ENGINEERING THE PROJECT

After designing your building, Steel Depot will engineer your project using the specifications you have selected. A design based on your structure’s functions, codes and style can be created. With this information, Steel Depot can properly design your building for both internal and external forces such as weather and load requirements.

LOADING
When engineering your steel building, all forces must be considered, especially mother nature. Wind, snow, rain, and storage as well as other factors affecting how a building is engineered. In order to engineer a building to account for all factors, code authorities have done studies to help quantify these factors. They develop the standard loadings for their particular area. These loadings are then used by Steel Depot to engineer the building to withstand all external forces. As you know weather isn’t the only concern because there are four loads we will be concerned about: dead, live, snow, wind.

Dead Load – This is the weight of the structure itself. The building must be able to support itself structurally. This simply deals with the dead weight of all of the steel creating the building. It is measured in pounds per square foot. The standard is to use 2.5 lb./sq.ft. as a standard dead load.

Live Load – These are temporary forces applied to the building. This includes workers and tools that would be on the building during construction as well as the weight of materials which are intended for storage. The weight of rain and debris are also considered to be live loads. They are measured in pounds per square foot. The industry standard is 20 lbs./sq.ft.

Snow Load – Technically snow is temporary, because it won’t be there permanently, but acts differently than most other live loads. Snow can accumulate and is not always uniform across a roof. Snow can drift and be 2 feet deep in one place while only being 6 inches deep in another. So because of its unique nature, it has a load all its own. The snow load is measured in pounds per square foot. You will need to check with your local building code authority to get the snow load requirements.

Wind Load – This is probably the single biggest external factor for which we have to account. Because of its wide range of effects on a building, every single part of a building is affected by wind. The wind’s effects on a building can change depending on certain aspects of the building’s design, such as height, number of framed openings, location of those framed openings, and other criteria. It’s important to make certain you supply your sales representative with the correct wind load for your area. It is measured in miles per hour. It can range anywhere from 80 MPH to over 140 MPH depending on your location.