i

Structural Visualization

Prepared for Acute Engineering

Prepared by FDS Engineering:

Samantha Wilms

David Halliday

Frank Johnson

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

Brigham Young University

13 April 2015

ii

Executive Summary

FDS Engineering completed the Structural Visualization capstone project sponsored by

Acute Engineering. The engineered blueprint of the house built in Vernal, Utah was given to

FDS Engineering on December 19, 2014. The purpose of the project was to bridge the gap

between engineering and building a house. To accomplish such a task, many sub-deliverables

were completed. A model house was built to the scale of 1 inch = 1 foot and took 450+ man-

hours. The house blueprints were studied to give a detailed bill of materials. A plan on how to

improve the construction of the house, including using a steel frame, was developed. Lastly, the

house was modeled in 3-dimensions using Revit software. The following report will discuss how

the previous deliverables were accomplished.

iii

Acknowledgements

We, Frank, Samantha, and David, would like to thank all the volunteers, sponsors, and

other stakeholders that assisted us on this project. We thank Dr. Bingham for giving us four

students from his class, giving us a place to work, donating the wood for the model house, and

staying late so many times to get the wood cut for us. We thank Nick Barnwell, our graduate

mentor, for keeping us on task and accomplishing our deliverables properly. We appreciate Dr.

Jensen, our capstone advisor, for being available in advising us and exciting us to make a design

of our own. Lastly, we express sincere gratitude to Paul Thorley, our sponsor, for helping us and

providing us an opportunity to learn what is needed to build our own homes one day. Without the

help of all the above-mentioned mentors and volunteers, our Capstone would not have been

nearly as successful and enjoyable as it was to us.

iv

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ ii  

Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii  

Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv  

Table of Tables ............................................................................................................................... v  

Table of Figures .............................................................................................................................. v  

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1  

Mode of Accomplishing Deliverables ............................................................................................ 1  

Deliverables .................................................................................................................................... 2  

Bill of Materials .......................................................................................................................... 2  

Model House ............................................................................................................................... 3  

List of Construction Suggestions ................................................................................................ 4  

Metal Column and Beam Design ................................................................................................ 7  

Revit Model .............................................................................................................................. 10  

Outcome and Performance Standards ....................................................................................... 11  

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 11  

Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 12  

Mathcad Calculations ................................................................................................................ 12  

v

Table of Tables

Table 1: Bill of Materials ................................................................................................................ 2  

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Front (left) and back (right) views of the model house. .................................................. 3

Figure 2: Steel beam schedule. ....................................................................................................... 8  

Figure 3: Steel column schedule. .................................................................................................... 8  

Figure 4: Revit model of the house. .............................................................................................. 10  

Figure 5: Bedroom layout modeled in Revit. ................................................................................ 11  

1

Introduction

There is a gap between engineering a house and constructing a house. Both engineers and

contractors are good intentioned and intelligent men and women. However, due to the lack of

knowledge in the other parties respective fields, many simple mistakes are made that could save

both the engineers and contractors time and money. As rising structural engineers, the purpose of

this project was to bridge the gap between the two industries. A physical model of a house was

created, along with economical, digital, and visual analyses. Specific deliverables will be

mentioned below. Acute Engineering, the sponsor company, will use each of the products to

bridge the gap between the engineering and construction industries.

Mode of Accomplishing Deliverables

In the process of learning how to best create a model home, David Halliday, our

relationship manager, networked advice from the Construction Management Department at

BYU. In the process, he met Mr. Evan Bingham, a CM professor who teaches a course on home

building with a model home project similar to ours. After extensive discussion on how best to

make the project model home, Prof. Evan Bingham graciously offered materials, tools,

workspace, and some of his students to volunteer for the job. Since the class CM 210 has a

semester-long project like ours, he determined the following compromise for our CM student

volunteers: the Acute Engineering Structural Visualization project would become their class

project. Due to the high-demand, two-month workload, Prof. Bingham also granted leniency in

other assignment due dates for volunteering students.

As a team, we decided to attend Prof. Bingham’s CM class and work during their lab

hours. This class provided practical information on home building and we provided the mutual

benefit of occasionally sharing the engineer’s knowledge/perspective. We recruited four CM

2

major students including: Devere Gardner, Brett Hoffman, Scott Libutti, and Tristan Wood. We

worked most Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings until the model home was completed.

Deliverables

Bill of Materials

The first deliverable completed was a bill of materials for the house (see Table 1). The

bill of materials was completed only for the structural design of the house and did not include

plumbing, finishing and appliances. The total cost of the structural elements of the house came to

$24,469 with the three largest expenses being the concrete, floor joists and truss package. The

structural elements of the house are just a fraction of the total cost of building a home. The above

mentioned plumbing, finishing, and appliances, along with the cost of the laborers to install such

necessities makes the final cost of the house much more expensive.

