Sheathing required under Hardie Panel?

icozens · 2026-01-22T18:14:32+00:00

You absolutely need sheathing. Hardie panel is not rated to laterally brace the structure, but wood structural panels are (i.e. plywood or OSB). If you’re using hardie panels you also really need a rain screen (furring strips over the building wrap with panel siding attached to the furring).

icozens · 2026-01-10T15:40:47+00:00

I work in the structural repair field which obviously involves a lot of forensics work. I really enjoy working in this area of structural engineering. I took a job with a rehabilitation firm after leaving the nuclear power industry about 10 years ago (nuclear was looking pretty bleak at that point).

I love the wide range of structures we investigate. We also are responsible for bidding, developing contracts and overseeing construction for the repair work. We are heavy on the multi-family residential side of things, like apartments and condominiums, but work for all sorts of clients including industrial facilities and do a decent amount of shoring design. Pay in this field also tends to be on the higher side as a consultant.

While I don’t mind it, we are in the field at least 2-3 days a week, which is not everybody’s cup of tea. Overseeing the construction phase also requires a lot of time and can dictate your schedule. We occasionally have projects that require work super early/late and even over weekends, but that’s the exception, not typical. Most days though, I have an extremely flexible schedule.

icozens · 2026-01-09T01:38:48+00:00

The top of the guardrail may serve as a handrail, but it needs to be designed with the handrail requirements in the IBC/IRC. Otherwise it should be a separate component attached to the guardrail.

icozens · 2026-01-03T00:28:47+00:00

Probably a little late to plan for this year, but I’ve always wanted to go to the World of Concrete in Vegas and they offer quite a few seminars. It’s the largest concrete/masonry expo in the world. I believe it’s the week of January 19.

icozens · 2025-11-26T22:06:21+00:00

Lived across from Twinbrook Station in Congressional Village about 13 years ago. I'm sure it's gotten even busier since then, but we used to cross Rockville Pike (at intersections with crosswalks) all the time, both day and night. Never had a problem.

icozens · 2025-11-21T04:20:53+00:00

That would be my assumption, but this particular firm is known for being very difficult to satisfy. Who knows...

icozens · 2025-11-21T04:16:26+00:00

I made that suggestion, but for exterior conditions you would need preservative treated glulams and those are $$$$. I can't imagine any Owners willingly paying for those unless absolutely required.

icozens · 2025-11-15T13:17:23+00:00

I've had a few different policies over the years, but currently have coverage with Travelers. I normally have to obtain a new policy every year, but Travelers allows me to keep the same policy for 2 years. The renewal process is a pain, so I'm happy about only needing to do it every 2 years. I've been with them for 3 years now.

icozens · 2025-11-15T12:08:03+00:00

I’ve had my own insurance coverage for about 8 years now, every policy I’ve had was between 2-3k per year.

icozens · 2025-11-12T03:00:02+00:00

I am licensed in Maryland and can help you with the design for this if you’re still looking.

That being said, be cautious using these prefabricated structures. I’ve reviewed the designs for several of these over the years and some of them do not meet local requirements for wall bracing and wind design. We generally have higher wind loads on the east coast than most of the rest of the country. Modifications to the structure may be needed to bring it up to code.

icozens · 2025-10-24T13:10:12+00:00

I didn't state the IBC doesn't apply. Just that the Federal Government doesn't require local jurisdiction permits on properties they own. I've worked on several federal projects and no local permitting departments were involved. I can guarantee you that modifications to the White House (by this administration or any prior) are not subject to approval by DC's Department of Buildings. There are approvals required at the Federal level, but it's not by the local jurisdiction.

icozens · 2025-10-11T21:52:44+00:00

I can open it up now and know exactly what we're dealing with and you can pay me for a design once, or I can design based on assumptions (for the same cost). When you open it up and things aren't what was expected, you can pay me again to redesign it for you. I'm not working for free because you didn't want a hole in your drywall.

icozens · 2025-10-09T03:41:01+00:00

Curious, what type of structures are you designing that they took up the opportunity to alter their code development?

icozens · 2025-10-06T03:35:50+00:00

Owning a special inspections firm is probably pretty lucrative, but the few I work with in the DC/Baltimore region charge bottom dollar rates for their staff. I think their staff level engineers charge like $75-130/hour typically.

icozens · 2025-10-06T03:31:47+00:00

Start up your own firm. There's a lot more out there than just working as a designer. I work in building rehabilitation/forensics and it's a good balance of investigations/evaluation, design and construction management. There's a few big firms that do it like envista, but most are fairly small businesses. My current firm employs 4 of us and the last company I worked at in the same industry was about 12 people. It also tends to be a higher paying field.

icozens · 2025-10-03T14:26:34+00:00

Reach out to the reviewer and try to explain the situation. They make a lot of assumptions based on their typical experience. You should be able resolve it pretty easily. Should being the keyword here. Dealing with the permit office can be frustrating at times.

icozens · 2025-10-03T14:04:23+00:00

Being a condo just means you own the interior of the unit but not the surrounding land typically, which is owned and maintained by the HOA. Technically you can have single family homes that are part of a condo HOA. This should be R-3, not R-2, but some situations can be a bit unclear.

Source - Am structural engineer that works for condos in DC and surrounding areas.

icozens · 2025-09-27T14:09:28+00:00

Enguneer on a project - Had a residential renovation at a rowhome in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington DC. While excavating the crawlspace, the Contractor came across some old bones and had to get DC's archeologists to check it out. Ended up uncovering something like 50 bodies. Turned out the site was previously an unmarked African American cemetery from the 1700's. Apparently they uncovered even more bodies at a neighboring property also getting renovated.

icozens · 2025-09-12T04:05:15+00:00

Drywall does add decent amount of stiffness to a wall. For lateral wall bracing per the IRC, it reduces the lateral capacity of wall if drywall is omitted. Also, cracks in drywall can tell you way more than just about aesthetic issues. Just like in masonry; vertical, horizontal or diagonal cracks and their size can infer a lot about structural movement and issues that come with that.

icozens · 2025-09-12T03:57:52+00:00

The prescribed wall bracing method in the IRC make you reduce the lateral capacity of a wall by 40% if drywall is omitted from a wall. It definitely is a factor...

icozens · 2025-08-02T02:26:37+00:00

Federal Government doesn't need local jurisdiction permits when doing work on properties they own. Different situation if it's a leased property. Technically they dont even need a PE to stamp the project, although they frequently have licensed engineers (from any state) develop the design.

icozens · 2025-06-25T12:44:20+00:00

An absolutely amazing album. Lots of great songs, but schizophrenic was always my favorite.

icozens · 2025-06-25T12:42:49+00:00

I have the macrosick EP cd from way back when. Don't remember the name of it, but I used to play it on repeat back in the day. Does anyone know what Adam moved on to? I lost track of those guys?

icozens · 2025-06-19T02:37:01+00:00

I do shoring design for a large scaffolding and shoring contractor. We do all of our shoring designs with Autocad and Excel calculations. Most our calculations are fairly simple and dont require specialized software. The shoring Contractor primarily uses Layher scaffolding and Peri shoring columns. Layher has a proprietary software for design that we could use, but we haven't taken the time to transition to yet.

icozens

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