huangyhg

existing overstresses
when doing an evaluation of an existing building, what is the maximum stress for members where you can say the member is still safe, i have heard that 5% to 10% overstresses are still ok. is there any code reference in the united states regarding this issue?
thanks

significant overstress is normally only allowed for temporary construction or occasional loads.
i know of no code guidance for this issue. i have developed my own parameters:
new construction -- 5% overstress allowed
verifying existing construction -- 10% overstress allowed
justifying my own mistakes after something is already built -- 15% overstress allowed
just another couple of thoughts when evaluating an existing building structure:
1. do you check it using code required loads at the time it was constructed or current code loads? the same questions could be asked regarding material stresses.
2. do you make an assement of the actual loads the building is seeing and check it with those? if so, would this control over the code requirements? in otherwords, if the actual loads are less than code specified minimums, would you "pass" an existing building even if it didn't meet code loads? would it then be appropriate to post load limits?
when checking existing structures or portions of structures, i would use a more accurate calculated dead loads. original design probably used a dead load that is somewhat more conservative than the weight of the finished structure.
all the calculation procedures to verify the adequacy of existing elements shall be based on current code.
material strengths shall be based on the older stresses that were allowed at the time of construction. if it is not available, test some samples to get an estimate or use whatever stresses that are reasonable.
especially in wood, the current allowable stresses are so low (due to the depletion of older forests and the available lumber today are from younger forests and are not as dense). when dealing with older wood structures, framing maybe overstressed even without adding new loads if checked with current allowable values.

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