Table 1: Bill of Materials

Material Quantity Cost per quantity Cost for Material Concrete 86 yd3 $80 per yd3 $6,880 2x4x8 150 $2.45 per stud $368 2x6x8 300 $3.87 per stud $1,161 2x6x16 Pressure Treated 17 $13.97 per board $237 2x8x8 20 $5.29 per board $106 2x10x8 10 $6.77 per board $68 2x12x8 16 $7.58 per board $121 LVL Floor Joists (ft) 1537 $4.50 per foot $6,917 Floor Sheathing (4’x8’) 60 $27.50 per sheet $1,650 Wall Sheathing (4’x8’) 82 $9.35 per sheet $767

Roof Sheathing (4’x8’) 85 $9.35 per sheet $795 Truss Package 1 $5,400 $5,400 Total Cost $24,469

3

Model House

The second deliverable completed was the model house (see Figure 1). The model house

was completed to a satisfactory level in time for its debut at the Acute Engineering booth at the

BYU Winter STEM Career Fair 2015. Further details and instructions were given and the project

was completed and given to sponsor, Paul Thorley, on February 14, 2015 in time for his business

conference February 17, 2015. In total, twenty volunteers and 450+ man-hours were needed to

finish the project. All wood materials were cut to scale using pine and balsa wood boards. The

concrete was modeled using foam core and hot glue was used as the main adhesive.

Building the model house was a great learning process for all the parties involved. Pages

4-7 contain details and notes observed while building the model house. These instructions could

prevent common building errors and facilitate effective communication between engineering and

construction.

The model house was kept well within budget. All wood for floor joists, studs, and

trusses were donated by the CM Department. Hot glue, foam core, wire, and all other supplies

were purchased by Samantha Wilms and were just under $100.

Figure 1: Front (left) and back (right) views of the model house.

4

List of Construction Suggestions

- Concrete is the first structural detail to be built. It is important to read the engineering

plans to see where it calls for 20 in. and 18 in. footings. Make sure the concrete is

reinforced properly when pouring. All rebar should have at least 2 in. of concrete cover.

- When pouring the foundation wall, make sure the rebar is correct, especially around

window frames.

- Make sure lag bolts are in the top part of the concrete wall so that they may connect to

the pressure treated sill plate approximately every 32 in.

- When pouring the concrete slab in the garage, make sure a slope of at least a 1 in. drop

every 10 ft. away from the house is used to account for water running out.

- It is important to make every story plum and square, but more so for the concrete

footings and foundation walls. If the concrete is off, everything else will be off.

- On top of the foundation wall should be a sill sealer followed by a seal plate that is

pressure treated lumber.

- Rim board and floor joists should be built on top of the foundation wall before any

backfill should be placed around the foundation walls. Forgetting to do such could lead to

making foundation walls tilt inward.

5

- Floor joists should be resting on bearing walls in the basement.

- Between the basement bearing wall and floor and also from the sill plate to the floor

where floor cantilevers are occurring, full height blocking is needed. This is both to

distribute the load and for fire blocking purposes.

- When applying flooring, the long side should run perpendicular to the floor joists and

staggering one another. They are tongue and groove and simply lock into one another.

- Cantilevers are often used in the industry to increase living space while not accruing

more costs from increasing the amount of concrete or making turns in the concrete.

- Stairs are very tricky! Account for all minimum and maximum tread and depth

dimensions while taking into consideration the finished stair and floor heights as well as

the overall width and height dimensions. Make sure the 6’8’’ vertical height minimum

from the floor above to the tread is met. Take the time to make it strong and safe.

- 2x6 exterior walls are becoming more and more common. Initial cost is more and it

takes some of room space, but it makes a stronger wall and allows thicker insulation

to be installed. Energy savings on the house pays for the initial cost after a couple years.

6

- Walls should have studs every 16 in. from the corner of the wall. This allows for the

sheathing on the wall to have wood to nail into. Exterior walls also need horizontal back

blocking. This seals the crack that occurs between the plywood boards.

- As an engineer it is important to understand the 4 ft. dimension of wall sheathing and

call out shear walls that are multiples of 4 ft.

- The exterior wall sheathing should cover the floor, rim board, and tie into the sill plate,

but should rest more than 1 in. above the foundation wall. This seals the rim board to the

floor, but does not allow increased rotting from un-treated wood to concrete contact.

- When blocking out for the windows and doors it is important to know that the

dimensions given are the dimensions the opening should be and have the trimmers, studs

and headers around the called out opening.

