KNX is a smart building system. If your mechanical or electrical engineer isn’t familiar with it or doesn’t feel they are up to it go to the vendor that told you about it in the first place. They will have persons, firms, and contractors that can handle this system. Be aware that many groups that …
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Most unit prices consist of averaged prices across a class of project. A typical example would a multi-family project. A multi-family residential building from 3–5 stories will not change much per square foot either at 3 stories or 5 as far as estimates go. At 6 stories you will see a price jump as structural …
There are few things you need to remember about old, historic and/or period buildings and housing. You aren’t seeing the typical example from the time. You are seeing the best, most expensive, most well preserved examples. Most of the examples you’ve seen are the mega-mansions of their time. The next thing is homes and buildings …
Most of the other answers are rather entertaining while only touching on the truth. The reason is fire and human safety. Most long-lived cities that don’t have these spaces, called setbacks, have either burned down or were demolished to place setbacks. Setbacks are areas around structures or properties used to stage fire fighting activities and …
In general, it won’t make much of a difference whether you use type O or N mortar in this case. Also, I would stay away from lime mixes unless you in fact know that was what was used before (its also amongst the weakest mortar types). You are more interested in the components of your …
Most skyscrapers are assumed to have a lifespan of about 150 years. Modern maintenance and construction methods have been extending that so that older examples getting near that number are proving to have considerably longer lifespans. But in many of the cities you’ve mentioned skyscraper tend to get replaced every 50–70 years, especially when they …
First off, everyone needs to understand that strong winds and tornado winds are in completely different classes. Fortunately, there is a phenomenon called the heat island effect that tends to steer wind events such as tornados away from areas with skyscrapers. Basically, areas, where we build such structures, are also accompanied by large areas around …
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This is a matter of visualizing the scenario and it pretty much explains itself. Let’s start with two random shaped plates with jagged edges. Place them together so that they touch. Now place a finger on a random place on each plate, and push in a random direction generally towards the other plate. Whichever parts …
For the most part, they aren’t. But, there are holdovers. Basically, a large part of the banking system grew up during the “Old West” period where the US was expanding. All exchanges were physical money except for loans which were recorded. So, bank buildings were designed like secure boxes. Better ones were built like cages. …
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These are the lumber grades in the US: General construction lumber: Lowest Utility (Not usually available to the public) 3 (Not usually available to the public) 2, Stud, or Standard (Lowest common grade) 2+ or “2 or better” 1 or Premium 1+ or “1 or better” (Highest common grade) SS or Structural Select (Considered the …
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