Fundamentals
Pattern Live Loading Explained: Where Loads Hurt Most
Full loading is not the worst case on continuous structures. Alternate spans, checkerboards, and see-saw cases: what pattern loading is and when it governs.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Fundamentals
Continuous Beam Reaction Factors: Why Interiors Run Heavy
Continuity moves an eighth of the load inward: 1.25 wL at a two-span centre, 1.1 over three. The factors, their limits, and what they change in a takedown.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Workflow & tools
Load Takedown for a Vertical Extension, Run Twice
Adding storeys is a takedown run twice: existing loads versus found reserves, new storeys versus old footings. The workflow that decides what a building buys.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Fundamentals
Parking Garage Live Loads: Light Average, Heavy Details
Garages design for less than offices, honestly. Where the 1.9-2.5 kPa rate comes from, and why wheels, barriers, plow piles, and fire trucks govern anyway.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Fundamentals
Warehouse Racking and Storage Live Loads, Done Honestly
Storage loads are real: 6-12 kPa classes, 20-150 kN rack posts, 55 kN forklift axles. How to design warehouse floors for concentrations, not averages.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Fundamentals
Rooftop Mechanical Unit Loads: Weigh It Wet, Land It Right
RTUs, AHUs, and chillers load roofs as point loads at operating weight, with drift and wind riding along. Why the 1.5 kPa allowance describes no real member.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Fundamentals
Solar Panel Roof Loads: Ballast, Uplift, and the Real Map
Panels add 0.1-0.25 kPa; ballast can add ten times that at a corner. How solar arrays load a roof through weight, wind, snow drift, and point loads at the feet.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Fundamentals
Green Roof Loads Explained: Weigh It Wet, Place It Right
Extensive sedum adds 0.6-1.5 kPa; an intensive garden can add 10. How to weigh a green roof saturated, zone it honestly, and take it down to the footings.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Fundamentals
Balcony and Cantilever Slab Loads in a Takedown
No midline partner, a moment on the edge, and a see-saw that can lift the far support: how cantilevers and balconies actually load their structure.
Elena Marchetti··11 min
Fundamentals
Stair Loads on Beams and Landings, Done Properly
Inclined weight over cos-pitch, escape-route live loads, and a two-stage path to trimmers and walls: why stairs punch above their plan area in takedowns.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Codes & standards
Wind Uplift on Roofs: The Tension Path Explained
Roofs live in suction, worst at edges: net uplift is factored suction minus reduced dead weight, and light roofs turn design into tension-path work.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Codes & standards
Seismic Weight Calculation From Your Dead Loads
Effective seismic weight is the takedown wearing a second hat: dead load plus partitions, equipment, storage and snow shares, summed per storey honestly.
Elena Marchetti··10 min