Certain types of homes can be labeled a “Frankenhouse” due to poor planning and structural design. Like the famed monster, they appear to be stitched together over time from random parts. Think of bedrooms strung together like garlic cloves and a roof line right out of Deep Impact after the asteroid struck earth. These homes are victims of poor (or absent) structural design in Tampa.
Why Is Structural Design Important?
Structural design is concerned with creating safe, economical designs for your room addition (or any other structure) that make sure what is being added to your home will be strong enough to carry its intended load, safe for prolonged habitation, and will not place undue stress on existing home structures and components.
Without this professional-grade planning as part of your construction or renovation projects, structures could be unsafe, unstable, fail to pass building codes and inspections, cost huge amounts of money to correct, or cost considerable losses in human life and materials when they fail.
Care must be taken with structural design in Tampa to consider all the possible forces that could act on the structure. These can come from ground shifts, erosion, weather, hurricanes or tornadoes, flooding, sustained use over time, and later additions to the structure. Some factors cannot be known in advance, such as later additions, but many others can be estimated from past events and known data.
How Does Structural Design Affect Room Additions?
Imagine building a house of cards. Every single card must be placed appropriately in order to add to the structure’s stability and not cause undue pressure on a point that could cause collapse. Homes and other structures can be viewed the same way. Consider the immense loads that your home’s framework and other important structural components bear every moment of every day.
Adding too much load with an unplanned and poorly designed room addition could overstress framing, walls, roofs, trusses, and even the foundation. Your home could slowly collapse and fall in on itself or suddenly collapse with catastrophic results. Some homes are not constructed with future additions in mind and cannot bear additional loads. Special measures may be necessary to build an adjoining room addition that will be safe and sound.
Simply adding a room onto your existing home in Tampa could place unsafe loads on:
- Roof trusses
- Walls
- Floors
- Flooring joists
- Foundation pillars / foundation slab
- Adjoining soil / unstable ground
All these systems and their components are rated to bear a limited load. Anything that exceeds those load limits endangers the entire system and overall structure. As a home is made from interconnected pieces, stress placed on one system affects many others.
Trained and experienced structural engineers from Beryl Project Engineering use the principles of physics, engineering, materials science, and a knowledge of how homes stand up to various forces after they are built to determine the best way to add on additional space without endangering the existing home structure.
Reliable Structural Design in Tampa
You should never consider a room addition to your home without reliable structural designs to guide the project. Beryl Project Engineering can provide a structural design in Tampa to safely add a new addition to your home while keeping your existing structure safe and structurally sound. We have the experience and knowledge to examine your home and determine the best way to make any necessary changes or additions to meet your family’s growing needs.
Contact Beryl Project Engineering in Tampa today and inquire about our structural design in Tampa for room additions and other projects you may be planning. Our engineers and designers are licensed and experienced in all manner of residential home design and construction. We can answer your questions and offer the best recommendations all through the planning stages of your project. Call today or complete the online contact form.
