We’ve all done it- seen a crack in a wall or foundation and said “Eh, it’s just settlement” so we do not have to worry about it right now. But what is settlement, anyway? When does it happen, and why? Read More
I spent a decade of my career in the design engineering sphere. I loved my experiences there, and working in design has given me an understanding of how structures and their various elements are dreamed, designed, and constructed- how they ought to work as well as what can go wrong. Design is fun and can be complicated, and it does not need to be a big scary mystery. Let’s have a peek behind the curtain! Read More
Construction defect investigations rarely fit neatly into a single engineering discipline. A water intrusion issue may involve the building envelope, roofing, windows, structural components, or mechanical systems. A failure that appears structural may have its origins in design, installation, materials, or an adjacent building system. And when plumbing, HVAC, electrical, or equipment issues enter the picture, understanding the interaction between systems can be critical to determining what happened and why. Read More
This article is based on my experience investigating and analyzing slip-and-fall incidents involving pedestrian walking surfaces. One type of slip and fall incident involves slipping on wet floor surfaces shortly after entering a building or stepping onto hard-surface flooring.
Common flooring materials involved include polished concrete, vinyl composite tile, porcelain tile, and wood flooring. These surfaces are generally safe when dry but present increased slip risk when contaminated. Matting is often used as a method to minimize the slip risk but is frequently ineffective because of improper usage. Read More
Grilling outdoor during warmer months is a great way to bring people together, so long as users remember they are literally playing with fire.
Spring weather is wonderful in the south. It’s been a year since I moved and got rid of most of the things we never used in the garage. Now I’m perseverating over which grill to buy so my fiancé and I can finally make grilled turkey legs and stir-fry vegetables while watching the neighbor kids play tag between houses. Despite my pale bald head that sunburns almost instantly, I feel the need for some fresh evening air. Very little makes the afternoon better than sitting in a metal chair and joking about the neighbor’s gazebo plans while you casually take food off the grill.
I have to be honest – I sort of fear the back yard. There are gnats, neighbors with all manner of projectiles (frisbees, basketballs, volleyballs and even footballs have flown past me when all the neighborhood kids are running around!), and all the dust that my edger kicks up. But the social energy of such an active development is why I moved there. It seems a waste to eat dinner on nights like these. After all, a backyard barbecue is the highlight of summer.
But managing fire is one of the most dangerous things you can do in flip-flops. Read More
In conversations with both friends and people I have met through emergency calls with the fire department, I often observed that a lot of people never give a second thought to that little lifesaver mounted on the ceiling or the wall of their home. That little lifesaver is the smoke detector.
On average, a fire department responded to a fire somewhere in the United States every 23 seconds in 2024. A civilian was fatally injured in a fire every two hours and 14 minutes Read More
It’s that time of year again. Freezing rain, flurries of snow that don’t stick around, and mornings using a spatula to scrape dreaded ice off our windshields. I’ve lived in the south most of my life, and I know the combination of excitement and dread that my compatriots and I are likely to face during the winter months. Let’s face it, we may know how to cook pulled pork, but when it comes to freezing temperatures most of us don’t have much experience! Read More
Selecting the best or most effective way to reduce or eliminate risk from a particular machine hazard is an extremely important process. It can mean the difference between someone going home and hugging their wife and children…to never going home again. The hazard control hierarchy (see figure below) is an available tool that illustrates what is known to be most effective to least effective when it comes to eliminating machine hazards or reducing the risk from those hazards to an acceptable level. Removing the hazard by designing it out is by far most effective. Read More
People have too much “stuff”. Manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, and commercial enterprises all carry inventory of “stuff”, too. According to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) own statistics, in 2018, the US had over 17.4 billion ft2 of warehouse and storage. Growing from just 13 billion ft2 in 2012, warehouse and storage space is the fastest growing and now the largest use of commercial space in the US, overtaking office space for the first time in modern history.
Almost every one of those buildings contains storage racks. And this doesn’t include the mercantile spaces. You can go to a big box retailer and buy cereal from a lower shelf while pallets of grain or packaged drinks sit 20-30 feet above, waiting to be introduced to the customer.
There is no specific OSHA regulation for anchoring storage racks – Read More
Fire. Something about fire touches our brainstems…both good and bad! Uncontrolled fire is terrifying and deadly to be sure. But the controlled burning of wood at a campfire or in a fireplace in your home almost can’t be beat, to my mind! For that very reason, a fairly common amenity to houses nowadays is the gas log fireplace insert.
When not installed properly, these logs will generate soot. These soot particles can leave the fireplace and meander. All. Over. Your. House. Read More
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