalt sealant. Do it right, do it regularly. Your road will last fifty percent longer.

With every maintenance decision, you will be facing quality decisions. Do not cheap out on the quality of necessary works. Also, do not default to the “recommended” product. There are many reasons for which someone may recommend a product. They are not always in your own best interest.

Road Paints: The old oil paints are no more. That doesn’t mean you need to adopt the largely unproven (to be kind) technology of water based paints. USE ACETONE. Oil was always the best performance to cost, but never the best paint. Acetone was more expensive than oil, but a much better performer. The cost difference between oil and acetone didn’t justify making the switch. The abysmal performance of the water based paints strongly justifies the use of the acetone paints. Often, the water based paints are more expensive to the greatly superior acetone. Do not hear water and think “Environmentally friendly”. That just isn’t the case, and remember the rules: water is NEVER YOUR FRIEND.

I am professionally a proponent of Sherwin Williams Setfast Acetone Yellow Marking Paint, sales number 800055923

Quis costodiet ipsos Costodes - Rational Maintenance Contracts

Who watches the watchers?

If you have a maintenance contract in place, generally this is going to require the company undertaking the maintenance to do the inspections. They will, particularly in the case of elevators, also be carrying out maintenance from the money you already have paid them. That means they have a financial interest in the equipment passing inspections. And they do the inspections.

Do not entrust the maintenance and monitoring of elevators to the people who have a financial interest in deferring any work or warranty coverage. Engage an independent elevator consultant.

It is, sadly, the case that we find elevators run more slowly than they should be or running outside of the tolerances and vibration limits, generally because to correct them would be a cost to the people deciding that they are running good enough. The impacts of their poor performance are felt by you; the savings of not repairing them promptly or running them at the agreed speeds are kept by the elevator contractor. Win-Lose, and you’re playing chess against a Grand Master, when you were only meaning to play checkers.

Foreign Wisdom

Condominium living is relatively new in Canada. Ontario created this option for development with the Condominium Act, 1967. European systems and those in Latin America pre-date the Canadian implementations by decades, and adoption has been much faster. While ~16% of residential units in Ontario are Condos, this is 88% in the Netherlands.

Countries which have much higher rates of adoption for condominium or shared / common element systems have a much greater political interest and professional focus on the needs of those properties. As such we have seen these other jurisdictions as a natural fit for high-quality routines from these countries which may then be integrated by our clients into bylaws, and maintenance procedures. While precise systems differ, and are not directly comparable, we will accept generally that joint ownership equates to compatibility in interests to our Condo system.

Key to every maintenance program, and greatly emphasized by jurisdictions with condos as a dominant model of ownership, is inspections over reactions. As a rule of thumb, two thirds of your maintenance and operations dollars should be focused on prevention and preventative maintenance. This should take all forms of prevention, from cleaning, through passive repairs, to active intervention, to the quality of the larger repair programs and details used therein. A dollar spent as a premium to a repair in order to extend the service life is nearly always a dollar wisely spent.

Estimate your impacts with PERT methods: Use a simplified statistical model. Get at least three estimates, and leverage this information.

PERT: ( Optimistic + 4 x Realistic + Pessimistic ) / 6

Using this simple tool can leverage knowledge and greatly improve your understanding.

Maintenance Planning & Implementation:

Plan - Do - Check - Act

Maintenance is knowledge.

Know your building .

Understand the risks .

Plan to minimize the risks .

Your failure to plan is a plan for failure. The reality of maintenance planning is that no one knows all the little details, but working together you can create a true plan for success. A way to measure and value your risk.

Whether you ignore them or tackle them, your risks are still there.

Don’t let the Minor Risks become Major Projects and Special Assessments.

Plan - Do - Check - Act .

Proactive Minor Maintenance in Ontario Condominiums: Beyond the Reserve Fund Study Minimum

Key Resources on Minor and Routine Maintenance for Long-Term Building Health

Know your building. Know your conditions. Record and note changes regularly. With most Condominiums, there is great value in having a group of volunteers take care of this as a partially social task. Many issues, caught early, can be addressed inexpensively, rather than grow into a larger issue and greater cost.

I’ve put together some of the easiest low-hanging fruit for most Condos. These practices focus on low-cost, high-impact actions that prevent degradation from various uses, exposures, and environmental stressors like Ontario's harsh winters (e.g., freeze-thaw cycles, road salts). They can extend asset life by 20–50% in many cases, measured against industry benchmarks. If you want to have more than my professional word for the particular action and the utility to your building, we would be most pleased to run the analysis on your behalf, however, these are generic examples prepared as they are commonly of great value, and offered to you in an honest effort to assist. They are entirely without responsibility, and cannot be said to rise to the level of professional advice.

Call to Action

- Take routine maintenance seriously.

- Stop taking unearned deferrals that multiply your basic needs into emergencies.

- Engage in a PMPS process like your RFS process.

Take maintenance seriously before less than $500 becomes more than $5,000.

What's in a Name?

I much prefer the term "Podcast", but the Condo Advisor site uses "Webinar". Either way; I think you would all find a great deal of value in the Webinar, and likely in the past webinars: https://condoadviser.ca/webinars

See 2 October 2025 if you want to watch us discuss Maintenance Plans.

30 Facts in Planning, Design, Permitting, and Construction

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 21:08:56 GMT

30 Frequently Misunderstood (But Routine!) Facts in Construction

We recently had a project start, and stop, restart, stop again, and restart for a third time… All in one morning. So, despite all our steps and checks, care and attention, something key went wrong. In this case, it was communication. A simple miscommunication before a long weekend meant that the entire project exploded. Proverbially, of course; while we do Blast Engineering and Civil Defense work here at CEL, this time we’re looking at metaphors and human factors, not explosives and incidents. I wanted to take the lessons learned and leverage the experience into an internal training memo, refine our CEL PocketPM Project Management Manual, and (hopefully you’ve caught on by now), post something useful to our Blog…

You’ll find a lot of numbered lists in Construction that focus on soft skills and Project Management. These are important, and PM work is key to project delivery excellence, but most PM problems and soft skills can be pushed through, overcome during the project, or pushed away / ignored / banished by the judicious application of time, money, effort, or influence. There are, however, things that no amount of charm or cash will clear out of your way. Let’s discuss the Hard Skills; the things that need to meet with the approval of reality, applicable law and regulation, or simply the timelines that are so lengthy you are effectively dead in the water if you find yourself engaged in a project that forgot those key steps.

The reality of Construction is that the skills required to undertake the work are so varied and diverse that there is essentially no one who knows all the little steps. Like the truism “no one knows how to make a pencil”, there is a level of technological advancement after which knowing all the steps becomes impractical. The people in the pencil factory don’t know how to cut, prep, age, and care for the wood; they could not mine for the graphite safely if they needed to in order to save their lives; they cannot create or provide the paints they use, the rubber they rely upon, or any of a thousand other inputs from replacement parts to electricity. In construction, there are tens of thousands of near silent notes to the orchestra that is a completed project, from how to swing a hammer such that you may do this safely all day, every day, right down through to how long a team can work before they need a break.

The following items respect the truth that there is an unwritten bulk of knowledge, and tries to capture some of these little unmentioned pearls of wisdom and knowledge from the point of view of the Professional Engineers and Project Managers involved in Construction. The list is intended to emphasize the hard skills and avoid the soft. You will find the like of material testing, key milestones, permitting requirements, bylaws, regulations, and common pitfalls that lead to long delays and even project cancellations, but often go unmentioned because they are inherent to the process. You learn them by watching, by helping, and by doing. Our firm calls this the See One, Assist One, Do One training process. Hopefully you may be able to learn a little of our challenges by reading this list and by watching us successfully deliver a project which will be an effective answer for your needs.

Most of all, this is our effort to warn you about the silent project killers. These are the problems that may get forgotten, and have the power to get a project stopped dead in the water.

1. Shop drawings are required to demonstrate a contractor's understanding of design intent but do not universally need a professional engineer's seal; only those involving new engineering designs (e.g., concrete formwork or steel connections) require it, while mere reflections of existing designs with measurements do not, avoiding unnecessary delays.

2. Building codes establish minimum requirements for structural integrity, materials, and safety in construction, but they are not static; local jurisdictions enforce provincially regulated codes (often, for our office, the 2024 Ontario Building Code), however the interpretation and application are very much the purview of the local AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction). That means designs need to know the local authorities in order to be successful, leading to project-specific variations that can cause compliance failures and significant delays if overlooked.

3. Construction permits are mandatory for most projects and involve multiple stages, including zoning approval and environmental assessments; failing to secure them early can halt work entirely, as they act as legal gatekeepers enforced by building officials.

4. Noise bylaws typically restrict construction activities to daytime hours (e.g., 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays), requiring exemption permits for night work; violations can result in fines or stop-work orders, often underestimated as a cancellation risk.

5. Material testing is a regulatory obligation under standards like CSA A23.1, ASTM and CCLI, involving lab verification of properties like compressive strength; non-compliant materials must be rejected or reworked, potentially delaying projects by weeks. If the testing agencies haven’t been arranged in advance, the samples, curing, and testing requirements could easily cause your pour (or other work) to be delayed. A cancelled concrete truck can be a quick additional $3k to $15k. A last minute cancellation of a concrete with nowhere else to go is going to get very expensive, very quickly.

6. Unforeseen site conditions, such as soil instability, are a leading cause of delays. No matter how detailed a geotechnical investigation, things can be missed. Contracts often require geotechnical investigations upfront, while project teams have been known to gamble by skipping them. Both bad luck in missing hidden issues as well as the pure ignorance (triple entendre) of not undertaking reasonable geotechnical exploration, can all lead to costly redesigns or cancellations, or even problematic results and structures which shift and fail with differential settlement or slip-cup failure. Just because you cannot see the geotechnical considerations does not mean those geotechnical conditions are going to remain invisible. A structure built on poor or sensitive soils is likely going to show you some very serious consequences.

7. Planning permission (or zoning approval) must precede construction and permitting, and may involve public hearings; misalignment with land-use regulations can necessitate variances processes, can void permits if caught late (yes; their mistake, your consequences), acting as an early, middle, and late gatekeeper that can and does see the cancellation of non-compliant projects.

8. Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) mandate specific safety protocols, like fall protection and hazard assessments; non-compliance can trigger inspections and shutdowns, often misunderstood as optional rather than enforceable laws.

9. Stage gates in project delivery are formal milestones (e.g., feasibility to procurement) where stakeholders review progress; failing a gate due to incomplete documentation can pause or cancel funding.

10. Environmental regulations under laws like Environmental Assessment Act (EAA; currently R.S.O. 1990, c. E.18) require impact assessments for large projects; overlooking them can lead to legal challenges from agencies or communities, resulting in indefinite delays. Don't forget that waterways have their own Authorities Having Jurisdiction. Congratulations, meet your new friends at the XX YY ZZ Conservation Authority. Honestly; they do great work. Unfortunately, that work may well include telling you 'No', and meaning it forever, regardless of resources (pun intended) you burn trying to convince them otherwise. Like all AHJs, engage early, listen often, make their path of least resistance the approval of your project. You'll thank us later.

11. Design changes mid-project, often from owner requests, trigger delays, may trigger re-permitting, and can necessitate more testing. These are excusable delays when documented properly, and negotiated appropriately; otherwise contractors and consultants may bear the cost. Favours are fine, but contract terms bind.

12. Concrete curing requires specific testing (e.g., slump and cylinder tests) per CAN/CSA standards (A23.1, A23.2, etc.); rushing this milestone without verification can compromise structural integrity and invite regulatory rejections.

13. Labour laws under Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA; currently S.O. 2000, c. 41) apply to construction, requiring overtime pay and safety training; violations can lead to Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (new abbreviation not as good as old abbraviation, let's just keep 'MOL') audits and project halts, underestimated as a technical gatekeeper.

14. Utility coordination is a key milestone before excavation; failing to mark lines per regulations like Ontario One Call can cause accidents and mandatory shutdowns. Or accidents. See MOL. Do not get this one wrong, whatever you do, always call before you dig.

15. Fire code compliance, including material flammability tests, is enforced during inspections; non-passing elements can delay occupancy permits, a common late-stage cancellation trigger.

16. Supply chain regulations, like Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), mandate material sourcing; ignoring them can invalidate contracts and force rework.

17. Structural load testing is required for certain elements (e.g., bridges) under Ontario Provincial Standard Specifications (OPSS), Ontario Provincial Standard Drawings, and the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CSA S6); skipping or failing tests can lead to engineering board interventions and project scrapping.

18. Wetlands permits from agencies like the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) are gatekeepers for site development; unauthorized disturbance can result in fines exceeding project costs and forced restoration. Remember our friends at the XX YY ZZ Conservation Authority? Yeah; insert them here again.

19. As-built drawings must document deviations from plans; inaccuracies can violate certification requirements, blocking final approvals.

20. Seismic design codes vary by region and require engineering calculations; underestimating risks can fail plan reviews, delaying starts. Ottawa and the surrounding areas are a seismic zone, and the detailing of load paths, complete with proper stiffness and strength, is not at all optional. It is not pixie dust, and the idea that a seismic event is Neverland (ie: never, never, going to land on a day that matters to us) is a wholly unacceptable dodge of professional responsibility suitable only for rebuke.

21. Erosion control plans are mandated by stormwater regulations; non-compliance during construction can lead to stop-work orders. Keep those Conservation Authorities in mind. Talk to them; don't guess, or hope to be forgiven.

22. Welding inspections per Canadian Welding Bureau standards (CSA W47.1 and W59) are routine for steel structures; defects found late can require demolition and rebuilds.

23. Accessibility regulations under Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) demand specific designs (e.g., ramp slopes); retrofits for non-compliance post-construction inflate costs.

24. Commissioning of systems (e.g., Electrical, HVAC) is a quite important. The testing of integrated systems under CAN/ULC-S1001 'Integrated Systems Testing of Fire Protection and Life Safety Systems and Fire Protection Commissioning' is now becoming mandatory and enforced by AHJs prior to occupancy; incomplete testing, or issues revealed during testing, delays occupancy and may rather swiftly balloon costs.

25. Hazardous material handling laws (e.g., asbestos abatement) require certified procedures; mishandling can trigger health department closures.

26. Bond and insurance requirements are gatekeepers for public projects, particularly public projects; insufficient coverage can disqualify bids and cancel awards.

27. Soil compaction testing is essential per geotechnical standards; poor results can undermine foundations, leading to settlements and claims. The proper compaction of sub-grade as well as Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) is key as well. Testing is wise, and skimping on recommended testing is penny wise, but pound foolish. Ensuring a good quality product is placed and compacted to 98% Standard Proctor, 100% Modified Proctor, or at least 92% Theoretical Maximum Density (for HMA; 95% to 98% are excellent and more normal for 'SuperPave') is simply impossible without testing, and truly key to performance and durability.

28. Utility easements must be cleared before groundbreaking; encroachments can invoke legal disputes and project halts. This is particularly true, and important, for distribution and supply electrical lines. The requirements for local eletrical companies differ one from the other, and differ from the provincial requirements as well. They are not known for breaching their rules. We have seen buildings torn down, reconstructed, or subject to major changes in design and scope due to the incorrect encroachment rules being applied during construction. This is a planning step you want to get right without fail.

29. The code has a lot of speciality compliance issues as well. Energy code compliance (Supplementary Bulletin 10, 'Energy Efficiency Requirements [SB-10]) involves performance testing; failing efficiency benchmarks can require redesigns late in delivery. Issues with glass safety in tall structures has led to Supplementary Bulletin 13 'Glass in Guards'. Essentially, if there is a Supplementary Bulletin, you really want to make sure your project is in compliance. The SBs have been added to address key issues. There are also mandatory testing and compliance standards referenced by the code that must be respected. All fenestration products, windows and skylights, etc., must be selected and tested in accordance with the North American Fenestration Standard (NAFS). NAFS is just another stepping stone to your compliant project, and yet another area that can stop your project dead in its tracks.

30. Final inspections by building officials are the ultimate gatekeeper; unresolved punch list items can prevent certificates of occupancy, effectively cancelling handover. Remember our Commissioining and Integrated Systems Testing. Time to have the Architect of Record and all Engineer(s) of Record sign-off documentation ready.

There is no magic to a 30 item list, in fact we really had to think to get more than 27... There does, however, seem to be some magic in grabbing attention, and getting people to read the posts. If three duds gets this information in front or more people in the construction industry, well, that's a win. The truth is this is an industry with plenty of known unknowns and "silent project killers" which can derail even the most meticulously planned projects. The deadliest enemy of all is lack of, or mis-, communication.

Like most situations, increased work and putting your shoulder to the millstone is the best potential way out. The lesson we want you to learn from our chaotic morning of starts and stops is this: Don't Panic. There is always a solution; work the problem, not the panic. Work with the people, loop everyone in, measure and value the risks. Educate, and overcome.

These 30 hard-skill facts, from permitting pitfalls to material testing mandates, highlight the non-negotiable realities that demand attention early and often. By understanding and addressing these routine yet frequently misunderstood elements, you can avoid costly delays, redesigns, or cancellations. At CEL, we leverage our "See One, Assist One, Do One" approach to navigate these challenges, ensuring projects stay on track. Have questions or need guidance to sidestep these traps? Please feel free to reach out to us for help, or even to share your own experiences; we’re here to help build success.