- It is important to note the header size and post layout that the engineers have called out

while framing the wall.

- In the bathroom and also in the kitchen it is wise to add increased backing for where

mirrors, towel racks, spice racks, and other objects will be attached to the drywall.

7

- For vaulted ceiling areas (in great rooms and master bedrooms), some walls will have to

be built up higher. The taller wall should be done with continuous 2x width of wall

instead of making a short wall of only 1 ft.

- Truss packages are usually bought from the manufacturer with each truss having a letter

and/or number calling out its placement. Overbuild is not called out and the contractor

simply runs a chalk line from the peak to the valley and makeshift trusses are added to fill

in the valley.

- Roof sheathing is applied perpendicular to the roof trusses and staggered. A space of 1/8

in. should be left between sheets for expansion and contraction.

- Blocking between the top of the wall to the roof should be included with a pattern of

two vertical, then one horizontal (for ventilation).

Metal Column and Beam Design

The third deliverable was a steel column and beam schedule. The beam and column

schedule was made following LRFD design practices as outlined in the Steel Construction

Manual – 14th edition and with the help of Build With Steel: A Companion to the AISC Manual.

All calculations were made using Mathcad software and can be referenced in the Appendix. As

seen in Figure 2 and Figure 3, the house would need (16) beams and (8) columns to rest on the

foundation wall.

8

Figure 2: Steel beam schedule.

Figure 3: Steel column schedule.

Upon further investigation, the group decided to research the advantages and

disadvantages of building an all steel structural design for the residential house. The list on the

following page presents the advantages and disadvantages of steel, in no particular order.

9

Advantages:

- Any span can be built, without columns, by increasing the size of the beams.

- Steel is not organic, thus it is not liable to corrode from mold or termites. This could

especially increase the longevity of a house in a humid climate.

- Steel is not a combustible material, thus increases the house’s fire protection.

- Steel studs are straighter than wood studs. Laborers can save time by no longer having

to crown each stud and drywall will no longer bulge in the middle due to warped studs.

- Steel expands and contracts much less than wood in the hot and cold seasons. Thus

again, the drywall will not have as many bulges or cracks in it due to the wood frame

expansion and contraction.

- Steel is also more environmentally friendly than wood. Instead of cutting down forests,

a small house can be built from the scrap metal of six to ten cars.

- Steel studs are lighter per length than wood studs. One worker is able to stand an entire

30 ft by 9 ft wall all by himself.

- Walls can easily be made 6-9 inches thick to allow for more room for insulation, which

would increase energy savings to heat and cool the building.

- Since all the columns and beams are pre-fabricated, the number of labor hours to build

the house can be reduced by one-third.

- Steel structures can still be finished with traditional drywall and oak trim look.

Disadvantages:

- Steel prices currently are a bit more expensive than wood prices.

- Most residential construction workers only have the knowledge and tools to build wood

homes. Acquiring the tools and education to build with steel would take some time.

10

Revit Model

For the final deliverable, the house was modeled in 3-dimensions using Revit software

(see Figure 4). As software continues to develop and becomes more widespread, the 3-

dimensional designs for a house can be passed from an architect, to engineer, and finally to the

contractor. The architect will design the house to have the look the owner wants, the engineer

will add details and dimensions to make the house safe, and the contractor will use the document

to see how to build what the engineer asks on site. Such a process would eliminate many errors

that currently occur because of the inability to completely understand 2-demensional blueprints.

Figure 4: Revit model of the house.

When building a new house it is often very difficult to envision the exact outcome of how

all of the owner’s dream desires will look once built. The Revit model could be used from a

marketing advantage by showing the future owner what their dream desires will look like in real

life. As seen in Figure 5, the Revit designer can add beds, lights, wall colors, and whatever else

is desired.

11

Figure 5: Bedroom layout modeled in Revit.

Outcome and Performance Standards

Each deliverable was evaluated and graded by our graduate mentor, Nick Barnwell, and

our sponsor, Paul Thorley of Acute Engineering. Our team provided the work “as is” meaning

that there was no engineering stamp certifying the work.

Conclusion

All deliverables were completed on time and to each stakeholder’s satisfaction. With 20

volunteers and 450+ man hours, the model house was completed and turned over to Paul Thorley

on Saturday, February 14th. To make the project ABET certified, the previous steel frame design

was created and shown to faculty advisor, Dr. Jensen. A digital 3-D model of the house was

completed using Revit software, which allowed for additional interior design details to be

outlined. While doing each deliverable, notes were taken on how to bridge the gap between the

engineering and construction of residential homes. Many differences exist between the two

parties, but with patience and continued education, the gap can continue to narrow.

12

Appendix

Mathcad Calculations

13

14

15

16