What Is Value Engineering
Why should I care?
We hear the term “Value Engineered” a lot, but are you really getting the full “Value” out of your engineer or architect? If you truly want your project to be value engineered, it’s a good idea to hire an experienced engineer and get him or her on board before the design in complete. It is fairly easy for an experienced engineer to be able to look at some preliminary floor, elevation and section plans and identify areas that may be costing you money that need not be spent. In this climate we receive extreme snow loads, high winds and have the potential for substantial earthquakes (which we have to design in conjunction with a portion of the snow load) requiring a great deal of engineering to make work. An experienced engineer will have done literally hundreds of projects in this climate, and becomes quite good at spotting areas in the design that will cost a lot of money to make work.
TIMBER COSTS
Your engineer must first be familiar with, or know where to get the answers of, the current rough costs of the different lumber that can be used on a project. Take roof rafters for example. We have a variety of choices, each of which has its positive and negative properties. Some of the choices are Rough Sawn Lumber, Trusses, Timberstrand, Parallams, Microllams, Wood I-Joists, Boise Cascade products, TJI products, Steel, SIP’s (Structurally Insulated Panels), etc. We as engineers also need to know the rough installation costs, for some of these products need to be modified in order to work or require some hardware to make work, or may just have a very labor intensive construction cost. It is important to consider these choices as the project is being designed, that is if you want to stay in budget.
DESIGN FLEXIBILITY
Take for example an open living room / kitchen with a tight budget, a vaulted ceiling and a 12:12 roof pitch. Most people like to have the 12:12 interior vault which requires a ridge beam and rafters that can span between the ridge beam and supporting walls. The ridge beam will typically be a Glue Laminated Beam or a Steel I-Beam, depending on the size of the room costing anywhere from 3-$10k. If the room is wide enough, the rafters will likely be Microllams or equal costing 8-$18 / Lineal Ft. You could see the price for that vaulted living room can spiral out of control. Now if you want to save some money and are okay with a 6:12 interior vault, you could use scissor trusses and cut costs nearly in half.
Other areas that we typically look at are the shear walls. An experienced engineer can quickly look at the floor plans and elevations and determine which of the shear walls will work with conventional lumber (2x6 studs and 15/32” APA rated sheathing i.e. plywood). If there are not enough of these shear walls available, we then have to look at other options such as Steel Moment Frames, that can easily be $10k per story or Simpson Strong Walls that are much more expensive than conventional shear walls. A lot of the time
slight tweaks to the window openings and obtain the required walls without detracting from the architect’s vision.
The Value Engineering does not stop at the end of the design process. Value Engineering should continue all the way through the rough frame portion of construction. One way to save is for the engineer to be open minded in his or her responses to field questions or suggestions from the contractor. The contractor may have a better way to frame an area or transfer loads that could save significant time and money, but it must be approved by the Engineer of Record. Being open minded to these ideas will help economize the final product. It is also very important to respond to contractor questions quickly because time is money in the field and a lagging engineer can definitely hold up the process.
SketchUp Basecamp 2018
SketchUp Basecamp 2018
This is Article Header Style
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Euismod quis viverra nibh cras pulvinar mattis. Non enim praesent elementum facilisis leo vel fringilla. Et tortor consequat id porta nibh venenatis cras sed. Mi bibendum neque egestas congue quisque. Ultrices dui sapien eget mi proin. Habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada
fames. Pellentesque elit ullamcorper dignissim cras tincidunt lobortis feugiat vivamus at. Laoreet non curabitur gravida arcu ac tortor dignissim. Nisl purus in mollis nunc sed id semper risus. Pulvinar ne ue laoreet suspendisse interdum consectetur libero id faucibus nisl.
Pharetra massa massa ultricies mi quis hendrerit. Facilisis magna etiam tempor orci eu. Mattis vulputate enim nulla aliquet porttitor lacus. Senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac. In ante metus dictum at tempor commodo ullamcorper a lacus. Nunc aliquet bibendum enim facilisis gravida neque convallis. Tempor id eu nisl nunc mi ipsum. At varius vel pharetra vel turpis nunc. Pellentesque massa placerat duis ultricies lacus sed turpis tincidunt id. Neque egestas congue quisque egestas diam. Commodo quis imperdiet massa tincidunt. Ut tortor pretium viverra
suspendisse potenti nullam. Integer vitae justo eget magna fermentum
iaculis eu.
Semper risus in hendrerit gravida rutrum quisque. Ultrices in iaculis
nunc sed augue lacus. Lacus suspendisse faucibus interdum posuere lorem
ipsum dolor sit. Sit amet venenatis urna cursus eget nunc scelerisque.
Curabitur gravida arcu ac tortor dignissim
Structurally Insulated Panels in Tahoe?
A Look Into SIPs from Various Perspectives
No Content From Previous EE Backup
Perspective from the Architect, Engineer and Contractor concerning utilizing SIP (Structurally Insulated Panels) on a project in Martis Camp (Truckee, CA)
SketchUp 3D Basecamp 2016
Integrating Structural Engineering with SketchUp
Integrating Structural Engineering with SketchUp
Along with Nick Sonder, Zachary Engineering was asked to present at the annual SketchUp 3D Basecamp in Colorado Spring in June of 2016. In front of standing room only crowd in June of 2016, Zachary Engineering and Nick Sonder spoke about the processes utilized when it comes to integrating Nick Sonder’s SketchUp Wizardy
into a complete set of structural plans using both SketchUp and LayOut. “Integrating Structural Engineering with SketchUp” was one of nearly
two dozen presentations that took place at 3D Basecamp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Watch the full 1-hour presentation here.
As part of the presentation, a video compilation of one of the latest coordinated projects with Nick Sonder located in Martis Camp was created. Watch it here!
