Any good textbooks for proper support of structures during renovation/demolition?
plexiboy
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I’m a Residential Remodeling student at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster,PA. One of my interest areas is around techniques for safely securing structures when performing renovation work. I will have a class on this topic in the Fall 2022 semester (my 2nd year), but would like to read up on the topic beyond just google searches and YouTube.
Can anyone recommend any textbooks or other reading material?
Thanks!
Tom
Replies
As a practicing structural engineer whose entire career has involved many methods of temporary support, shoring, falsework, etc., I can honestly tell you that there is next to nothing involving residential work. There are just too many variables to try to provide analysis examples that fit into a textbook. There are a few design firms that specialize in what I call 'Construction Engineering.' The best way to learn is by working along side a mentor. I was blessed with an innate understanding of how structures behave and worked with several more experienced engineers who offered guidance on how to approach a sensible solution.
You can Google 'book on temporary structures' and you'll find a few books (Ratay's is pretty good) but they're primarily focused on large-scale structures. Most of my education in this realm was obtained by OJT (on the job training) and by studying how things fail.