CEL Business Card Crack Gauge - Innovation & Excellence

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 21:19:41 GMT

The Original Professional Engineering Crack Gauge Business Card: A 15-Year Legacy of Innovation

At CEL innovation has always been at the heart of what we do. Fifteen years ago, we pioneered a unique idea: integrating a practical crack gauge into the design of our business cards. This wasn’t just a gimmick, but a thoughtful addition and a solution born from our early planning to make our business cards more than just contact information. From our call to action "How may we help you?" run up the right hand side, to the use of a bright yellow in order to be able to leave cards in place as tell-tales to save clients costs, we wanted to set ourselves apart as the pragmatic problem solvers we set out to be. We envisioned these cards as tools that engineers, contractors, and property-interested parties could carry in their wallets, ready to assist them in seeking our structural advice on the spot.

The Origin Story

Back in 2010, our team brainstormed ways to stand out in the competitive engineering industry. We wanted our business cards to reflect our commitment to practical, problem-solving innovation. The crack gauge was the perfect fit—a compact, functional tool that embodied our expertise in structural analysis and our dedication to providing value beyond expectations. After months of design and testing, we launched the first crack gauge business card, a concept that was entirely novel at the time.

A Global Influence

Over the past decade and a half, our crack gauge business cards have gained recognition worldwide. From our staff attending the ICCRRR International Conference on Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting in Leipzig Germany through to attending Restoration, Seismic, and Engineering conferences in Japan, Italy, France, New Zealand, and the USA, our little idea has travelled far and wide. Companies in Germany, France, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia have adopted similar designs, inspired by our original idea. We’re flattered by the global reach of our concept, but we’re also proud to set the record straight: Capacity Engineering was, to the best of our knowledge, the first to bring this idea to life.

The Most Recent Imitation

Recently, we’ve noticed a local Canadian competitor incorporating crack gauges into their business cards, positioning themselves as innovative. While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we believe it’s important to celebrate the true origin of this idea; a backyard and a beer, 2010, with the birth of CEL. For 15 years, our crack gauge business cards have been a hallmark of our brand, trusted by clients and imitated by other professionals, worldwide. This latest instance marks the first time a Canadian firm has followed suit, joining a line of international engineering firms inspired by our work.

Why It Matters

Our crack gauge business card is more than a marketing tool, but is in fact a testament to our commitment to innovation, functionality, simple solutions, economic results, and quality that maximises value. There is often little need for expensive monitoring and data collection. It can be as simple as a fractional cost of a dollar, and a free giveaway, conveniently placed on the back of the business card. Call to action? No; it is a call to simplification, and a way to offer clients more value out of our services. It is a reminder that true innovation isn’t just about creating something new; it’s about creating something that lasts, solves problems, and inspires others. We’re proud to have led the way and will continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in our industry.

Thank you to our clients, partners, and community for supporting us over the years. Here’s to 15 more years of innovation, and beyond.

Reach out if you have a need; we're more than happy to help.

Can you reach your Engineer? Because our clients can...

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 19:16:08 GMT

Sometimes you need five minutes, and not in two weeks...

Three things caused the founding of CEL:

The co-founders were passionate about training and engineering quality.
The market clearly had a need for forensic and maintenance engineering services that were prompt and thorough.
The existing services, while often very good, proved nearly impossible to contact when and where needed.

There are, in effect, no 24/7 engineering firms. Other than CEL. Our staff answer the phone around the clock, and respond to emergencies of all kinds for clients.

Even during the regular working day, it can be hard to get in touch with an engineer. In the years since we have been in operation, the most common complaint we see is that no one can reach their engineer. It is a very common complaint for clients, and it is not at all surprising for the first call with a new client to include a rather detailed conversation about how it can take weeks if not months to arrange a conversation with the engineer from another firm.

With a focus on existing structures and leveraging the lessons learnt for our new construction side, CEL recognizes that there is a higher than average chance we'll be working on complex infrastructure. We do this routinely, and are known for being adept at this work, and so tackle the most complicated undaunted by the challenge. This also means that the company's engineers work on projects where quick decision-making and adaptability are essential. To ensure that clients receive the best possible service, CEL's team of experienced engineers and technical professionals places a strong emphasis on technical excellence, fair value, and diligent report production.

One of the ways that CEL demonstrates its commitment to client needs is through its rapid delivery project schedules. By leveraging the time zone difference between its offices in Ottawa, Canada, and Harderwijk, Nederland (the Netherlands), where necessary CEL is able to provide clients with faster turnaround times and more efficient service. This is especially important for clients with urgent needs or tight deadlines, as it allows CEL to respond quickly and effectively to their requests.

CEL's team of engineers and technical professionals is also highly skilled in a wide range of services, including structural design, building envelope assessment, failure analysis, and construction review. This means that clients can rely on CEL for a broad range of engineering and construction needs, from new builds and additions to zoning changes and critical failure investigations.

In addition to its technical expertise, CEL is also committed to building strong relationships with its clients. The company's employee-owned structure and strong commitment to protecting the unsuspecting public mean that CEL's engineers are highly motivated to provide excellent service and ensure client satisfaction. This commitment to client needs is reflected in CEL's approach to project delivery, which emphasizes clear communication, timely reporting, and proactive problem-solving.

CEL's team of engineers is also highly diverse, with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. This diversity allows CEL to bring a unique and global perspective to its projects, incorporating a broad range of recommendations for remediation, repairs, and facility longevity. Whether working with municipal agencies, public sector organizations, or private sector clients, CEL's engineers are dedicated to providing the highest level of service and support.

We are quite confident that clients who need prompt access to Professional Engineering, rapid delivery, and robust services undergirded by a 24/7 team with a strong work ethic will find our services to be a spot on match. We look forward to the opportunity to impress you; please reach out and let us know your needs today.

What's in a name? Terms and Code Language...

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 15:09:34 GMT

Understanding that words matter.

Words matter. We also see them everywhere. Do you read meaning into the image above? 'Scribe', perhaps...

It isn't there. That is a meaningless AI-generated picture produced to the prompt "Building Code word play and definitions." We read meaning into everything around us... There are numerous formations of how to represent the process of communication, however our firm normally models this as being a five step process (Concept, Encoding, Transmission, Decoding, Understanding). Every step inherently contains the potential for misunderstanding. What is understood from that was conceived does not necessarily bear much resemblance one to the other. So when it can go wrong even with the best of intentions, care, and caution, what happens when we are unable to agree on something as simple as a definition? Misunderstanding, and worse: Error. Sometimes even accusations of bias and professional negligence. Let's take a closer look.

Often in our work, we are required to interpret terminology and indeed to testify as to the specific meaning of words. Codes and Standards rely upon words, and they are not casually used nor interpreted. There are several types of words of signficant import in our work, and knowing them only comes with experience and time. Many engineers go through an entire career never learning the finite minutia of exacting terminology. Forensic Engineers have little choice but to be exacting, and as such our firm has made a point of understanding and training staff in the precise meaning of terminology.

Let's take a perplexing example: Standards may be withdrawn. A lay understanding of this might be that this would mean you should not rely upon, or use, such a standard. Nothing of the sort in our technical world; to be "withdrawn" as a Standard is to be enobled and taken out of the hum-drum world of revision and change. To be withdrawn in the case of a Standard is to be taken out of the cycle of updates and changes; to be enshrined as useful forever more, unaffected by the cycle of academic update whim.

In engineering, and specifically in code governed, standards driven professional work, there are often reserved terms which have specific definitions. Those words are defined as building blocks to our understanding. They are explicit and well understood; there is little debate as to meaning. Where we have defined terms, we can often reach to a reserved terms list for specific understanding. If you look at the governing code for our core jurisdiction (Ontario; Ontario Building Code [OBC]), as well as the national model code (National Building Code of Canada [NBCC]), reserved terms are italicised.

Recently, our firm had cause to get very specific with terminology surrounding snow fall and snow accumulation. It is interesting to note that a great deal of snow that falls never accumulates at all. Additionally, snow that falls may not remain in place due to melting and sublimation. What is the density of a snow on the ground? What depth of snow matters?

For every topic into which we have cause to begin a forensic review, the complications and details are almost immediately dynamic and far more labyrinthine than anyone would reasonably anticipate. Let's look at snow in forensic detail.

"Snow accumulation" is a technical, defined, term. It means snow that has fallen and remained on the ground. There is a formula for accumulated snow, being: Accumulation = Snowfall + Compaction + Drift + Melting + Sublimation

Codes and standards may make use of similar, but distinct, words. When they do so, we take it as given that there is a reason for such use. In our recent review of technical terminology surrounding snow, snow fall, snow depth, and snow loads, we concluded that there were two important, but entirely distinct, terms which needed to be understood.

Anticipated Snow Level: The depth of snow that may fall in a given predicted weather period, without regard for accumulation.

Accumulated Snow: The snow that will fall and be retained on the ground, including consideration of compaction, drifting, melting, and sublimation.

In addition to this, reviewing the literature showed that there is a significant difference in Anticipated Snow and Accumulated Snow with respect to density. Anticipated Snow, ie: fresh snow from a storm or event, has a density of between 0.5 kN/m3 and 1.0 kN/m3. Accumulated Snow is generally accepted as having a density of between 2.0 kN/m3 and 5.0 kN/m3.

Thus the literature treats these two types of snow very differently. While we may be required to maintain a separation above an anticipated snow level (ie: to permit space for snowfall from a single storm), code requirements may allow air intakes to align with the depth of expected snow accumulation. These requirements at first appear to be in conflict, but are easily understood when we pay close attention to the meaning of the words involved.

All code requirements are an effort to apply an economical solution to the majority of situations, most of the time. They are, in effect, a one-size-fits-most cookbook of pre-determined solutions. They will not cover every situation, but act as a legal minimum to define negligence. If a design meets code, but fails, that does not mean that the designer or builder, city or other party did anything wrong. Tossing a handful of pennies into the air may see some touching one another after they fall. Statistics are unforgiving, as is mother nature.

Additionally, having built a structure does not mean that it may be occupied and operated or used without maintenance. Ongoing maintenance is a presumption of every building code. Unoccupied, unheated, and unused buildings rapidly deteriorate, and durability of materials and assemblies is calculated, estimated, and designed based upon an occupied condition.

If you have a gas-fired appliance, keep your air intake and vent pipes free from snow, but also from vegetation, garbage, sheds, shelves, air conditioners, birds' nests, and anything else. They must be free and unobstructed; keeping them that way is not the responsibility of the builder, warranty corporation, or anyone other than the property owner.

Words matter. Maintenance matters. Biased? Mokusatsu.

Cold Weather Concreting and Marginal Weather

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 01:14:58 GMT

To heat, or not to heat, that is the question...

In a temperate climate it is crucial to understand the impact of weather conditions on concrete operations, and this time of year we are seeing a transition to requiring Cold Weather Concrete Procedures. While concrete can be placed and finished in a broad range of temperatures, these operations must be undertaken with the correct precautions, and understanding of the chanllenges likely to be faced.

Recently we recommended that cold weather concreting procedures be undertaken; these were limited and straightforward. Pre-heating. Hot water Saturated Surface Dry condition. Hot water to prepare the mix. The work went off without a hitch, and so did the concrete.

Yesterday, the second pour was undertaken, and the weather appeared cooperative. The product in question requires 3 degrees, for a limited time period, and the Contractor proceeded without the cold weather adapted procedure. Today, the concrete was somewhere between initial and final set, nowhere near the 18MPa anticipated after 24hours with this product. A day's production lost, and a scramble to try and save the concrete. Heating has been provided, insulated tarps, and a hoarding added. Tomorrow we'll check again; in my honest opinion, cold water and cold work conditions are responsible for the problems. I don't foresee issues, but I thought an annonymous - potentially useful - open bet as to what is going to happen might be interesting and useful. Let's discuss in some high-level detail.

Cold weather poses unique challenges and risks that, if not properly managed, can lead to significant problems, including retarded inital and final set, delayed or reduced strength, increased permeability, and potential structural failure. In this blog post, we will explore the dangers of carrying out concrete operations in marginal weather, with a particular focus on cold weather concreting. Easy enough to know what to do in the dark of winter, but what about those days when you are looking good, and might just think about taking the risk? The marginal cases...

Before we go into any detail, let's define what we mean by "marginal weather." For the purposes of this discussion, we will consider marginal weather to be conditions that are close to, but not quite, beyond the recommended limits for concrete placement and curing. In the case of cold weather concreting, these limits typically begin at overnight temperatures of 7 degrees Celsius and lower, with many jobs going well down to zero thanks to the heat of hydration from the concrete. You also cannot be at or near zero in the forms or adjacent materials when placing if you hope to get through a zero degree overnight.

One of the primary dangers of cold weather concreting is the potential for reduced strength. Concrete gains strength through a chemical reaction between cement and water called hydration. This reaction is temperature-dependent, meaning that colder temperatures can significantly slow down the hydration process, resulting in lower ultimate strength. To mitigate this risk, it is essential to take measures to maintain the temperature of the concrete and its surroundings during placement, finishing, and curing. The concrete can be a source of heat, but not the only source, and not until the reactions are well underway. If the mix freezes before it can significantly react, you're cooked.

Another danger of cold weather concreting is increased permeability. Permeability refers to the ability of water to pass through concrete. In cold weather, the slow hydration process can result in a less dense and more porous microstructure, which can increase the permeability of the concrete. This increased permeability can lead to several problems, including corrosion of reinforcing steel, freeze-thaw damage, and reduced durability. A significant irony where microbubbles (air entrainment) is frequently purposefully added in order to provide freeze-thaw tolerance.

To address these risks, it is essential to follow best practices for cold weather concreting. These practices include:
Preheating the materials: Heating the aggregates, cement, and mixing water can help maintain the temperature of the fresh concrete during placement, finishing, and curing.
Using insulated forms or enclosures: Insulating the forms or enclosures can help maintain the temperature of the concrete and its surroundings, promoting hydration and reducing the risk of freeze-thaw damage.
Increasing the cement content: Increasing the cement content can help generate more heat during hydration, which can compensate for the slower hydration process in cold weather.
Using accelerating admixtures: Accelerating admixtures can speed up the hydration process, helping to maintain the strength and durability of the concrete in cold weather.
Protecting the concrete from freezing: Protecting the concrete from freezing during the first 24 hours after placement is critical for ensuring adequate strength gain and durability. Be careful to continue protection and heating through to the target strength, as well as well past the point that the mix is no longer at or near saturation. Free water in the mix is liable to freeze, and if there is too much water, there will be no space for ice crystals to form without risking the integrity of the concrete.

U ltimately, the success of a concrete pour has as much to do with knowing the conditions the concrete will face, and taking the appropriate precautions, as it does with the quality of concrete placed on site. Be careful, and protect yourself and your concrete out there.

Special Assessments in Condominums

Admin@celottawa.ca (Admin CEL) — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 12:39:19 GMT

Bad News Early Is Better Than Bad News Late

Two percent . The maintenance and upkeep of a property will cost two percent of current value, on average, as a minimum, per year. Whether you own your own home, or are part of a Co-Tenancy, or live in a Condo, our experience has taught us that two percent of property value per annum is an unavoidable expenditure on maintenance and, with time, lifecycle renewal. Quality is no object either: It doesn't matter if your home consists of track home builder grade quality purchased in a lovely mid-rise stack or an entirely Italian Marble lined entranceway multimillion dollar tower with a unit purchased for seven figures; the cost of upkeep tracks with the value of the asset. When the re-investment into the asset stops, the rot begins to set in, and the building (as well as often the neighbourhood) begins to deteriorate. Large and small, the rehabilitation and upkeep requirements never stop, and deterioration never sleeps. Time marches on, and the investments must be made unless the asset is to be permitted to degrade.

The Nile is a river in Egypt, while denial is a mistake we make all too often . A recent article concerning condominium Special Assessments has raised the specter of huge unforeseen costs associated with owning condominiums, and may well have scared some current condominium owners as well as potential future buyers. The reality is that a well-run condominium is often a far less troublesome place to live than a single-family home or other freehold. Condominiums should be thought of as a long term all-inclusive but be honest; would you not read the reviews or converse with friends before booking a hotel for a vacation longer than a week? For condominiums, these reviews and recommendations are called the Status Certificates , Reserve Fund Studies , and sound advice from the right Professional Engineers and Property Managers . If you are in the market, it is good practice to always ask for them documents, and search the reviews from current owners about their experiences.

Now, for those already invested in condominiums, heed these words: get involved. Do not trust that condominium corporations operate without hitches. This applies equally to Co-Tenancy properties (i.e.: freeholds sharing some property elements). Do not wait until there is Home Owners Association madness or a large Special Assessment. Get involved, read the documents, review them in detail, and ask all of your questions. It is better to receive bad news earlier rather than later; the more informed one is, the more prepared one can be.

At their core, Reserve Fund Studies (RFS) serve as a detailed roadmaps that permit condominium corporations to financially prepare themselves for large upcoming restoration projects as well as any replacement of common elements shared by the condominium owners, as defined in their declaration. Legally required by law, as set-out in the Condominium Act, 1998, a study is conducted every three (3) years to ensure that condominium corporations are well-enough funded to cover these often-heavy costs, while maintaining enough funds to keep the complex operating regularly year-to-year.

