On-demand Webinar

View Important Policies and System Requirements for this course.

This webinar was co-sponsored by ASCE's Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and ASCE Continuing Education

Instructor:  Nicholas Lutzweiler, P.E., S.E., M.ASCE

Course Length: 1.5 Hours

Purpose and Background

A King-Rod truss isn't something that many structural engineers implement into new buildings these days, but when dealing with older buildings, no one knows what can be found. Whether you have been practicing for 50 years or 5 weeks, most of us weren't around when many of the buildings that surround us today were constructed. When it comes time to for owners to renovate these buildings, it requires us to look back into the past to try to determine what the original designer was trying to accomplish, apply engineering judgment, and make real world decisions to move forward. This webinar discusses this process by walking through the steps taken to renovate a 1916 wooden barn structure into a beautiful event venue. This includes restoration of the designer's original intent, as well as employing today's design standards to yesterday's construction.

Primary Discussion Topics

  • Evaluating existing older structures
  • Employing engineering judgment to existing structures
  • Designing/analyzing existing structures
  • Specific detailing associated with renovating existing structures

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Determine how to employ engineering judgment toward older structures
  • Identify how to analyze/design retrofits for existing structures
  • Produce efficient and effective details for use in construction
  • Recognize what resources will help you succeed in renovating older structures
  • Discuss how to apply the new code to an old building

Webinar Benefits

  • Discover resources to help you understand older structures
  • Learn effective ways to analyze existing structures
  • See how specific details can be created to help in design and construction
  • Understand how to avoid field issues through proper design and detailing techniques
  • Learn how engineering judgment must be applied to older structures

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Intended Audience

  • Structural engineers
  • Civil engineers
  • Architects
  • Building officials

Webinar Outline

  • Introduction to working on older structures
    • Helpful resources for dealing with older structures
    • Specific resources used on the 100-year old barn
    • Things to remember when working with older structures
  • Field work associated with working on older structures
    • Generic recommendations for field work in older structures
    • Specific field work related to 100-year old barn
  • Assumptions and engineering judgment
    • My take on defining engineering judgment
    • Where you need to apply engineering judgment
    • Specific case study of where engineering judgment was used on the 100-year old barn
  • Design/analyzing the structure
    • General recommendations for design/analysis of older structures
    • Specific calculations from the 100-year old barn
    • Incorporating detailing and design together in order to optimize design/analysis/constructibility
  • Detailing
    • Why detailing is critical in older structures
    • Specific detailing in the 100-year old barn
  • Construction administration / lessons learned
    • You always learn something with older structures
    • Specific issues during construction and how they were solved
    • Learning how to work with contractors
  • Conclusion/wrap-up
  • Questions

How to Earn your CEUs/PDHs and Receive Your Certificate of Completion

To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 1 year of purchasing the course.

How do I convert CEUs to PDHs?

1.0 CEU = 10 PDHs [Example: 0.1 CEU = 1 PDH]