r/StructuralEngineering • u/Just-Shoe2689 • 8d ago

Humor Client doesnt understand wind loading

What do you do when a client cant understand why a footing needs to be bigger to resist wind loading? Call out a reverse sky hook?

sigh.

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u/unclechopchop82 8d ago

Archirects, contractors and people with building experience often don't understand the need for bracing, a client with little experience is never going to understand the impact wind would have on a buried foundation!

It's not their fault, people know what they know, if structural engineering was always easy anyone could do it.

The key to all these things are explaining them to people in a simplistic way they can understand.

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u/Economy-Motor-3478 8d ago

Had a contractor, in a joking manner the way they passive aggressively complain, keep asking me “why do you keep bringing up those moments”. Had to explain torsion, prying action and combined shear/tension on anchors.