Appropriately, as with any financial management plan, it is imperative that Reserve Fund Studies be considered with care. Granting that, while nigh impossible to project fifty (50) years into the future what the cost would be to repair or replace “X” common element, the site assessments commonly undertaken by engineering firms when performing these studies are key to establishing a sound foundation on which the timing of these projects are based, as well as the scope of work that is required to remain up to code. The projected costs that are estimated based on the scope and relevant material and labour rates aid in drafting up a financial analysis that best coordinates the projects, keeping condominium owners’ safety in mind, both physically and financially. However, this isn’t always possible.

In some cases, condominium properties that prolong some of these essential repair works - or draw away from the recommended plan of the previous studies - reach a point where they can prolong no longer. This results in unfavourable scenarios where funding through the Reserve Fund solely is not possible, thus raising the concerns for Special Assessments – in other words, the bad news.

Some engineering firms, such as CEL, work extensively with a wide team of experts to ensure that Reserve Funds stay above a minimum of $50,000 in any given year to avoid Special Assessments wherever possible. If unavoidable, we lay out the plans that mitigate the financial set-back that condominium owners will bear in these circumstances, but not all firms put in the same care we do for our condominium clientele.

Rightfully so, condominium owners and management companies live in fear of the words “Special Assessment” since no one wants to pay additional fees on top of their usual fees. However, if handled correctly and with the amount of care that all licensed Engineers should uphold when reviewing these studies, these assessments can be delivered with ample warning, and with the right contribution increases, can be avoided entirely.

There is nothing more heartbreaking for our firm than reading about a condominium facing a huge special assessment that might well have been avoided. Was it possible that a huge special assessment wasn't necessary at all, could it have been spread out differently, could it have been based on better pricing and an alternative strategy? This isn't a zero sum game, it is a sport and you may well not have the winning team on your side. Ask. Demand good answers. If your condo does not have a substantial reserve fund (ie: five figures per unit) ask why. Know why. Dig, and get the right answers. Protect your investment: Common Elements are your elements as much as anyone else's, and they represent very real and costly assets to maintain. Let's look at a simple analogy, at least a magnitude lower in impact: You wouldn't let a committee decide when you deserve a new TV any more than you should let anyone plan for your property's future without your input. Don't be sitting in front of a black and white floor model with no idea that there are alternatives, and no idea when it might break; it could well be tomorrow, and the new units run into the thousands.

Fibre Reinforcement - To Be or Not to Be; that's really not the question...

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 11:23:52 GMT

Stress, Strain, Steel, Plastic, Bondage, Finish, and Exposure

I have been getting asked about steel fibre reinforcement in residential garage slabs for over two years now. People seem to think it is a good idea. They see the lab test and hear about how great the product is, and other engineers are even specifying steel fibres for lots and lots of situations. Including residential garage slabs, porches, and walkways. The question keeps coming up, and my explanations seem to be getting us nowhere. I thought I'd try here, in writing, in particular so that I can just send people a link to read and finally get to shut up about it; trust me, if you've met me, you'll know that getting me to the point that I want to stop talking is nigh on miraculous. Congratulations people, you've done it. Now, if you want to know about fibre reinforcement, let me start with a story...

A funny thing happens after enough years working as an engineer.... You just start to notice more. And far less. I truly feel there is good reason for the classic image of an engineer as socially inept and a touch, well, odd.

Ever notice that when you learn about something for the first time, sometimes something that seems trivial or obvious, you suddenly see it everywhere? You've lived your whole life never having heard of some fact, item, animal, concept; anything really. And then? Twice a day or week for months. Well, it is a simple fact of humanity that our world view is filtered by our brains and wrapped into a nice little package for our mental consumption.

Now here's where I ask you non-engineers for your pity, and understanding. Imagine being trained in *things*. All the materials and shapes, forms and finishes. How to create them, maintain them, replace them, evaluate them, and form them into the world that surrounds us all every day. How much of the world around you is composed of things ? Right: most of it. That's all the stuff that forms the "well I never..." in our lives. Every day. All day. Forever.

It isn't that bad really, just a touch, well, odd. We become distracted easily because we noticed a different finish, or a bit of deterioration. If you ever wanted a cat, but are allergic, maybe give an engineer a try. I promise we are equally fascinated by the shiny, and likely in the same approximate range of conversational. If you're lucky. I rather talk more than most, but let's not digress...

Here's today's true content: Concrete is very strong in compression, but needs help in bending or tension. That often means reinforcement in one form or another, often steel. You can use large, localized, bars (long standing and well known tech), or now we can elect to inject/mix in a significant dose of fibre reinforcement. Essentially we take the large bars (10M, 15M, etc.) and take all that steel and scale it right down to little tiny thick hairpin like microbars and spread them all through the concrete. I don't want to go getting all too technical, but suffice it to say that research and practical experience has shown that this innovation is a real winner. In some cases you can use significantly less steel and handle the same stress and strain as with the full size bars. Rarely do we specify fibre only for beam and major elements, but oh then we have slabs . Everyone loves to eliminate main bars from slabs, and doesn't fibre just look like a dandy solution!

Well, yes. And go ahead; the products are truly fantastic. But don't put steel fibre into concretes that are going to be exposed to the elements or, in particular, salts. Just don't. Concrete is weak in tension, and fibres really help. But doping concrete with fibres means they will be everywhere. No clear cover for lots of those fibres. And they will rust. Without clear cover, you're in trouble. Use the plastics for medical areas (ie: in case of MRI, etc.), for exterior applications, for all corrossive environments. I don't care how much you really want steel, and the other engineer said you could, and hey the promised it would be fine, and the manufacturer's sales rep promises too.... No. No steel without clear cover; fibres in mixes can have no clear cover without a separate topping pour (and really, why? Why not just use the plastic fibres).

Remember the part about engineers noticing details and all the things and stuff and shinies? Well, there are a good number of commercial floors (as well as some residential!) where some damned fool thought steel fibres were a good idea and put them into an exposed mix. Hell, in some cases, they put them into interior floor mixes that should be perfectly fine too (no exposure, no salts, etc.). Interior locations. Walmart, Costco, etc. Picture the big box store with polished concrete floors. And then you notice quickly that there is often rust staining. Weird little linear indents where fibres which finished (pun intended, you're welcome) flat and at the surface popped out. Every once in a while, you see one sticking up out of the concrete (nice trick, that; if you get a little curve going in the plastic concrete, and it happens to have been near the top, you can get a little spring that "jumps" up into the air over years. Often with one end still firmly embedded into concrete. Congratulations! A minuature defensive steel trap of your very own. A trip hazard, a stab hazard, your own little torture device just waiting to be rammed up into a shoe or foot.

I know you like the fibres. I like the fibres. The concrete is great, very strong, and nicely durable. The mixes may be a touch hard to place, but whatever, that's the contractor's problem, right? This product is what I want and I want it now! Well, congrats. You pay for any difficulty the contractor faces. You pay for the increased maintenance and any effort required to remove fibres that stick out. I love them too, and specify them, and they have their place. But for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE just accept that the polypropylene fibres are also very good, have far fewer drawbacks, and can save everyone a lot of blood, sweat, and rusted tears (verb).

Now let's touch base again on those details about things . See that nice photo above, showing you both the steel fibre and the polypropylene fibres? What was the first thing you noticed? The two fibres? The shape of the steel fibres? Well, if you're an engineer like me, I'm betting it was the couple of poly fibres laying in the steel side. They stood out instantly for me, and I could barely see anything else. That little end of a steel fibre laying over the polypropylene fibres in the bottom right hand corner of the shot? Yeah, that one too.... I almost didn't use the shot. I was going to go take another. Then I remembered that I had better things to do, a family to spend time with rather than just feed, and I posted the photo anyways. See? We have our strengths too. Strength of character and will. The ability to ignore the imperfect, if only for a moment. I mean, it isn't like that fibre was going into a concrete mix right now.... Because then we'd have to make certain, REALLY certain, that those two fibres were perfectly and completely separated. Because it matters. I swear.

Don't. Just don't ask me about fibre reinforcement in residential slabs. Just read this, and then we will both say you asked. You're welcome.

Shattering Glass: Unveiling the Hazards

ahosny@celottawa.ca (Adam Hosny) — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 18:55:56 GMT

Nickel Sulphide Inclusions in Glass and Canadian Regulations

At Capacity Engineering, we conduct numerous forensic investigations concerning structural and building envelope issues across Canada. One of our Forensic Engagements was an investigation of a 55-Storey building where over 15 insulated glazing units (IGU’s) spontaneously shattered.

In situations like these, it is important to remind ourselves as our duty as a Professional; the Engineer shall regard the practitioner’s duty to protect the public welfare as paramount. As you can imagine, glass falling from 50+ storey’s of height poses a substantial risk to public welfare. When public safety is at risk, it is crucial that you work with the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) to ensure the necessary measures are taken to protect the public.

IGU’s or curtain wall assemblies serve multiple purposes and their design and installation are governed by the Ontario Building Code (OBC) as follows:

1. The design of the window to take environmental loads are governed under Part 4 of OBC 2012 “Structural Design”.

2. Additionally, windows (mainly curtain walls and window walls) at the edge of a buildings slab act as a guard rail and must resist guard loads where glass is located under the minimum height requirement. Thus, they are also governed under Supplementary Standard SB-13 “Glass in Guards”.

3. The window acts as an environmental separation and the design is also governed by Part 5 of OBC 2012 “Environmental Separations”. Part 5 also refers the designer to Part 4 of the OBC for environmental load calculations.

4. Additionally, the curtain wall is subject to testing under the North American Fenestration Standard/Specifications (NAFS) for Windows Doors and Skylights and meet the requirements of CSA A440S1. This testing is intended to ensure that the windows meet structural performance requirements as well as control of air leakage, condensation and rain penetration.
5. The installation of windows are governed by CSA A440.4 “Window Door and Skylight Installation”.

There are several factors that could cause glass in curtain walls to break. In some cases, it could even be a combination of several factors. Some factors include:

Environmental loading - excessive wind loading.
Axial shortening – columns shorten under axial load over time. If not properly considered, the shortening of the building can compress the curtain wall frames and shatter the glass.
Thermal expansion – breakage due to excess temperature change and lack of expansion and contraction constraints.
Installation issues – edges of glass being damaged.
External Impact – sudden impact loading such as bird strike, debris, etc.
Nickel Sulphide Inclusion – an impurity in the material that occurs during the manufacturing process.

While each of these factors can be explored, this forensic investigation concluded that the glass breakage was most likely due to the rare occurrence of Nickel Sulphide Inclusions.

What is Nickel Sulphide Inclusion (NiS)?

To properly understand NiS, it is important to understand the process of manufacturing tempered glass. Tempered glass is a product from annealed glass (or sheet glass) formed by process of heating and cooling.

The glass is heated to a temperature of around 600°C then it rapidly undergoes a high-pressure cooling procedure called “quenching”. During this process, high-pressure air, blasts the surface of the glass to cool the outer surfaces at a much quicker rate than the center. As the center of the glass cools, it tries to pull back from the already cooled outer surface. This causes the center to remain in tension with the outer surfaces having a counterbalancing compression stress which is what gives the strength to tempered glass.

After tempered glass is formed, the stress profile through the thickness of the glass becomes parabolic as seen in Figure 1 below.

However, during the process of manufacturing the annealed glass, there is a possibility that a nickel sulphide stone forms in the tension zone due to nickel contamination. These stones can vary in size from 0.05mm to 0.1mm.

When the tempered glass is later exposed to varying temperatures in the field, the inclusion changes in size and can grow to a size to that causes enough additional internal tensile stress to exceed the counterbalancing compression stresses and shatter the glass. This has the highest risk of occurrence in the first 10 years of the tempered glass life.

The shattering of the glass creates an extremely loud shattering noise and breaks almost instantaneously into thousands of tiny pieces.

How to determine a NiS Failure?

Now while you may be wondering how to determine if a glass shattered due to Nickel Sulphide Inclusion, the reality is that there is one main tell tail: The Butterfly Effect.

In Chaos Theory, the Butterfly Effect is the phenomenon that the world is interconnected such that one small occurrence can cause major consequences in a much larger, complex system. In the office, we refer to this as St. Venants Principle: the principle of local vs. global. The principle that one must consider the local aspects of a structure as well as the global. A local failure could also cause a catastrophic global failure.

With respect NiS failure, The Butterfly Effect occurs on a much smaller scale as described in Chaos Theory. A small (0.05mm-0.1mm) NiS inclusion can cause an entire failure of the IGU on a much larger scale; and ironically, the origin of the glass failure resembles a butterfly. The NiS inclusion fracture origin starts with a single small line which then branches on each side and continues to branch in a chaotic manner. The Figure below show examples of the “butterfly” resembling fracture origin due to nickel sulphide inclusion.

This butterfly crack is a unique shatter pattern and typically the presence of this crack origin gives the engineer or manufacturer strong evidence on the cause. However, it is best practice to have the NiS inclusion verified in a laboratory. But the reality is that it is almost impossible to visually identity NiS inclusions in the manufacturing process.

How do we prevent this issue?

The main and most common method of reducing risk of NiS breakage is heat soak testing. Heat soak testing is destructive testing where you heat the tempered glass in a chamber at approximately 200°C - 300°C. This test accelerates the growth of the NiS inclusion in attempt to purposely shatter the glass with the NiS inclusion. This test is expensive but has been proven to significantly reduce the risk of NiS induced breakages in the field.

Currently there is no North American standard for heat soak testing, however, industry best practice and SB-13 requirements are to perform the heat soak test to the European Standard EN 14179-1.

How does our Code address this issue?

The frank reality is that prior to the 2012 Ontario Building Code, buildings in Ontario were allowed to have only tempered glass IGU’s. However, this changed after several high-profile failures from 2010-2012 in Toronto caused the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) to discuss methods of reducing the risk of NiS breakages were discussed. The MMAH then released Supplementary Standard SB-13 of the Ontario Building Code.

The objective of SB-13 is to provide requirements for the design and construction of glass in guards and reduce the probability of breakage of glass panels and injury to persons in the vicinity of a building as a result of failing broken glass.

The requirements of SB-13 is now listed in Table 2.1.1.1. attached below:

This table under SB-13 provides requirements in Ontario that all glass near the edge of a buildings slab be heat strengthened laminated or heat soaked tempered.

CEL was involved in the forensic investigation of the high-profile failures in Toronto which caused MMAH to develop this supplementary standard. The reality is at the time of construction, the tempered IGU panels met all Ontario Building Code requirements and formed the basis of SB-13 requirements to less commonly allow tempered glass.

IGU’s and curtain walls are generally an evolving area of professional practice for Engineers and Architects and as research develops so does our Code. The Codes main objective as set out in Division A, Part 2, is to limit the probability that as a result of design or construction, a person in or adjacent to the building will be exposed to unacceptable risk or hazards. We, as Professionals, must continue to advance the profession with our knowledge and expertise to further protect public safety.

CEL’s President, Maurice Quinn P.Eng., currently sits as the Chair of the Fenestration Canada Technical Sub-Committee on failure determination of fenestrations. CEL is working closely with Fenestration Canada to improve our standards based on the work CEL has been conducting across Canada.

A Journey of Growth: Our Office Evolution

Admin@celottawa.ca (Admin CEL) — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:15:14 GMT

Three offices in as many years... Create · Enhance · Sustain(ing) our growth through Engineering Excellence...

Given our latest office move, it's the perfect time to reflect on the journey that has brought us to where we are today. From humble beginnings of our Co-Founder's row home to our spacious new location, every step of our office evolution has been a testament to our determination, hard work, and unwavering commitment to excellence.

Our story began with a vision and a dream. In June 2010, we built a two-desk office in the basement of a Co-Founder's row home. Though the desks remained empty for over two years, this period was crucial for laying the groundwork for what would become Capacity Engineering Ltd (CEL). We spent countless hours planning, creating procedures, and producing our first edition of the CEL Operations Manual.

The years that followed were marked by steady growth and significant milestones. May 29th, 2012, saw the three original co-founders meeting to discuss the future of CEL seriously, despite initial setbacks. By December 31, 2013, we landed our first paying job, marking a significant turning point for our firm.

In January 2014, we hired a group of part-time Structural Engineering Interns, signalling the beginning of our expansion efforts. June 23, 2016 marked another milestone as we hired our first full-time employee, a testament to our growing workload and expanding team. In April 2018, we hired the first group of full-time Structural Engineering Interns, further solidifying our commitment to expansion and development.

Our journey of growth also saw us upgrading our office spaces to accommodate our expanding team. We started with 102 Centrepointe on November 6, 2019, sub-leasing an office from a client and starting with a modest space of 120 sq. ft. and three desks. By February 29, 2020, we had expanded our office space to 700 sq. ft., accommodating eight team members sharing seven desks. On August 1, 2021 we moved into a larger space of 1497 sq. ft. at 220 Terence Matthews in Kanata, accommodating twelve desks and welcoming a new robo-vacuum to the team.

Fast forward to today, we find ourselves at our latest milestone: our move to 505 March Road. With 4000 sq. ft. of space, including six closed offices, nine cubicle spaces, two conference rooms, a library, and a fully-equipped kitchen/lunchroom, we are poised for even greater success and growth in the years to come.

As we settle into our new space, we remain grateful for the journey that has brought us here and excited for the opportunities which lie ahead. Our commitment to excellence, innovation, and teamwork remains as strong as ever, and we look forward to continuing to serve our clients with the same dedication and passion that has defined us from the very beginning.

