Categories
Tips & Tricks

Money lessons for Graduate Engineers

If you’re a graduate engineer fresh out of university, we think some money lessons as you’re starting your careers as a professional engineer will help make the money you earn work for you.

Sadly you have probably haven’t learned heaps about keeping money once you’ve made it. You’re great at engineering but know absolutely nothing about how to make money work for you.

So here are our tips and recommended reading for learning how to make the money you earn work for you.

Categories
Concrete Tips & Tricks

5 Things to Look for When Inspecting a Suspended Concrete Slab

If you’re a structural engineer and you’ve just been asked to inspect a suspended concrete slab before it is poured, now is definitely a good time to go through the things you should be looking for when you carry out your inspection.

(Please note: an inspection of a suspended concrete slab should ALWAYS be done in person – never by Facetime or with photos!)

Here are my 5 most important things to check when inspecting a suspended concrete slab:

Categories
Tips & Tricks

This is a BIG House

Cornell Engineers was engaged by Brisbane Builder Rigoli Constructions to design the footings and slab for this massive house at Cedar Creek.

With 657m2 of single level slab on ground including 300m2 of verandah, this house is BIG!

Categories
Tips & Tricks

Pay An Invoice

Thanks for choosing Cornell Engineers to be your structural engineer. This page will help you pay an invoice from Cornell Engineers.

Categories
Tips & Tricks

Hey building industry lets get metric

So if you’re in the building industry in Australia you’ve probably noticed by now that the sizing and spacing of structural members aren’t exactly metric. I mean, we’re working in millimetres and all but have you noticed we still bow to imperial measurements in nearly all structural framing?

Here is how pervasive the imperial system is in our construction industry:

  • 75mm x 50mm studs are really 3 inch x 2 inch studs in imperial
  • (70mm x 45mm studs are just the seasoned timber equivalent of 75 x 50)
  • Roof frames are at 900mm (3 feet) or 600mm (2 feet) centres
  • Studs are at 450mm (1.5 feet) or 600mm (2 feet) centres
  • Residential wall heights are commonly 2.4m (8 feet), 2.7m (9 feet) or 3.0m (10 feet)
  • Windows are 900mm (3 feet), 1200mm (4 feet), 1500mm (5 feet) etc wide

The list goes on.

Why are we hanging on to these old imperial dimensions when we turned metric many, many years ago? Wouldn’t it be easier for set out, planning and ordering to be working in metric?

Our materials are made better and are stronger and more consistently than ‘the old days’ when these systems were first put in place.

  • Why can’t studs be placed at 500mm centres instead of 450mm centres?
  • Why don’t we have trusses at 1000mm (1 metre) centres?
  • Why don’t we have wall heights at 2.5 metres and 3.0m standard?
  • Why don’t windows come in 500mm width increments to suit metric stud centres?

So I’m calling out to industry, to suppliers, to product technical advisors and other structural engineers. Let’s make the move to metric in the construction industry. It doesn’t have to be overnight, but when we learn to work in metric numbers, in easy multiples of 10, 50 and 100 I think we’ll make it easier for ourselves, use our modern materials more efficiently and finally close the door on outdated imperial standards.