Here's to the next chapter in the CEL journey!

Wooten's Third Law and the AI Among Us

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 13:44:35 GMT

Something is Rotten in the State of The Art...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Language Models (LLMs) have been making significant strides in various fields, including professional work. While most people have little contact with professional AIs, anyone who begins working with one is likely to find that, after a certain period of training, the AI will begin to hallucinate. Hallucinations are where the AI generates content that is factually incorrect, misleading, or simply made up. This phenomenon underscores the importance of having a Second Set of Eyes (SSoE) review in AI-generated work.

AI hallucination can manifest in various ways. For instance, in a knowledge cut-and-paste scenario, the AI might misinterpret or misrepresent the information it is summarizing. It might take a sentence out of context, mix up facts from different sources, or even invent facts that do not exist. This can lead to the creation of false or misleading information, which can have serious consequences, especially in fields like healthcare, finance, or engineering.

In the realm of structural engineering, for example, an AI might generate a blog post claiming that 'Wooten's Third Law' is a recognized principle in the field. However, no such law exists in structural engineering. This kind of error can lead to misunderstandings and misconceptions about the field, potentially putting people's safety at risk.

Another example could be in the calculation of stress or strain. An AI might state that 'stress is equal to moment over load' when in reality, stress is force over area. This kind of error could lead to serious mistakes in structural design and analysis. This could easily lead to errors and deaths.

Moreover, AI might also generate content based on its training data, which might not always be up-to-date or accurate. For instance, in a blog post about building science, an AI might discuss outdated practices or materials that are no longer in use, leading to confusion and misinformation.

While AI has the potential to revolutionize many industries, it is not infallible. AI hallucination is a real issue that can lead to the creation of false or misleading information. Therefore, it is crucial to have a Second Set of Eyes review in AI-generated work. This can help to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information, protecting the public from potential harm and maintaining the integrity of the field.

Until this sentence, this entire blog post has been written by CEL AI, an in-house LLM trained to be a Structural Engineering Assistant. This post was inspired by the prompt (ie: a question asked of an AI) which is shown along with CEL AI's reply in the accompanying photo.... If you don't know anything about Wooten's Third Law (WTL), the answer seems to be excellent. Only the origin of WTL is Jim Wooten, a steel engineer from the US. And the origin is in an article in Modern Steel Construction in 1971. To the best of my knowledge there is no Robert A. Wooten, nor was there ever a book on the Paradox of Learning written by said Ghost in the Machine. The first paragraph is written to sell you on the knowledge that CEL AI feels it should, or must, have in order to be useful. The tool made it up, blending what appears to be a name sourced from a quote of Robert A. Heinlein, likely from some of the training materials where the famous author featured once. It was false, and so would any of the work based upon an AI's product in absence of knowledgeable SSoE be...

To quote myself, upon the release of CEL AI to our team: "Please note that CEL AI is a tool and should not be trusted to do anything at all that isn't subject to a Second Set of Eyes. [ ] You may only ask the Juan Salinas|Ted Sherwood (Salinas|Sherwood) questions: Those to which you already know the answer." FYI: Prof. Salinas and Prof. Sherwood were/are Professors of Structural Engineering at Carleton University, the alma mater of the majority of our staff; both had a very similar view of engineering work, feeling that it was critically important that an engineer know the ballpark wherein one would find the correct answer in order to get the question right...

So, after all of that, the facts are simple and the risks enormous... Plainly stated:
To get the right answer from an AI, you may only ever ask a question to which you already know the answer . If you implement the wrong answer due to trust in what is yet another computer black box, people could (and given the state of the advancing field, people probably will) DIE.

AI is a tool, and a tool must have an operator. As it currently stands, the State of the Art in AI has no place in the State of the Profession in absence of appropriate review and professional responsibility borne by a suitably trained and licensed Professional Engineer.

Why Are Structural Engineers?

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 17:51:09 GMT

Grammar aside, we do add value and safety...

I was interviewed by the Ottawa Construction Association for their careers page. It was an interesting experience, but one of the questions stuck with me, and sent me here to do a little ranting. I was asked to explain what I do, and to treat it as if I were to explain it to my nephew or niece. To explain what a Structural Engineer is, and what my day looks like... While I think that's a reasonable question, it misses a higher level first step. It doesn't include WHY a Structural Engineer is; I'm hoping this blog post does.

Imagine a world where anyone could design and build a house, a skyscraper, or even the bridge you drive across every day... Without having to prove that they have suitable education, training, experience, licensing, insurance, or any other qualification. While it might seem like something out of a nightmare, this was once a reality in Canada. Thankfully, through a series of historical events and a commitment to public safety, Canada has established a robust professional engineering regime, with organizations like Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) acting as a vital safeguard.

I said in the interview that Architects bring an aesthetic and form to life, that they create a workable space and make the cities we live in really function. I said that they knew things about how to make spaces work and really serve people that are far outside of my ken. I said that I respect what they do, and the artistic and professional merit inherent to their field. I also said that I view a core part of my job as supporting their efforts. The truth is, well, that I make people's dreams of space and creation safe and un-deadly. I chose such an ungodly awkward turn of phrase for a reason: The reason Structural Engineers are is that people die when they aren't .

Licensing and training for engineers, with robust enforcement from a licensing body, and the enforcement of sensible minimum levels of education, training, and experience are strictly enforced and necessary to practice engineering in Ontario and more generally in Canada. This wasn't always the case. Disasters throughout history, from bridge collapses to building failures, have taught our society that a gate keeper to the professional is necessary; that the unqualified and insufficiently experienced producing designs can lead to tragedy. It is the disasters which highlighted the dangers of unqualified individuals undertaking structural engineering work.

In Ontario, this crucial step came with the establishment of Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) by an act of the legislature. PEO sets the standards for education, experience, and ethics that engineers must meet to practice. This is self-regulation, overseen by the provincial government, and ensures that only qualified individuals can hold themselves out as professional engineers. Professional Engineering is not an option, but a mandatory requirement for many structures, and all major structures. Professional Engineering is a strength, and an asset to our economy. The importance of a strong professional engineering regime goes beyond just having the right qualifications. Safeguarding the unsuspecting public requires a continuous commitment to quality. This means ensuring that engineering education programs are rigorous and up-to-date, reflecting the latest advancements in materials, design principles, and safety. Here again Canada is fortunate to have a well considered and robust system through the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB). CEAB ensures that every university program in Canada which offers engineering training abides by a minimum common standard. Only after this education has been ensured can one obtain a professional engineering license. In order to maintain ongoing competence, the regime in Ontario has added PEAK, a continual professional development program. We welcome this program with great enthusiasm, and look forward to the enforcement of said training. Proper regulation of engineering also necessitates a strong system of professional development for practicing engineers, allowing them to stay current with evolving technologies and best practices.

By prioritizing both the qualifications of engineers and the quality of their education and practice, professional bodies like PEO play a critical role in protecting public safety. A strong professional engineering regime, with organizations like PEO at the helm, acts as the cornerstone of safeguarding the public from the disastrous consequences of bad engineering. It's a system you may have known nothing about, but that takes care of you and your welfare every day. We protect the unsuspecting public, and it is by their very ignorance of us and our skills that we prove our success. The regulatory regime has been built on lessons learned, tragedies that echo to us out of the past, and the memories of which continue to ensure a safer future for all Canadians.

I'll leave you with a favourite quote:
"Engineering is the art of modeling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyze, so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance."
- Dr. A. R. Dykes

Aluminum Design - Not Your Average Metal

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 13:33:51 GMT

If you're familiar with steel design, aluminum might just surprise you, and be a welcome technical challenge...

We were recently engaged to design an aluminum in-pool bridge at the University of Ottawa's Olympic swimming pool.

The existing bridge had suffered significant galvanic deterioration. The timeline was short, and the client's brief was very clear: They needed the complete design, with drawings, within three weeks. We delivered in 18 days.

Let's set the flex aside: This blog post is more about the challenges of designing in aluminum than one of our numerous successes doing so...

Light, yet seemingly very strong and stiff, aluminum can seem like a wonder metal. It is an interesting design choice, and can have a better strength-to-weight ratio when compared to steel (generally not after welding; more on that later). It is also much more resistant to corrosion, with most aluminum alloys forming a stable patina in many exposures/environments. It is, of course, still a metal, and subject to galvanic corrosion if allowed to form a circuit through contact with a dissimilar metal and provided some form of an electrolyte (yes, this can even be as simple as humid air). Further complicating the matter is the fact that bolted connections in aluminum are generally made with either aluminum or stainless steel bolts, with stainless steel being far more readily available (read: often aluminum bolts must be manufactured for your order). So you might have to plan on either or in your design, and when considering durability.

Your first challenge, should you choose (or be coerced) into accepting it, is to identify material properties to which you're going to design. Aluminum is not like steel in that common materials will all have commonly available sections. Instead, you need to start by looking to what grades are available in sizes and shapes you will find useful. Different markets have widely different availabilities, and different aluminum grades have very different material properties. You also need to be very careful about making sure your selected material grade will match with your planned assembly, fabrication, and connection methods. Many aluminum material grades are heat treated, or gain strength through methods that will be negatively affected by the heat of welding.

When it comes to choosing the right aluminum grade for your project, you need to be careful to think in more detail about what each section needs, and in a far greater level of detail than you may require of a steel section. Different types of aluminum alloys have different properties and can be more or less difficult to work with. The most commonly used grades for structural purposes are 6061 and 6063. Let's look at the 6xxx series and discuss how we go about adapting to the material properties and tendencies presented in our design work.

6xxx series alloys are easy to shape (which gets them rolled and formed into structural sections like angles, channels, and beam shapes) and can be heat-treated to make them strong. That heat-treatment may be accomplished by several methods, but again let's focus on the most common: T5 and T6. Every aluminum specification should contain two parts, the base metallurgical material (generally 5xxx or 6xxx for structures), and a treatment annotation (generally the T5 or T6 mentioned). Each of these, like all aluminums we employ in structural design, are "pretending" to have a yield point. They have no classic yield plateau like steel, but rather a region at which their strain accelerates precipitously, which we want to avoid. Thus, since our modern design processes are based on a yield strength, we fake a yield strength to work with: A straight line is drawn on the stress-strain curve at 0.2% offset to give us our "effective" yield point. A fiction, a ghost, a figment of a research engineer past's imagination. Now that we have the Jacob Marley/Ebenezer Scrooge point for a meterial, we really aught to understand how we got there. That's a matter of heat...

Let's look at the two treatment annotations we expect to encounter: T5 means that the material has been artificially aged after cooling from an elevated temperature shaping process (ie: hot rolled, then cooled, and then treated with an extended period of time at a temperature marginally below the melting point; this permits the alloying elements to enter into a solid solution, after which the section is quenched to lock in the uniformity of the material). T6 is similarly prepared, with the section being solution heat-treated and artificially aged. Artificial aging is another heating process, this time much lower, typically from 160°C to 200°C for up to 4 hours (2 hours being generally considered best). These grades therefore have more strength than basic aluminum, but have achieved this through a heating and rapid cooling process, and therefore have strengths that are greatly affected and changed by welding. The 5xxx series alloys are more expensive to shape, but they are less affected by welding and can keep their strength. It's important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each type of alloy so you can choose the best one for your project. That doesn't mean that we have to avoid our more commonly available friends 6061 and 6063, it means we must be aware of the loss of strength at the weldment. For some very high efficiency applications, this is then a curiously circuitous design process of refining the lost strength versus the strength needed to develop the connection in a weld. This difficulty is more typical of small parts and areas with multiple weldments near one another. A detailed discussion of St. Venant's principle and its application here isn't really germane to this post, but suffice it to say that for most of our applications, we have sufficient space between welds, holes, transitions, etc. to allow us to avoid excessive complication in our connection designs. Thus we apply a standard overstrength methodology, and consider the ends to be of a reduced strength compared to the parts of the assembly that would never get heated above near-ambient temperatures.

If you're planning to weld the material, you'll want to use a filler metal that is compatible with the base metal to avoid weakening it excessively, or inducing brittleness (for extra credit, go down the rabbit hole of weld solidification cracking, hot cracking, and the required diffusion of weldment material into base metal; it is genuinely very interesting, but would likely take a lifetime to master, let alone a career). This is where a good and knowledgeable welder becomes absolutely essential: The most commonly used "matching electrode" for these grades of aluminum is 4043. There are charts available to help you understand what strength you will have in the weld pool and adjacent aluminum section. It is critically important that you limit heat when and as required, and consider your sections to have a reduced strength whenever heat-affected (ie: the Heat Affected Zone, or HAZ). An understanding of how far the material changes have impact is equally important, but a rule of thumb can be applied in most cases. Literally a rule of thumb, or one inch (~25.4mm), is sufficient to get away from the HAZ. Thus, most of the time, simply applying more weldment to the problem can solve the issue, however, if you were to treat your aluminum design as you might most steel design, you're going to have a severely under-strength connection in an area of relatively unknown material properties. Bad mojo, and not how a professional goes about designing a structure. You can safely leave a lot of welding decisions to a suitably trained and qualified welder, but you had better understand the impacts of those possible decisions (now firmly outside of your control) on your design. Personally, I advocate leaving a maximum of the welding decisions to the welder, and planning your design so as to be tolerant of the worst case (for you). The reality is that it is nearly impossible to tell one weld process from another after the fact, and most engineering offices simply will not budget nor permit a member of staff to be on site watching all the welds be made. It is not a practical approach outside of highly specialized fabrication. Sorry, this just isn't rocket science or aerospace engineering.

If there is any take-away wisdom I can give to someone undertaking their first aluminum design, it is this: See One - Assist One - Do One. Make sure you have an experienced mentor to guide you, see if you can get your hands on one of their past designs, and make sure they are fully supporting you through your first job. You won't know everything after you first design, like any other area of Structural Engineering, this too will be a journey... But everyone starts somewhere. Aluminum design is no different, it simply has its own quirks.

Concrete Repair - A Fundamental Essential

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 15:59:18 GMT

Basic, basics, and drainage - Oh my!

Concrete repair is a crucial process used to rehabilitate and restore damaged or deteriorated concrete structures. Whether it's a small crack or a major structural issue, addressing concrete damage promptly is essential to ensure the longevity and safety of the structure.

A background knowledge of the material is essential to an understanding of how to repair concrete. Concrete is highly alkaline, or basic, and this passivates the steel placed within the mass. Slowly over time this alkalinity is lost through interaction with the atmosphere, and several deleterious effects are able to initiate. While a detailed discussion of this process is outside the scope of this post, it is important to understand that the material properties of deteriorated concrete differ substantially from those of freshly placed concrete, making the specification of compatible repair materials more complicated than simply matching the original concrete specification.

When it comes to concrete repair, there are several important steps to consider. First, it's important to identify the cause of the damage; this could be due to factors such as freeze-thaw cycles, chemical exposure, loss of passivation of the reinforcement and simple exposure to the elements, or may rise to the level of structural overloading. Understanding the root cause helps in determining the most effective repair approach.

Investigating the material properties of the original concrete as well as the current state of the material is crucial. This involves assessing factors like permeability, strength, and durability. By understanding the characteristics of the original concrete and the material properties now found in-situ, it becomes easier to select an appropriate repair material that matches these properties. Once the cause and material properties have been determined, the next step is to prepare a technical specification for the removal of existing materials as and to such a depth as may be needed, any improvement to the existing profile or material which may be deemed of use, the inclusion of any protection systems which may be warranted or desired (example: passive cathodic protection), and to specify the final repair material and details. This generally involves cleaning the damaged area, removing loose or deteriorated concrete, and creating a suitable surface to which the repair material will be adhered.

After the preparation, the specified repair material is applied to the damaged area. Common methods of concrete repair include patching, resurfacing, and partial or full depth repair. Patching is generally used for localized damage, resurfacing is used to restore the appearance and protect the surface, and partial or full depth repairs are self-descriptive. It is important, however, that any partial or full depth repair work not result in the creation of an incipient anode (a deteriorative effect possible where new and old concretes are not electro-galvanically compatible).

The choice of repair method depends on the extent and type of damage, as well as on the client's budget and target repair durability. It's important to consult with a suitably trained and qualified professional engineer to determine the most appropriate repair approach for a specific situation. Feel free to call and ask us why we almost never recommend injectable repair materials, and proscribe rather than favour bonding agents. We've done a great deal of concrete repair, and would love to help you both understand and effectively carry out high quality repairs of substantial value and durability.

The goal of concrete repair should be to not only restore the structural integrity of the concrete but also to avoid any rapid loss or recurrence of deterioration. Generally speaking engineers and para-professionals are taught that water is concrete's friend, but that isn't always the case. Water which becomes trapped can become incredibly deteriorating to concrete, water can also scour or cause cavitation damage (generally a bridge pier and wet abutment issue), or give rise to rapid deterioration through freeze-thaw cycles. Damp concrete can perform well when never frozen; wet concrete generally performs very badly. Drainage matters, and an understanding of when as well as what constitutes a good or bad influence on an element for each possible exposure is essential, not optional.

By addressing concrete damage promptly and using suitable repair materials and techniques, the chances of further deterioration can be minimized. The value and in-service hours of the asset can be safeguarded and even raised. Doing the job right the first time can significantly reduce total cost of ownership, both through reduced impacts to operations, and more effective maintenance programs and projects.

Many property owners of older assets find that once repairs start, they become more and more frequent. This isn't the best way to minimize the total cost of ownership for an asset; better engineering planning and maintenance methodology is what those owner truly need. Unfortunately, the skills to take care of assets can vary heavily from those required to design, specify and construct. Universities and most professional firms train staff to build, but not repair. You need a resource with experience in maintenance, forensics, and repair. You need CEL.

Adam Hosny, P.Eng.

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 16:41:41 GMT

At 8:30 EDT, we were notified we had a new P.Eng. on staff...

Adam's receipt of his license has been welcomed by the team with congratulations and a a general air of festivity in the office. We have a close knit team, and with any good excuse, we're generally willing to down pens and enjoy a good chat, a coffee or beverage of choice (Adam happens to be a 7-Up man), and relax.

We work hard, we work odd hours, and we work as and when needed for clients who appreciate our dedication. That makes it particularly important for us to take good opportunity to rest when they come.

While I fully expect Adam to be back at his desk on Monday, we would ask clients to contact the office rather than the man; we've given our newest P.Eng. a corporate credit card and firm orders to go have the best lunch money can buy with whomever he may choose.

In keeping with CEL's approach of fair and transparent compensation for fair work, fairly earnt, Adam's salary goes to that of a full Staff Engineer, $109,931.25 per annum plus expense account, client allowance, and the continuing training and support of the ever growing CEL professional team at our next pay cycle. Essentially, Adam's days at his current salary are numbered and known; he has no need to argue, beg, wait, or be "reviewed" to be paid fairly for his achievement. He is now a staff P.Eng., and is to be compensated as such since his status has both value and use to the firm. Should this surprise the reader, may I suggest another blog post here ?

Congratulations again Adam! Well and truly deserved.

Tornado Damage? Take our helping hand...

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 23:09:16 GMT

Discounted Forensic Engineering for Ottawa...

The Staff and Board of Capacity Engineering Limited are pulling together to help the community. We're going to offer our Forensic Engineering services (Investigation, Repair Design & Specification, Insurance Claim Support, etc.) to the community at 42% of our standard rates. As we've said elsewhere: We are a part of this community, and this community can and will pull together time and again. We want to help, we're here and able to help.

My house was close to a Tornado touching down... Should I worry?

There are many varied effects from the high winds produced by damaging storms like Tornadoes, Derechos, Ice Storms, etc. In the case of Tornadoes, we look not only for the flying object damage, but also we must consider the hidden effects of high winds. In some cases, a building will have been pulled or pushed past the Serviceability Limit State (SLS); meaning that damage other than collapse has occurred, potentially including hidden issues like drywall pops and cracking, shifting and lock-in (when a timber frame wall and the lining are pushed to their limit, but jam up and lock together in the displaced position). Some of these effects can take weeks and months to reveal themselves. We have worked on a number of buildings where significant damage to the trusses was only discovered some time later, often from sudden cracking and drywall pops which showed up long after the event. The damage might be an SLS scale of failure at first, but putting those trusses through an Ottawa winter is anything but a good idea.

So, what to do? Well, if you've been within a half a kilometer from a Tornado's path, or if you find windows or doors suddenly sticking after a major storm, consider having someone come through and review the situation. The trusses in a roof should be checked, the walls should be surveyed, the exterior should be photographed and a record of the conditions made. Most of these don't require any specialist knowledge until an issue has been discovered: Have a look in your attic. Step well back and have a good look at your roof. If your neighbourhood has been hit by a Tornado, you may well be affected and not even know it. Every home owner should have regular records of their home's condition. When was the last time you took a photo of your house? How about photos of all the surfaces, including those back corners behind the bushes?

While the following list should in no way be considered extensive, or even professional advice, here are the things we think everyone who's building has been through a so-called "near miss" should look out for:

1. Check all your windows and doors for good function. A change or jammed window or door is a serious red-flag for further storm-caused issues.
2. Missing roof shingles. Look around your house. Shingles from roofs often wind up on the ground. They may represent a large gap in your roof's primary waterproofing. Step well back, ask a neighbour to look from their windows, or use a drone. Look at the whole roof and look carefully; sometimes shingles have come loose or shifted, but not flown off.
3. Debris and litter on your roof. If you have eaves troughing, that litter is going to fill it up and potentially clog the works.

4. Get up in your attic and take a good look along every truss, front and back. Look out for cracks, shakes, and wanes. Look those up; it matters. Look at all the truss plate connectors, and make sure they are tight and flat against the timber of the truss members.

5. Look to see that the insulation hasn't shifted and covered the eaves/soffit venting. That's not okay; your roof has to breathe, or you're going to greatly increase the risk of rot and negatively affect the correct function of your insulation.

Over the coming weeks and months, you should watch out for:

A. Newly / Sudden changes. Floors or stairs creaking that were silent?

B. Sudden banging or odd creaking noises, particularly at night (the structure may be changing as it cools, releasing the "lock-in". Damage often shows itself now, not before.
C. Drywall cracks and pops, particularly in patterns around the extremes of the house (along the top of the walls along the underside of the roof, for example).

What should you take away from this? NOT ALL DAMAGE IS OBVIOUS. Go. Look. Check. Let us know if you need help; we're here. We're happy to pay back this community that has been such a large part of our success. Thanks Ottawa, and good luck.

History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes...

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 11:30:48 GMT

Engineering the past, Engineering of the past, and the passing of a very fine Engineer...

We are frequently involved in historical structures. We often engineer with old methods, to the new code. We also insist upon our staff having a facility with tools that many engineers would find antiquated, perhaps even outdated. A Faber-Castell Novo Duplex 2/83N sits, pride of place, to this day on my desk. It is still the fastest way to square a number, and puts a calculator to shame for many tasks. For a novice engineer, learning the slide rule makes them a better person, as it makes them a stronger calculator (for centuries this was the person who calculated, not a device), and gives them a better ability to know the answer before they start. I was taught that you needed to know the answer before you start by one of the finest engineers I ever met. I found out today that he has passed, and I find myself deeply saddened, and grateful for the time I was able to spend learning from him.

I started work at Roney Engineering in Kingston Ontario in April of 2004. My new boss, Chris Roney, P.Eng., had hired me because the Civil & Structural Engineering Lab Manager, Ken McMartin, P.Eng., said that while he didn't have any upcoming Masters of Engineering graduates to offer as new hires, I might do. My grades sucked, but I was very passionate about Structural Engineering, often in my office at the University before the first bus would run, and before Ken arrived. I think I impressed him, and clearly I did something good enough to have one fine engineer recommend me to another... But this isn't about either of those two great men. It is about the father of the first, and a loss I was quite shocked to feel as deeply as I do. My grades sucked because I had nearly completed an Electrical Engineering degree before I realized I loved the lectures but hated the work, and real world work would be more like the labs than the lectures. No matter how I loved both the lectures and the home work once I switched, completing nearly eight years of university courses in five years was always going to have an impact on my grades. But this post isn't about me...

I never saw Gerry use a slide rule, though I can guarantee you the man was a whiz with the slip stick. No, instead I watched Gerry use a digital calculator so old and worn that the buttons had been rubbed clean of any number or other marking. That man and his old calculator where simply amazing. The fact that the buttons were polished smooth and entirely blank didn't seem to bother Gerry at all. Gerry had an energy that was all electric, and was a conservative, through and through. I don't always sleep well, and I often find myself early into the office. I beat Gerry into the office precisely one time. He seemed quite shocked, and perhaps a little bemused. Later in the day his son Chris (of earlier hiring me fame in this post) warned me never to come in so early again, that it might hurt Gerry's pride to be beaten into the office by a younger man, and that this might in turn mean he would try to come in even earlier. I thought the concern of son for father quite beautiful, and promised to keep from coming in first. If I didn't see his van or car, I'd simply take a walk up to the nearby Tim Horton's, read a book a while, and then come back.

Gerry was a staunchly conservative man, and when I was too young to know any better, I would argue from a thoroughly left-leaning, University (non-technical) nonsense-filled, socialism-filled, brain. He was the first person to ever point out the difference between national debt and deficit to me, and gave me a more thorough education in economics in five minutes of annoyed vitriol than had a university course, complete with copious and diligently copied notes and textbook had managed two years prior.

Watching Gerry work was amazing. He would look over a set of drawings, and write down the correct beam and column sizes. No calculations, at least none to be seen. Often his calculations were twenty or thirty roughly sketched pencil lines on a small top edge bound spiral notebook. You know the kind, sized and presumably designed, to fit into the breast pocket of a man's blazer. The kind Gerry wore most of the days I knew him.

I was fortunate enough to be assigned to assist him on three or four occasions. It was like being a toddler and watching an Olympian run. Gerry looked over the sheets, took two or three minutes to write out the correct sizes of members on the drawings, and told me not to bother him with any questions and to iterate, revise, or review as necessary until my newfangled new code nonsense matched his sizes by no more difference than one increment of size in the steel beam charts. He was inevitably right, and I never did find a size that was more different than one steel-chart-size-increment. I'm not at all sure the man said "newfangled", but in my mind, and in my memories, he did.

If you're reading this today, know that it is because of my day yesterday, and a deep respect for an engineer lost. The world is smaller today than it has been, and our technical excellence as a species is down one fine Structural Engineer. Why did yesterday cause me to search out Gerry? Why, because yesterday I watched an intern struggle with something I took for granted that every single engineering graduate could do. Without question, without fail. Then I found out that they pulled yet another of my absolute non-debatable, must-haves, from the curriculum. Again. It wasn't the first, and likely won't be the last.

My first ever moment like this was when I was the young engineer on the receiving end of a shocked and appalled Mr. Roney, P.Eng, Sr. moment: I couldn't use the Hardy Cross Method. Had never heard of it. Didn't know it. Couldn't do it. And Gerry, well, Gerry was not impressed with young Master Maurice Quinn, No-Post-Nominals-Here.

But he was patient. He was kind. He taught me more in the precious hours I had in one-on-one with him than I could unpack in the nearly twenty years since. And in 2020, he died. He passed away leaving a legacy that could be envied by many, and should be the aspiration of most engineers.

He was never better than in the moments he sat at the big desk, back to the door, bent over the engineering paper and rubbing off another layer of plastic atoms from that old, rubbed-blank, calculator. I asked him why he didn't buy a new one, and he said simply "They don't make this one anymore." There was a message there, and I received it loud and clear. I own more than twenty-four of my favourite calculator, having developed a knee-jerk reaction for purchasing "just one more, Hon" over the years, and boy I tell you: This year I had a shock that came before learning of the fact that I'll never see Gerry again. As I sit here, at my desk, at the end of the corridor, with young engineers coming to ask me questions every day, I could tell any one of them today: "They don't make this one anymore."

I left Roney Engineering after a group of Queen's University (presumably Engineering) students threw a beer bottle at me from a moving vehicle as I walked along the road wearing my Carleton Engineering jacket. I was feeling deeply depressed, and stressed, and felt like a failure. I went to see Chris and I told him I couldn't do it any longer. I loved the job, I loved the work, I loved the people, but the City seemed to hate me; my little basement apartment with the illegally low ceilings was killing me a little more every day, and I didn't see how I could keep working there with what then appeared to be to be less than zero social life, and even fewer prospects. I told Chris I would keep working as long as he needed to find a replacement, I told him I was sorry to have to leave, and that I had learnt a very great deal from him and was grateful.

That Friday, Chris handed me a letter which accepted my resignation.

I have never regretted my time with Roney Engineering. I have often regretted not sticking it out. My career has been varied and interesting; from being the lead engineer on a stadium in Auckland to designing five storey climbing scaffolding arrays around sixty storey towers in Australia, from hotels in New Zealand and Vietnam to engineering the blast chamber used by Queen's University (ironic, right) and the Canadian Government... Every one of them, while done by me, has had a helping hand from Gerry's wisdom.

Today I know what our next Technical Meeting will be about, having found that out yesterday, and I also know to be grateful for the opportunity to train these young engineers. I hope, in time, to have inspired some of them as thoroughly as Gerry inspired me.

I never knew the Gerald Roney pictured above; I knew the older, wiser, man he was to become. I realize now, with not a small amount of foreboding that I am close to the age of the man in that photo, and that my father is closer to the age of Gerry when I met him.

I'll likely find out another lost art of engineering soon enough, and spend fifteen or twenty precious minutes imparting yet another key lesson left untaught at University. That's fate. But the echo? The echo finally starts to fade, with the passing of the man who's patient wisdom was passed onto me.

Sitting here, in my office, typing on a keyboard I love... A keyboard who's keys are slowly rubbing clean... I realize that I own only one. Some things in an engineer's life might just be meant to be unique... And I miss the man who owned only one calculator. A calculator, with the keys rubbed clean.

Before you build your dream home; Read this!!!

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 18:35:38 GMT

Avoid the most common pitfalls...

We do residential engineering. This is a major component of our practice, albeit generally our focus is on problems, repair, restoration, maintenance, rehabilitation, and forensics. We do, however, offer new build and major renovation services as Structural, Civil, and Architectural Engineers. We further offer Geotechnical, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering services as well as Architecture through our partners and colleagues in allied offices. So while the core of our work remains forensics, maintenance, and repair, we feel it is important to work on new structures [both in confirmatory and regulatory roles such as Field Review Consultants, as well as the Engineers of Record (EOR)] as there is no better way to keep on top of current practice and the latest changes to the applicable codes and standards.

A new home is the largest investment most people will ever make. A dream home is further linked to an enormous emotional centre, often core to the client's world and world view. This project matters. They are passionate, and heavily invested. Every decision matters. Every dollar is another cut into a finite budget that they have saved and worked for, often for much of an adult lifetime. These projects are works of passion, and are inescapably important.

We have recently been involved in just such a project. The home design is stunning, beautiful, and I fear may never get built. There is nothing wrong with the design. There is nothing wrong with the desire, will, passion, and care of the clients. There is everything wrong with the approach, and a complete lack of understanding of the process. You see, they have chosen to be their own GC. More on this in a moment...

“Before you build your dream home; Read this!!!” isn't some click-bait blog title. It is our firm imploring you to take a moment and reflect before you jump in. What do you do for a living? What is your skill set, that you bring to the day to day? How did you obtain this skill set, and was it easy? Did you learn it in a day, or a week, or a month? Perhaps some of the people reading this were born with an innate skill, some truly genius talent for a useful and saleable skill..... But I don't think it is a stretch to say this is certain to be a minority.

Whoever you are, and whatever you do, I do not pretend nor presume to have your skill set. I am not you, and I do not have the ability to do what you do for a living, unless you happen to be a Structural Engineer with a similar set of qualifications. Let's set all of that aside: I can't be you. Can you be me? Can you be your own Architect? What about your own Carpenter? Fabricator? Lumber Yard, Concrete Plant, Hardware Supplier, Fastener Specialist? Don't underestimate the value of the lifetime that each of these professionals, shop keepers, suppliers, and tradespeople bring to your project. While they will not always agree, and they need to be kept together like a herd of cats and a gaggle of geese, they bring something very real to your project. They will get along, roughly, internal to two groups, and fight between these (politely, but no less forcefully). You will have your design professionals, and your builders. The suppliers and shops are a sort of side-line cheering squad to all of us, and vaguely outside the "fight".

Don't be your own Architect, even when the law allows, and do not be your own General Contractor. There is a major caveat to these two pieces of advice: You may go right ahead and do so at your own cost, this cost consisting of time, money, and psychology. If you want to do so, understand that you will be bloodied and battered by the learning process, and your project will most likely go over time, over budget, and respect no scope. It isn't going to be your fault, but rather the natural consequence of a long and unending series of first time lessons.

My first residential design consisted of three beams, five or so lintels, strip footings, a couple of columns with their isolated pad footings, and the specification for trusses and floors. The office I worked for was kind, attentive, tolerant, and amazing. If you are near Kingston, Ontario, Roney Engineering is simply amazing and I strongly encourage you to consider their services wherever they can fit your needs. They walked me through every step, and a job that should leave the office in one or two days took me two and a half weeks. TWO AND A HALF WEEKS, for a young man who had graduated from a four year engineering degree, previously worked in both carpentry and steel fabrication, as well as being an avid small hardware projects enthousiast. My father had taught me to read engineering and architectural drawings years before. I had participated in many bridge competitions and varied other engineering competitions starting all the way back in grade school, culminating in my winning the local PEO Student Papers' Competition's "Most Commercially Viable Project" in my fourth year at university. In short, I was a good bet for someone who could do these simple, entry-level, engineering tasks... And it took me two weeks.

A similar story can be told for almost every person involved in your project, from the Architect to the tiler, the gib-stopper (drywaller/pasterer), plumber, electrician, roofer, and every other trade not least of which the GENERAL CONTRACTOR (GC). In many places, as a special bonus, anyone who takes on the role of a GC becomes responsible for site safety throughout the works. You may read that and think, "Well, I simply wonˋt do that...". Fine, sounds good, but guess what: Hiring more than ONE building trade is the definition of what the labour and safety people consider to be a General Contractor. Every job has a "Constructor", ie the building professional who is responsible for site safety. If you hired more than one trade, nearly always that's YOU. So: So what? What impact does this have? Well, this one small question among hundreds and thousands of such decisions and questions is that any accident on site in which a person is hurt and requires any medical attention is potentially going to be investigated by the ministry of labour. If anyone is seriously hurt, the ministry of labour WILL BE investigating.... And they are going to ask themselves: "Who is the Constructor" followed rather swiftly by "Were they qualified to run this site?" With rare exceptions, narrowly defined and suitably trained and qualified, the people reading this blog simply are not so qualified. The consequences and penalties can be very severe.

One more: When you hire people, can you approach multiple people for quotes, and then choose the best price, or what you consider to be the most advantageous offer? Sure, but you'd better know how. You need to invite everyone at one time, provide them all the same information, give them the same deadlines, and treat them equally in all respects. When you ask for a price, you’ve just formed "Contract A", and selecting the "winner" is the formation of "Contract B". All the other Contracts A only dissolve if you have done everything correctly, and if you haven't, you may be exposed to an action of claim for your violation of Contract A - Contract B. While rare, as there are some real costs, this is can be seen as a claim worth making on many projects with budgets the size of a custom home. You cannot disadvantage or favour anyone in your contracting; it is illegal to do so.... And you simply don't know how to avoid the traps.

What’s in a scope? The scope defines the work to be given to someone. I would strongly encourage you to stick to a very broad, wide, and simple scope. “Build me a home of XX size, built from YY materials, within a budget of ZZ. I want to see ## options in the preliminary stages, I want you to take me / bring to me / send to me colours, samples, and set deadlines for my decisions. Tolerate / do not tolerate my requests for changes. I would / would not like you to remind me gently / forcefully that my decisions have cost impacts. My top priority is schedule / cost / quality (pick only one), and I rank order the other two as S / C / Q (pick and order from the remaining two)." Then do not, ever, change your scope. Not ever. Make your decisions and stick to them, full stop. Measure and value what you want as priorities. There are no solutions, only compromises. If you want the design to be as inexpensive as possible, hire a Structural Engineer to lead the design, and hire a talented and seasoned Carpenter as your General Contractor. If your goal is the perfect function and form, gorgeous and polished dream home (with our without room for compromise), hire an Architect to lead your design team, and hire a professional Project Manager or Construction Manager to run the construction. The design team and the construction team will form one over-arching project team, but they simply won't agree. Don't listen to everyone, listen to the person to whom you have entrusted your scope and use them to talk to everyone else. The Carpenter (aka Framer) wants timber beams, and does not care about your ventilation systems or how they pass through the beams. If your design is fitted with half height steel beams by the engineer, these are going to be expensive, difficult to place, and the source of great consternation to the carpenters. They will also allow the HVAC systems to be installed with little to no trouble; they have a compromise position that favours, really enables, flat ceilings throughout. Did you tell your Architect that you wanted a minimum (or perhaps ABSOLUTELY NO) bulkheads along the ceilings? Well, that brief became those steel beams, and the source of your Carpenter's frustration. When the Carpenter complains, it should be to whoever you selected to run the design team, ie: the lead Consultant, and not to you. Questions that run up against an ill-defined scope will be sent to you for your judgment in due course. Don't involve yourself in tasks that are too granular. You're getting in your own way. What materials should be used in broad should be your choice. You should be asked if you want an ICF home, rammed earth, cold-formed steel, timber frame, mass timber, tilt-up, straw bale, or the traditional stick-framed home that makes up much of the built home stock in our practice areas. Stick to the high-level in your scope. Don’t choose your beams, your joists, or your concrete strength and class. Choose your stair style, location, and the tread materials and nosings, not your stairs’ construction materials or fastenings. Here's what it boils down to: If you want to build your dream home, hire TWO PEOPLE. Two, and ONLY TWO. Hire a consultant you trust, based on references and their portfolio of successful projects. Call the references; talk to them. Choose carefully, then trust.

After that, with their assistance and agreement, hire a general contractor you both trust, and can agree upon. Once these high-level tasks are complete, get out of your own way and make sure you are regularly informed of progress, project challenges, and the efforts to make all of the dream you have come true. Don't get involved in the granular, but stick to the high-level and enable your team, duly formed and empowered by you, to deliver your dream home to you.

Designing Residential Structures - What works and what doesn't

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 14:05:00 GMT

Limits, estimation, sarcasm, and what we do...

By the end of this post, I hope you have a better understanding of what can and cannot reasonably be expected to behave as a "typical residential structure".

So what is the typical residential structure? Well, if you're Canadian, it is a building of one to two storeys in height and a modest footprint, say 2000 to 4000 square feet, and built of timber framing.

What does the code say counts as a residential structure? Setting aside condo towers and apartments, the code governs residential structures in Part 9 - Housing and Small Buildings. These are envisioned as smaller buildings, with some features which may be somewhat larger, but the limits placed on Part 9 are quite permissive. The buildings may be up to 600m^2 and less than three storeys in height. That covers a lot of buildings, and a lot of space!

Other limits exist, such as the maximum span (think size, in length of the member's run across the structure) of a roof which standard Part 9 lintels may support. All of the engineering is pre-done, so every time you look at a table of member sizes, there is a limit shown which you must respect. For the largest possible truss lengths according to Part 9, that's 9.8m, or 32'-2"; with some added steps and detailing practice, you may increase this by fifteen percent, which would give you an absolute maximum of 36'-6" (but given that this results in every structural selection from Part 9 being affected and "special", we strongly recommend against this).

So, if there isn't a maximum span listed in the code, where did this limitation come from? Specifically, it comes from a note under every lintel table: I quote "Lintel spans are calculated based on a maximum floor joist, roof joist or rafter span of 4.9 m and a maximum roof truss span of 9.8 m." See the extra span? Not just 9.8m, but also 4.9m. So what does that mean? Well, this is another limitation, and one that people keep avoiding... And it is the whole reason we've been talking about limits. The building must have a spine beam or load bearing centre wall, otherwise it simply isn't a Part 9 structure.

Part 9 expects a very simple system of floors, walls, beams, and roof. It isn't set up to accept complicated layouts without a great deal of understanding of the limits of the tables. You can get complicated, but complications increase the likelihood that someone's going to make a mistake. All of this still ignores the Part 9 Achillies heel in Ontario's seismic zones: Lateral Loading, ie: wind and earthquake.

To the best of our knowledge, for Canadian jurisdictions, only British Columbia (BC) has included provisions and design requirements specifically addressing high winds and earthquake in Part 9. Feel free to reach out if we're wrong on this one; we'd be very happy to hear of this! Fundamentally, everywhere else relies upon the limits of the lintels and other elements to provide a good distribution of walls and prevent bad things from happening in earthquakes. Generally, it is very successful, and nearly universally reliable for traditional house designs, but things are no longer remaining traditional and simple.

Flat roofs, multi-step roofs, roofs with gardens, split level housing across two floors, basement walk-outs, fully glazed back walls (a particular problem for earthquakes), portions of the house with an integrated garage partially in and partially out of the home... the more modern house layouts break all the old stand-by rules and stretch just what Part 9 was supposed to protect.

So what do you do? Well, you can read, you can become truly expert at Part 9, you can hire an Architect to design your home, or you can hire an Engineer to review the plans and consult on the structural selections of the home. This may seem like a self-serving answer from a Structural Engineer, but just as assuredly as no one knows what we do, we are essential to the safety of any complicated structure's design. While once the Architect was also the Structural Engineer (perhaps it could be argued that this died with Antoni Gaudi), you cannot name a modern famous structure by any gloriously reputed Architect (Frankl Lloyd Wright, Oscar Niemeyer, Philip Johnson, Richard Rogers, Eero Saarinen, etc.) without engineers being able to point out the firm, or perhaps even similarly (though much more obscurely) known Structural Engineer, who made sure that those dreams did not kill.

Okay, so we're a part of making the building safe. Great. But how do you lay out your building and get an idea of what should be the sizes before you spend money on an Engineer? Well, you come and find some nice firm's website with a collection of simple rules of thumb. These are Canada-specific, so don't try to hold me to this elsewhere, and they are guidelines offered without responsibility, so don't try to blame me if they aren't perfect. If it was this easy, there wouldn't be any Structural Engineers. We're also going to look at the estimations for traditional wood framed houses, but we have guidelines like these for all the materials you can imagine, including carbon fibre and plastics. Give us a call, email us, or drop by the office for a coffee. We're more than happy to help.

Floor depths:

The plenum needs to be able to fit the depth of floor joists. Here's a simple, reliable, trick: Maximum joist span = depth of joist in inches x 1.4 = span in feet. Metric? We've got you: Depth in m x 55 = Maximum Span in feet. [ The timber is sold in feet in Canada... If you want meters, just substitute 17 for the 55, now your answer is in m ]

So, how thick does your floor need to be? Divide your span in feet by 1.4 = depth in inches. Add 2" for your flooring, ceiling sheathing, etc. That's 50mm or 0.05m extra for the Metric specific folks. No conversion; go check out IStructE for metric info, they are excellent.

Lintel and Beam Sizes:

For Timber:
Lintels: Span / 18
Beams; Span / 15

For LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber and other Structural Composite Lumbers):
Lintels: Span / 20
Beams: Span / 17

Steel:
Lintels: Span / 25

Beams: Span / 20

Post Sizes:

How much can posts support? Well, that depends on their support condition, and is generally a pain to figure out. If you're going to use timber hidden in walls, just pick from the tables, or let your engineer figure it out. Those aren't sensitive to how you'll lay out your house design. For free standing posts, read on...

Timber Posts , while rare, these still get used. The inexpensive ones are 6"x6", and should only ever support wooden beams. Reasonable for up to 12' by 12', or 144 square feet. Very sensitive to height; tall basements are a problem.

CAN/CGSB 7.2-1994 , the famous " JackPost ", these tend to be good up to 200 square feet of supported floor, but essentially never more than 250 square feet. You can gang them together, but don't go past 400 square feet with two of them.

RedJack 2.0 and 2.5 Columns , these are sometimes in stock, sometimes special order, but they close the gap between JackPosts and the RedJack "Heavy" or custom columns. If you're looking at 400 and change up to around 650, you're likely going to see one of these specified.

RedJack 3.0 "Heavy" Column , these are often special order, but they are available by order. Up to 750 square feet, height dependant.

Custom HSS Columns , these really don't have a practical limit... But if you're dealing with more than 750 square feet per post, I hope you've got an engineer helping you early in your project.

Note that these are all for total supported square footage. So you could have a JackPost supporting 200 square feet, which in turn sits on a column below with another floor framing in, meaning the column below would likely be required to be TWO JackPosts or a RedJack.

That's it. There's my rant, and attempt at being helpful. Hopefully someone finds it useful. If you do, please drop us a line. Always enjoyable to chat structure.

When the Engineer Doesn't

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 16:06:02 GMT

What happens when your engineer refuses to look at something?

These bolts are bad, but not every engineer would catch the issue. Honestly? It is entirely possible that staff from our office would miss this as well... That doesn't make anyone a "bad" engineer, merely not the right one for the situation.

It came to our attention that a seriously deficient condition faced by one of our clients had been previously flagged to one of our direct competitor's staff while on site for a building condition visit. This post is about two things: 1) Persistence when you have a concern, and 2) The limit of a professional's practice.

P.Eng. licensed engineers in Canada are members of a self-regulating profession. We are able to work in areas which require the application of specialized engineering knowledge where the unsuspecting public might be at risk... So an engineer working exclusively in a factory for a single employer only ever having to do with their operations does not need a license, but the engineer you welcome into your home to help you remove a wall does. This is the system we have, and it works quite well in general. It is a cornerstone of this system, however, that an engineer refuses work that they are not competent to undertake.

What happens when you have an engineer attend to site who does not have the right training and experience to handle something you've brought up? Well, then the most professional and appropriate thing for them to do would be limit their practice, ie: say no. In this case the engineer should respectfully decline to comment, perhaps even decline to look if they know it is outside their scope of practice, and in any case you shouldn't be getting help from them. They are likely not a bad engineer or a person looking to dodge something; they are simply respecting the fundamental truth of the limits of their own experience and competence.

So far, so good, but here's where I stop defending and start to critique. The client was not only told that the engineer would not look, they were told their budget didn't justify bringing on board the right engineer to review the situation. Now this, this I take exception to... The right answer is to refer the client to the right people, not to tell them they don't have enough money to have the situation reviewed. If you need more in order to engage a sub, then you ask for more. In my opinion it is a serious breach of the trust the public place in our profession to fail to have any concern, no matter how seemingly minor, reviewed by someone qualified to work on such issues.

This is a fee for service industry, and your engineering is always going to have a cost, HOWEVER, this cost should never include ignorance, refusal, obfuscation, or a missed opportunity to catch something before things go wrong. Many times in my career I have condemned structures, some of them when no one was expecting such a determination. On two occasions, I have said collapse was imminent, and the collapse occurred within the next 48 hours. If you have a concern, if something worries you, then BE PERSISTENT. If an engineer says no, then be polite but firm: Get someone who they know can review your issue, or FIND ANOTHER ENGINEER.

Travel and Remote Work

mquinn@celottawa.ca (Maurice Quinn) — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 11:42:49 GMT

When your infrastructure allows you to be anywhere...

With a firm that has a great deal of focus on problems, both with existing structures and new, a hands on approach isn't optional. Our team has a variety of skills and a diverse portfolio of past experiences, however there is no way to remove the boots on the ground, personal touch, from the type of consulting we do...

Our formal Second Set of Eyes (SSoE) process necessitates that not just one member of our team be involved in each project, but a minimum of two. This second staff member, however, need not necessarily be in any particular location. If the recent pandemic has taught us anything, it is that our nine plus years of experience with remote work (to date) is something we can leverage and really utilize to accelerate work. SSoE can happen anytime, and anywhere.

What if staff could meet, and then work together, throughout a 24 hour period each and every day? This is the vision of our latest innovation: We are opening hoteling and remote work locations for our staff in alternate timezones. Fully employed by the Ottawa office and working exclusively for Canadian clients, these new locations will give us access to more daytime. These short term, remote work opportunities are a voluntary opportunity for staff to combine work and play with travel. Our remote work policies are already industry leading: Before Covid ever affected our world, CEL staff had the option of reporting to work from any location so long as their meetings with clients and site visits were unaffected. By having a team of staff working together and arranging for site visits in advance, we have had staff work remote for more than six months at a time without negative effect on our work. CEL work has been carried out from Germany, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, and other locations globally. In many cases, clients were unaware of the difference, and both family and personal responsibilities were easily met while not compromising the excellence of our work. Pay continued to occur in Canada, as well as retention of earnings at source, etc., the staff remained fully engaged with the Ottawa office, and merely reported to work remote.

The continued success of this arrangement, and our staff's enthusiasm for this innovative approach, has inspired us to make the arrangement permanent. As of 1 May 2023, our remote location in Harderwijk, Netherlands will become a permanent CEL remote office. This fall (at least it will be fall in Canada!), a remote location will go live in New Zealand. If the reader can cast their mind back to grade school, many a movie opening credits, or just generally think of the globe, these three timezones will then provide a design service in which the sun never sets on CEL Engineering. Far from being inspired by any colonial enterprise or empire building, the opportunity for staff to report to work remote will further access more educational opportunities, and more access to the ever growing global bank of engineering knowledge. It is with pride that we have leveraged knowledge gained through staff attending global conferences such as ICCRRR and USA-New Zealand-Japan seismic engineering conference, and we look forward to a future in which our staff are attending Timber Engineering Society of New Zealand courses, the FIB courses available in Europe, and similar opportunities. Our access to world leading Te Tiriti o Waitangi program from Engineering New Zealand has us particularly excited. It is with pride that we will be working to incorporate traditional knowledge into the everyday work of Engineers, and we both salute Engineering New Zealand's Kimihia Rangahaua strategy as well as look forward to actively participating in this very real and effective diversity inclusion and equality initiative. Fair and technically valid outcomes flow from such validly equitable programs and initiatives, and we applaud this innovation and look forward to the fruits of our joint labour and improved outcomes for our colleagues, collegial members of the profession, allied professions, our clients and the public. Bringing such world leading traditional learning to Ontario is but one additional advantage of our new approach.

Here's to the ever learning, our's the task eternal, CEL approach and our growth within an ever changing world and profession. Here's to the future, success, and innovation. Here's to you; our clients, partners, and staff as well as to working to continually justify your confidence in us. Thank you.

Fenestration Canada – Field Testing of Fenestrations

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 05:33:21 GMT

Fenestration Canada – Field Testing of Fenestrations

The presentation we gave at WinDoor 2022 in Montreal contained the core of our philosophy regarding the testing of fenestration products, and I wanted to repeat this here.

We take a very simple approach to such work. This can be broken down as follows:

1. We work within the code.
2. We apply the code referenced standards.
3. We run the test in accordance with those standards.
4. We interpret the results.
5. We diagnose and describe issues.
6. We propose possible causal factors.
7. We propose possible solutions.

What don’t we do?

i. We never test without calibrated, purpose made, equipment.
ii. We don’t test assemblies that aren’t ready (very dirty, blocked weeps, etc.).
iii. We don’t fail and walk away. IE: We try to actually find the cause, not just state “you fail”.
iv. We provide reports that contain clear explanations, detailed descriptions, and attempt to help the overall successful delivery of the project.
v. We look for opportunities to work towards real resolutions, and to limit further failure(s).

What is the basis of our work? One word: Understanding.

We need to understand the design of your building envelope in order to test it correctly.

We need to review the details and be involved in the planning of testing. Not every day is a good day to test, not every assembly should be tested in the same way. We want to prepare a test program that is code and contract conformant that maximizes the accuracy of the test. We want fairness and transparency, not speed and a cookie-cutter repeat of previous testing.

I’m told that our presentation will be made available online; I look forward to sharing it with you all. In the meantime, please feel confident that when you reach out to our team for Window Installation Testing to ASTM E1105 under CAN/CSA A440 and the supplement, you’re getting a bespoke product that will serve your needs. We want to be your ally; we will make sure that your installers get the best possible support, that the test isn’t simply a “you failed, better luck next time”, that the project doesn’t mire in the weeds for weeks and months as people point fingers. No; we will work for you, and bring a diligent approach and produce success.

Give us a try: We will test for you, we won’t be looking to fail you.

Shop Drawings, Seismic Systems, and the Construction Process – The importance of detailing and reviews

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 04:31:27 GMT

Shop Drawings, Seismic Systems, and the Construction Process – The importance of detailing and reviews

Really? October, and suddenly we have a new Blog post? Must be the end of the busy season… Unfortunately, like weather, there is a distinct seasonality to Structural Engineering in Canada

I digress; today’s post is about detailing and shop drawing procedure.

Let’s use a seismic system as an example. These are designed by the Engineer of Record (EOR), often subject to component design (such as the connections for a steel frame), and ubiquitous. Every building has a lateral load resisting system, whether this is primarily to address wind loads, or designed to handle both wind and seismic separately, each building has some way of handling the loads that push on our buildings from the side, or “laterally”. These are the Lateral Loads Resisting Systems (LLRS) of buildings, and they come in many forms. Sometimes they are as simple as timber framing with a steel strap or let in brace running diagonally down the wall, as easy as fastening on a sheathing system (timber or gyprock are both possible, and often mixed), or as complicated as tuned mass dampers and energy dissipating devices. All buildings are constructed with an LLRS of some kind.

So what happens when loads travel where they don’t belong, or where the Engineer of Record (EOR) didn’t intend for them to go? Well, quite possibly nothing, but also quite possibly this may have disasterous consequences. Every building should have a discrete, reliable, well constructed and maintained LLRS handling the lateral loads. This starts with the design process, but must be cared for throughout construction and in service. Everything from the way in which the staircases are constructed and installed within the building through to the running of mechanical pipes and the installation of drywall, indeed even the delivery of some furniture, may have a serious impact on the LLRS during construction or thereafter.

So what do we do? How do we ensure that the EOR’s design intent is reflected in what is constructed? Well, this is the role of Shop Drawings; the intent of others designing components for the building is to be shown on a set of engineering drawings created for those components, simply termed “Shop Drawings” as they are the drawings for components being produced in a fabrication shop. Seems simple, but a great deal of things can go wrong.

Many disasters may be traced back to mistakes made during the shop drawings process. The Kansas City Hyatt skywalk collapse comes to mind immediately. As an EOR, we have no choice but to review the work of anyone providing components to our project, and ensure that appear to be based on an understanding of our structure’s requirements and are likely to meet the intent of our design. We aren’t perfect, and everyone makes mistakes, but by working together in a clear and open process, mistakes are minimized, and many lives of unsuspecting members of the public are saved.

So what makes for a good shop drawing process? Well, this is founded upon everyone taking their role seriously and ensuring that those areas of work they are responsible to undertake and review are covered off properly. While this differs somewhat in various jurisdictions, generally they follow a regimented process. In Canada that looks like this:

1. The component designers use the project’s drawings and specifications to come up with their design. They represent these on Shop Drawings (SD) they produce.

2. The Constructor reviews the SDs, paying special attention to field measurements and constructability. They apply their SD approval seal and send them to the Architect.

3. The Architect confirms that the SDs will produce work which meets the intent of their design, for aesthetics (form), function, durability, and generally match their intended size and massing (dimensions check). They apply a review seal (not relieving the Constructor of their obligation to meet the requirements of the D&S), and send these to the respective Engineer (by discipline for each component type).

4. The Engineer (for structural elements, the EOR) reviews the SDs for compliance with the intent of the design, and seals them as being reviewed.

For all parties, these reviews come in flavours:

i. Reviewed [ie: Looks good and complies with my needs.]

ii. Reviewed as Noted [ie. I made a few, typically minor, annotations; document complies with my needs so long as these are incorporated.]

iii. Revise and Resubmit [ie: Please try again.]

iv. Reviewed in Part [NB: Generally a partial comes with explanations.]

v. Not Reviewed [NB: This time I would say the lack of review is invalid without explanation.]

Turn Around Time: Ah, the magic of everyone wanting their answers yesterday. While these vary by contract, generally speaking people are afforded between three and seven working days to complete their reviews. Erroneous, incomplete, or otherwise problematic SDs can have massively negative impact on projects. They are important and serious documents which are frequently afforded too little attention in construction practice.

That’s it; while it seems simple and straight-forward, a careful attention to detail (pun intended) is required. In our practice, we try to make sure that the Shop Drawings are reviewed by at least two people, following again our Second Set of Eyes (SSoE) procedure to further safeguard both life and property. Even with a robust SSoE procedure, errors and omissions can escape the attention of even the best team.

If you remember but one thing from today’s post, let it be this: In absence of an SSoE system, you’re flying blind, and your paper airplane is going to be taken down by little more than the ink on the page… Because for our ink, the consequences of error are girded by steel and written in stone.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – How much does an Engineer’s input mean?

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 05:27:45 GMT

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – How much does an Engineer’s input mean?

Recently we’ve seen a push to move more of the engineering work onto the truss industry, or broadly speaking the lumber yards, who supply pre-engineered joists (generally APA-PRI series timber i-joists). Seems cheaper, right? After all, they often provide the designs of engineered elements for free…

Well, like most things in life, it isn’t that simple. It is an open secret within the engineering community that truss plates have problems. They can work their way out, they are a natural weak spot in the assemblies, and they are notoriously poor performers when subject to inappropriate handling on site. They also represent significant savings, and will continue to grow into more and more areas of timber frame construction, now even including studs. But is this trend truly to the benefit of most clients? To us it is in fact yet another example of needing to ensure the tool fits the task.

When reviewing shop drawings for a recent project, it was quickly noted that the steel beam sizes we designed had been swapped out to LVL by the lumber yard. That in an of itself was not strange, they are simply offering an option and trying to increase their sales after all, but this time came with a difference. The yard had annotated our drawings and stated that our beams would deflect excessively.

We take such situations very seriously. A second Senior Engineer was assigned to the file, and a thorough review was undertaken. The intern responsible for the work* was called upon to explain and defend their design. The project documentation was reviewed, and the veracity, thoroughness, and correctness of the calculations and original Second Set of Eyes (SSoE) was challenged and confirmed. In short, our design was right.

The matter was brought back to my desk, as I had been the original sealing engineer. I then had a better look at the work of the lumber yard. Turns out most of the new LVL sizes could, most charitably, be called “up selling”. In one case the new design had removed a column and resulted in a multi-ply 24″ deep (~600mm) LVL beam. That’s a heck of a lot of expensive timber, and particularly so when it is replacing a relatively light (and thus inexpensive) steel beam. Current pricing sees clients paying around $2.50 a pound for steel including the fabrication labour. An LVL beam just isn’t always the right choice.

So what did our involvement in this project mean to the client? If we consider the balance of the project being the difference between what would have been purchased without our involvement and what has been purchased with our involvement, the client is paying approximately $12,000 less for the framing after our fees are paid. That’s not at all subtle. Now, clearly this is a larger home with exceptional spans, but the trend continues across many examples. Well engineered buildings have robust load paths, avoid issues which otherwise become all too common (ie: misuse of TECO “hanger” nails, galvanic corrosion, incomplete load paths, soft storey effects, etc.) and save the client time and money.

We specify trusses, LVLs, i-joists, and all the products available at a lumber yard routinely. They are excellent products and surely have their place… But when you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and the good and talented staff of your local lumber yard will only sell you products based on lumber. That’s a hell of a set of handcuffs to put on your project!

So: What does an Engineer’s input mean?

R eliability
E conomy
S afety
P rofessionalism
E xperience
C onstructability
T rust

Like many options clients have before them, an engineer isn’t always the right tool to add to your project team, but if you’re doing something unique or new, you’ll be well served to bring a Professional Engineer on side.

Reserve Fund Studies – It’s all in the details

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 05:24:04 GMT

Reserve Fund Studies – It’s all in the details

Condominium residents are at the mercy of their building’s maintenance, and the Property Managers are at the mercy of the accuracy of the documentation and support they receive. Many people know that Reserve Fund Studies need to be updated every three years with every other study requiring a site visit. We commonly see reports that differ little from revision to revision, but worst of all we see short, high-level, and vague reports. Did you know that the usefulness of the study is entirely in the details?

Condominium law has changed, and the regulations are catching up. The Government of Ontario has put out a good summary at https://www.ontario.ca/page/condominium-law-changes , but let’s discuss the most fundamental issues of all: No matter how your report is produced, every common element must have a detailed review which results in a well studied, clearly laid out, entry in the report.

When choosing an Engineering Firm to provide you with a Reserve Fund Study, it is important to make sure you compare “apples to apples” in the quality of the study a firm will provide.

The more detail in the study, the more accurately the Board, with help from their Property Manager, can assess what needs to be done and when. When matters. What matters. How matters. Do your reports give you enough clarity to know where your building is going?

What about maintenance? Does your Engineering Firm recommend maintenance practices that will make your equipment and finishings last longer? This isn’t necessary in law, but it is certainly something an engineer experienced in maintenance, repair, restoration, and rehabilitation should be able to offer with little added effort. So why don’t they?

What about assessments? Does your Engineering Firm account for having assessments done for large projects to ensure the scope of the project is accurate? Are there entries for forward planning those major projects? Those are important costs, aren’t they?

Anyone living in a building with elevators knows how difficult it can be when an elevator isn’t working, so why do so few Reserve Fund Studies include a specialist review of the elevator condition and maintenance? This isn’t even one of the more expensive options, yet often the RFS engineering firm don’t even mention the possibility. What happens when TSSA (the Governing Authority) orders a directive to comply with a change to the elevator? Does your engineering firm take those costs into account? Are they shown in the RFS? They are routine, fairly predictable, and every RFS should have some realistic flexibility built in.

Make sure you are getting all the information in your Reserve Fund Study that you truly need to keep your building running smoothly and efficiently with the proper funding.

Want to see what a better study looks like? Reach out to us for your next Reserve Fund Study.

Buying in a new condominium? Reach out to us and we can help you assess what costs you may be facing in addition to the sticker price.

CEL is growing – Time to Move!

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 04:21:24 GMT

CEL is growing – Time to Move!

With consistent success, great clients, and steady growth come the twin problems of more people (just kidding) and cramped office space. As a result, we are delighted to announce that we are moving to new and larger offices at 2D-220 Terence Matthews Crescent, Ottawa. From starting in a small home office, expanding into a basement, through our shared office with other professionals, CEL has now found our very own home.

Impacts on the Service you know and have come to rely upon

Our goal is Zero Impact. We have a transition team in place, with staff available 24/7 just like always. We won’t, however, be scheduling meetings, replying to non-urgent emails, or welcoming clients in our offices on moving day.

As such the office will be closed on July 30 ^th 2021, with our team officially reopening in our new home on August 2 ^nd 2021. Our office still continues to provide in-person services following all provincial COVID recommendations and guidelines.

We look forward to welcoming you into our new offices, and wish to reassure you that urgent matters and existing client calls will be addressed throughout.

Regards,

CEL Team

Residential Earthquake Design

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 05:19:14 GMT

Residential Earthquake Design

In the current housing market, it is becoming more common that home owners are renovating their current properties into their dream homes instead of searching for new houses. Based on modern styles, this often means knocking out walls, and opening up the main floor so that cooking, socializing and other activities can go hand-in-hand.

An often misunderstood part of this type of work is the impacts this has on the house’s ability to withstand earthquake activity. A basic understanding of the behaviour of a building in an earthquake, and some of our industry’s best practices to ensure public safety, can help home owners understand how our work in structural engineering may impact their next project.

How do buildings behave in earthquakes?

When an earthquake hits, it shakes the ground at the base of the building. The building will shake back and forth in an attempt to return its mass above ground to its initial position.

Picture holding the bottom of a stick standing up with a heavy ball at the top of it. Shake the stick side to side. The ball at the top of the stick will rock back and forth in attempt to return to its initial position.

If we break down this shaking into single motions, we can consider the impacts of the ball’s mass accelerating in one direction at a time. The same principle applies to the mass of a building on top of its ground floor framing. This acceleration imposes a horizontal sliding force onto the building. It will also attempt to overturn the entire building, similar to a slinky tipping over the edge of a step. We call this an overturning moment. This requires the building to resist pulling or uplift on one side, and crushing on the other. In houses, we can more specifically break down the impacts of these behaviours into 3 distinct considerations.

Three Behaviours for Houses

1. Lateral Load Path

The forces caused by the mass of the building rocking back and forth need to be transferred from very top to bottom through structural elements. This is done by providing a continuous load path down to the foundation. Where required, new structural elements are introduced to hold down the building to prevent both sliding and overturning.

Picture placing your finger on the bottom ring of the slinky furthest from the edge. This will keep the whole slinky from tipping off of the step. Then, hold the next ring down in the same place. You can keep doing this until the entire slinky is held in place on the top step.

In a building, these hold down points also need to be connected throughout its height to prevent any part from sliding or pulling away from what’s below. The bottom-most hold down points anchor into the building’s foundation using its own weight to prevent it from picking up out of the ground during an earthquake.

The hold down points are connected by stacking them directly on top of each other from one storey to the next, with a post or wall in between. If one point does not stack on top of a wall directly below, the floor or ceiling can be designed to act as a horizontal diaphragm to transfer the forces to a wall close-by. Diaphragms in houses are usually a floor or ceiling with an increased number of fasteners used to hang the sheathing onto the joists. With more drywall screws into the ceiling joists, for example, the sheets of drywall are then able to transfer forces across the underside of the ceiling. Other sheathing materials can behave similarly, such as plywood and oriented-strand-board (OSB). Walls can also behave as vertical diaphragms using the same concept.

2. Soft storey effect

Thinking back to our imaginary stick with the heavy ball, we need to consider what would happen if the stick supporting the ball was too weak. The stick would collapse under the acceleration of the rocking weight. The same idea applies to buildings. If the structure of the ground floor is not stiff enough, it will collapse under the weight of the rocking storeys above. This failure is also possible where the upper storey in a house is stiffer relative to the storey below.

We can typically judge the relative stiffness of a given storey by its number and length of walls. The greater the number and length, the greater the stiffness. This is worth noting for newer projects with open concept ground floor layouts (lesser relative stiffness), and multiple smaller rooms on the floors above (greater relative stiffness).

There are solutions for this: the shorter walls on the ground floor can be stiffened up, and the longer walls on the upper storeys can be softened. These two options can often be done without changing the floor layouts for the project. In previous projects we have successfully delivered this outcome by providing a short rocking shear wall for stiffening and strengthening on the ground floor, and creating separations within a long wall to soften the upper floor.

3. Torsional effect

The torsional effect for a building is also related to its stiffness. And, same concept of a greater number and length of walls equals a greater relative stiffness applies here. However, instead of looking at the relative stiffness between storeys, in this case, we look at the relative stiffness between the two sides of the building.

An important concept to understand is that stiffer elements within a system will attract more loading. During an earthquake, this means that the stiffer areas will take on more of the forces from the mass of the building shaking than the areas that are softer. If one side of the building is stiffer (with a greater number and length of walls), that side will attract the majority of the forces. With the forces then all on one side of the building, the building as whole will experience a twisting, or torsional, effect. To prevent this, the same strategies above to stiffen or soften different storeys of the building can be used. We use these to close the gap in stiffness between the two sides of the house so that they are the roughly equal. It’s a strange concept, but generally, we want the whole house to slide in one direction as a unit, and not twist on the spot. This way, in combination with the strategies above to prevent sliding, we can keep the building safe.

It should be noted to those in the National Capital Area that the Ontario Building Code does not have prescriptive requirements for seismic design in residential structures. While the OBC is not well suited to addressing seismic concerns in the residential market, like all codes it is a legal minimum and an evolving document. We believe residential seismic requirements will be added to the OBC in the future, with British Columbia having added it to their Building Code and leading the charge in Canada.

At CEL Ottawa we actively encourage clients to consider adding seismic considerations to their design process, whether for a new home design or for renovations. There are techniques available to provide supplemental detailing and compensating construction when removing lateral load resisting elements such that you may have your open concept ground floor and keep your building after an earthquake too. Contact our office for help with your next project.

Residential Basements – The Danger of Water and How to Deal with It

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 04:15:25 GMT

Residential Basements – The Danger of Water and How to Deal with It

Most homeowners, at one point or another, are forced to deal with water infiltrating into their homes. The sight of water trickling or visible signs of moisture in a basement are among the most unpleasant discoveries one can make at home, and often requires immediate action to prevent worsening conditions. Not all issues are severe and warrant intervention, however. So how do you make the distinction? What do you look for? And how do you know that your home was built (or is being built) properly?

First of all, homeowners should be aware of one key clarification that pertains to a common misconception about basements:

Your basement is not dry because it is waterproof, but because of the water management system that was incorporated into your foundation and adjacent areas.

What does this mean? To put it as bluntly as possible – your basement is not a bathtub. The primary focus of your foundation walls, footings and slabs is not to restrict the infiltration of water, but to keep your structure safe and standing. All other concerns are secondary in nature. In other words, your foundation is not constructed in a manner that seals out moisture on its own. It needs the water management system to be well designed and constructed to keep your basement as dry as possible, because is it not waterproof. Water will invariably find its way into your home whether you know it or not. Behind the drywall, insulation batts, flooring and baseboard, most homes will show signs of minor signs of water infiltration.

You may then ask yourself – can’t I build my home to be waterproof? Don’t I want it to be waterproof? The answer to both, in most cases, is no.

The construction of your foundation is a multi-step process that inherently introduces seams and openings for water. Almost all modern homes in North America (regardless of cost and Constructor) have their foundations and basements built in a three-step process:

Construction of the footings, on which your foundation walls sit;
Construction of the foundation walls, which sit on and key into your footings;
Construction of the basement slab, which sits on top of compacted soil and footings, between foundation walls.

As these structural elements are not monolithic (they are three separately constructed elements, rather than one) in nature, each interface is an opportune location for water to flow in. For example, there (very likely) is a seam/joint between your foundation walls and foundation footings. There is another between your basement’s concrete slab and the walls, as well as a third between your basement’s slab and the footings underneath.

The reason foundations are built in this manner? Cost and constructability.

Monolithic construction introduces extreme pressures and loads onto the bottommost formwork due to the sheer volume of concrete being poured. Rather than using timber formwork, the Constructor would have to resort to using steel formwork with heavy-duty clips to ensure that the formwork does not blow out. This is typically cost-prohibitive for both the Constructor and Client. There are technical concerns as well – monolithic pouring of concrete, if used with rectangular formwork, will likely lead to air pockets and uneven distribution of material. Avoiding these technical concerns requires a substantial amount of effort on-site or sloping formwork that has been custom made, once again leading to elevated costs and difficulties.

So why do we not want our basements to be completely waterproof? To plan for the worst possible case – flooding and rising water levels.

Let’s set the scene and say (hypothetically) that your basement is completely waterproof and acts like a bathtub. No water flows into and out of your home, with exception of managed distribution networks and other municipal services. Now let’s introduce the culprits – rising water levels from the river or lake nearby, a major storm that has swept into the area, or broken sewage/sanitary piping beneath ground level. As water flows into and saturates the soils around your home, the water management system may become overwhelmed. The upward force exerted by the stagnant or rising water (buoyancy force) starts to work against the partially or fully immersed structure. As the water level increases the upward force increases, and your home, successfully resisting all water penetration, begins to float. It may not be like Noah’s Ark right away, but gradually the situation will worsen and lead to lasting damage. This has happened before, and it has happened many times. Your home is not immune to this scenario! It is for this reason that at a certain point, water is permitted to enter your home. It may be ugly and expensive to repair a finished basement following extensive water damage, but rest assured that repairs to a cracked and/or uprooted foundation come at an even greater inconvenience and cost.

Modern (North American) construction methods are relatively successful in navigating water away from homes. Your home’s water management system will likely have most or at least some of the following elements, depending on its age and location.

Weeping Tile
A porous draining pipe, typically surrounding the exterior of a home’s foundation. It is buried in a trench filled with free draining backfill and diverts water away from the house or to a sump pump.
Dampproofing & Waterproofing Membranes
Dampproofing membranes are intended to keep soil and moisture out of your home. Waterproofing membranes helps keep moisture and liquid water out. These two membranes work together for maximum effectiveness. Dampproofing is usually a coating (asphalt-based) that is either sprayed on or hand applied to the foundation walls. Waterproofing membranes are rolled on, purpose-made products that are used to divert liquid water down foundation walls and into your Weeping Tile.
Free Draining Backfill
Aggregate that is placed around your home’s foundation. This aggregate is usually uniformly graded to ensure that there are voids between all of the individual stones. These voids are what make the backfill a Free Draining Backfill, as water can easily flow through the voids and into the Weeping Tile below. A well graded backfill would not work and would only complicate matters as there would be insufficient voids for water to travel through.
Managed Exterior Grading
Ensuring that your lawn or adjacent flowerbeds slope away from your home will provide relief as it will make a large impact on the quantity of water flowing into your Weeping Tile during rains. Keeping large shrubs and bushes away from your foundation walls will limit the moisture content in the adjacent soils and will minimize the risk of cracking from root growth.

Your home may also have one or more of the following items in addition the four above. If you are building a new home, it should at minimum have the first four items. The final three items are only required in certain areas, depending on the local geography.:

Sump Pump
A submersible pump that sends accumulated water away from one area (typically a structure’s basement) and into another. Sump pumps are used to protect basements from flooding or in homes built at low (local) elevations.
Backwater Valve
A Backwater Valve is designed to automatically shut off to prevent leakage out of plumbing fixtures if sewage form an obstructed public sewer backs up the owner’s drain line.
Backflow Preventer
A Backflow Preventer is used to protect potable water lines from contamination due to backflow, much like a Backwater Valve.

If you are set on building a truly waterproof home, you should be prepared for extensive costs and measures that would typically be forgone. You will require the services of a Structural Engineer to design and/or specify the following items:

Concrete piers or tie-downs, to resist buoyancy forces and ensure that your home does not float away in a major flooding;
Raised window wells;
Waterproofing admixtures that are to be used in the construction of your foundation;
Waterstops and sealants between structural components;
Location of and installation procedures of utilities.

Pandemic Policy – Covid-19 and working with CEL

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 04:12:20 GMT

Pandemic Policy – Covid-19 and working with CEL

Given the evolving situation around the globe, we are interrupting our usual blog cycle to bring everyone’s attention to our Policy on Pandemic Response. Note that this policy is in effect and will guide how you and our staff interact when you work with CEL until such time as our administration officially stands down from Pandemic Response.

Policy on Pandemic Response

We have a primary Duty of Care to the Public. During a pandemic we are committed to remaining calm and delivering professional services in a manner adapted to safeguard the well-being of our clients and staff, as well as the public.

Upon declaration of a Pandemic, CEL Administration shall implement this policy.

Our Messaging to Clients :

– Please be aware that we are working to provide continuity of services. When you contact our office, we may ask you some questions prior to attending to site. These are intended to protect our clients, staff, and the general public. Note that our staff are required to practice social distancing.

– If you or a household member returned from ANY travel outside of Canada, please do NOT visit our offices or request a site visit from our Staff. Contact our office to obtain suitable engineering support.

– We continue to provide services to clients, however we are moving to carry out more of our work by telephone and through the internet. Support to existing project documentation which would normally be carried out by phone will continue to be carried out as a courtesy and thus without cost. Services moved to telecommunications channels due to the situation shall remain as chargeable fee-for-service engagements. Where appropriate, site visits will be carried out remotely using telephone/computer and requests for photographs. All work which may be completed remotely shall be carried out remotely.

Operational Changes :

Staff shall :

– avoid unnecessary physical contact. This means no hand shaking, etc.

– take what precautions are needed to in order to feel comfortable (ie : the exchange of business cards can be replaced with the exchange of information or sharing of contacts.)

– when arranging for a site visit, ask if the client or anyone at the location has travelled outside of Canada or felt ill in the last two weeks. If they have, carefully weigh whether the site visit is prudent.

– work from home if experiencing any illness of concern, or if anyone of the household becomes similarly sick. Send an email with details to admin@celottawa.ca. This shall continue until they feel well for a period of two weeks.

– where the federal government orders staff to work from home, so shall we. Our firm is well placed to continue operations remotely.

CEL’s Expectations

In the event of a pandemic, we all have a role to play in reducing the spread of infection. Measures developed for managing influenza outbreaks are a good baseline. Implement measures as recommended by the Public Health Agency of Canada and local officials.

At a minimum, we expect staff to:

• practice social distancing as much as possible
• wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
• cough or sneeze into a tissue or the bend of an arm, never the hands, and wash hands afterwards
• avoid touching the eyes, nose, or mouth, etc with unwashed hands
• clean high-touch surfaces frequently

Fastening Matters: The fix is in.

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 20:52:57 GMT

Fastening Matters: The fix is in.

We see a lot of connections in our work. Not all of these work well, or are what they should have been, particularly existing conditions that never met any kind of engineering or manufacturer specification. While we see some connections that are entirely incorrect, most often these connections are well built poor performers. The person putting them together made common errors, didn’t understand the connection, and/or the oversight was simply deficient. Let’s discuss some common errors, after which we’ll offer some handy tips.

Hanger Nails are Hazards

Most of the time, a contractor installing a timber joist hanger simply fills all the holes with Hanger Nails. Why not? They are for hangers, right? Well yes, and no…

So called “Hanger Nails” are short (1 1/2”) specialty fasteners needed for rare issues and the occasional specified location. They should not be your go to nail. When you install them in a hanger, you get a lower strength than if you’d saved yourself the money and put in a common, and “Hanger Nails” can never be used in a toe nail position, even if through a hanger. Take a look here for more details: https://www.strongtie.com/products/connectors/wood-construction-connectors/technical-notes/fastener-types-and-sizes

Here’s a great post in a home inspector’s blog discussing this in detail: https://www.constructionprotips.com/departments/home-inspector-tales/how-to-correct-improper-joist-hanger-nails/

Screwed Up

We see a lot of hangers with regular screws, drywall screws, or deck screws. There is a reason the typical screw is called a “machine” screw. They aren’t for buildings, and they certainly are not for timber hangers. If you’re connecting wood to wood, the right fastener is a nail. Screws are for decks, or are specialty products that you don’t need to build a normal structure. Once in a while, a specialty timber connector requires screws; take a look at those screws sometime: They are a very special design, with large shanks and not at all like a machine screw. Don’t use them unless you have the need to do so in writing.

Not all bolts are equal

Structural bolts are black, heavy hex, bolts. They have heads far larger than you are used to seeing, or are special fasteners made for wood applications like Coach Bolts and Lag Bolts. Coach and Lags are A307 bolts and nearly always come with a Hot Dip Galvanized coating. They are exclusively for wood, often without any steel involved.

So what do you use when there is steel involved? Sadly, most of the time, the same bolts that go on cars and trailers get used. They aren’t up to the job, and are unsafe. The steel material specs are nearly the same, but everything else is meant for an easily accessible, visually inspectable, short term service use. A bolt in a car or trailer may have to last ten years of constant use. A bolt in a building may have to serve 50, 80, more than 100 years. They are not equal challenges, and material engineers treat them differently.

We very commonly see bolts on site that don’t meet the requirements of the code. This isn’t a minor issue, but it is easily avoided with a little knowledge. If your bolt is “bright”, you’re being dim. We’re unaware of any structural bolt available with the common bright zinc coating. If your bolt has a shimmer, or a head that accepts a wrench and isn’t much thicker than the wrench, it is the wrong bolt until proven otherwise. We’ll put our money where our internet mouths are: Call our team, show us the bolt and the proof, and lunch is on us.

Tips and Tricks:

Nail it.

The standard nail in use is the “Common”. You also see a lot of Ardox (twisted along the length). Both of these nails are well made, quality products, mass produced and easily found for good prices. Use them. When in doubt, use a common. If you’re outside, you a Hot Dip Galvanized common nail. You rarely need anything more, and if the nail is longer than the piece into which you’re driving, clinch the nail on the back. Most of the time, it is as simple as using a common nail.

Don’t screw up.

Unless you’re looking at a specification that calls for screws, don’t use screws. Even specialty screws can be hard to get right and confusing for all but the most experienced designers and knowledgeable contractors. If you don’t have someone running the numbers, then run from the screws.

Bolt with Caution.

When you have steel on your project, have the fabricator apply your nailers (timber bolted to the beam in order to accept nails on site) and prepare you a kit with the fasteners you need. The shop will have easy access to the right heavy hex bolts, and the price you pay will likely be little different than running around for the parts… Besides; We’ve seen shops throw in the bolts for free to attract you back. Let them help you; lean on your fabricator friends.

We’re going to leave you with a little visual hint as to what happens when you get fastenings wrong. This one happens to be what happens when you install an SAE 325 bolt instead of a proper structural heavy hex bolt (ASTM A325).

Reserve Fund Studies – Terms Matter

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 20:45:21 GMT

Reserve Fund Studies – Terms Matter

We deal with both existing and new condominiums. When we are dealing with older Condos, we frequently find that they have too little money to take care of the problems that are coming up on their facilities.

But they have had Reserve Fund Studies carried out. Often good ones. By excellent engineering firms, with professionals who care, cared about the clients, and did their best. So what happened?

Thirty year durations happened. Boards asking for the legal minimum happened. A reluctance to allow engineers and others involved in the long term maintenance and care of the building to get real about their reports happened.

Reserve Fund Studies which have study durations shorter than the design life of major systems (ie: Concrete structures range from 50 to 80 years expected service life) happened.

Most of those systems can be expensive to maintain and are usually prohibitively expensive to replace.

Legal minimum reports happened. A professional engineer with the appropriate training and experience is needed. Several of them. Most professionals are only really qualified to look at part of your building, and the condo industry has been accepting reports written by one, maybe two engineers.

Legal consequences exist for legal minimums as well. Don’t take our word for it. Here’s what one major Condo Law firm has to say in the matter: https://davidsoncondolaw.ca/reserve-funds-the-limits-of-a-30-year-study/

So: What can you do?

You get what you pay for. A building has Structural, Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Fire, and Building Envelope systems, at a minimum. So pay for a team that represents those specialties and can really get to know your systems.

Let your report be thorough. Don’t limit your engagement to only the replacement of items as they break, which is the primary role of the standard legal minimum RFS. Let a group of maintenance and restoration engineers look under the hood of your asset.

Treat your asset like a valuable asset. Come and ask us for a proposal to undertake your next Reserve Fund Study. You might be surprised what difference a little different thinking can make.

cel

Maintenance Plan: Myth or Reality?

The PMPS - Preventative Maintenance Program Study Maintenance Plans do matter - And you most likely don't have one !

Now, let’s discuss motivation - Deferred Major Maintenance

Key Elements of a PMPS

Using this simple tool can leverage knowledge and greatly improve your understanding.

Maintenance is knowledge.

Know your building .

Understand the risks .

Plan to minimize the risks .

Proactive Minor Maintenance in Ontario Condominiums: Beyond the Reserve Fund Study Minimum

Key Resources on Minor and Routine Maintenance for Long-Term Building Health

30 Facts in Planning, Design, Permitting, and Construction

30 Frequently Misunderstood (But Routine!) Facts in Construction

CEL Business Card Crack Gauge - Innovation & Excellence

Can you reach your Engineer? Because our clients can...

Sometimes you need five minutes, and not in two weeks...

What's in a name? Terms and Code Language...

Understanding that words matter.

Cold Weather Concreting and Marginal Weather

To heat, or not to heat, that is the question...

Special Assessments in Condominums

Bad News Early Is Better Than Bad News Late

Fibre Reinforcement - To Be or Not to Be; that's really not the question...

Stress, Strain, Steel, Plastic, Bondage, Finish, and Exposure

Shattering Glass: Unveiling the Hazards

Nickel Sulphide Inclusions in Glass and Canadian Regulations

A Journey of Growth: Our Office Evolution

Three offices in as many years... Create · Enhance · Sustain(ing) our growth through Engineering Excellence...

Wooten's Third Law and the AI Among Us

Something is Rotten in the State of The Art...

Why Are Structural Engineers?

Grammar aside, we do add value and safety...

Aluminum Design - Not Your Average Metal

If you're familiar with steel design, aluminum might just surprise you, and be a welcome technical challenge...

Concrete Repair - A Fundamental Essential

Basic, basics, and drainage - Oh my!

Adam Hosny, P.Eng.

At 8:30 EDT, we were notified we had a new P.Eng. on staff...

Tornado Damage? Take our helping hand...

Discounted Forensic Engineering for Ottawa...

History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes...

Engineering the past, Engineering of the past, and the passing of a very fine Engineer...

Before you build your dream home; Read this!!!

Avoid the most common pitfalls...

Designing Residential Structures - What works and what doesn't

Limits, estimation, sarcasm, and what we do...

When the Engineer Doesn't

What happens when your engineer refuses to look at something?

Travel and Remote Work

When your infrastructure allows you to be anywhere...

Fenestration Canada – Field Testing of Fenestrations

Fenestration Canada – Field Testing of Fenestrations

Shop Drawings, Seismic Systems, and the Construction Process – The importance of detailing and reviews

Shop Drawings, Seismic Systems, and the Construction Process – The importance of detailing and reviews

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – How much does an Engineer’s input mean?

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – How much does an Engineer’s input mean?

Reserve Fund Studies – It’s all in the details

CEL is growing – Time to Move!

CEL is growing – Time to Move!

Residential Earthquake Design

Residential Earthquake Design

Residential Basements – The Danger of Water and How to Deal with It

Residential Basements – The Danger of Water and How to Deal with It

Pandemic Policy – Covid-19 and working with CEL

Pandemic Policy – Covid-19 and working with CEL

Fastening Matters: The fix is in.

Fastening Matters: The fix is in.

Reserve Fund Studies – Terms Matter

Reserve Fund Studies – Terms Matter

The PMPS - Preventative Maintenance Program Study
Maintenance Plans do matter - And you most likely don't have one !