We’re having some fun today. Jo-Anne’s birthday!
Steaks in the background, with a Chardonnay and Vistalba Corte B in the foreground!
Fire!
Getting the blaze under control.
Under control now ...
We were honored to host John Minton’s visit today. John is the Chief Engineer with Hanson Structural Precast, and supplied our hollow core concrete panels. John is in the L.A. area and works in Hanson’s offices in Irwindale, California.
We have a tiny project with only 48 panels. During our design and planning, John was always available to answer our questions and help resolve technical issues. He starts working early so Bryan would call him between 6:00 and 6:30 am, knowing that John would probably answer on the first ring.
John and his wife, Lynanne, and son, Brian, were to attend a family event in Hillsborough and, since they were flying into SJC, they could all stop by our project site for a few minutes.
His family was very patient while John and Bryan discussed the structural aspects ahead of us.
John Minton, and his wife, Lyanne, and son, Brian, visiting our project site.
One of the issues that we needed to understand is how and when the camber would come out of the hollow core concrete panels. John explained that, as soon as we put the 3 inches of structural concrete over the 6 inch hollow core concrete panels, one-half the camber would come out. Then, the remaining camber would come out over a couple years.
We discussed various strategies to accelerate the flattening of the panels. John explained that the fastest way to get the panels to flatten would be to put load on the panels.
The alternatives that we have include:
1. Pour the 3 inches of structural concrete then put the remaining posts/walls in place, and then the roof. This would increase the load, and then pour the final 2-1/4 inches of concrete.
or
2. Pour the 5-1/4 inches of concrete in one monolithic pour.
We’ll need to think this one through …
John Minton and Bryan.
Before pouring more concrete, we need to do the following:
Yeah, lots to do.
Bryan had spent quite a bit of time with Robert, checking on his project sites and doing other due diligence. Robert was interested in working on our project and did excellent work. Geographically, he is located in Marin and it is fair hike to Monte Sereno.
Robert arrived with his crew in the morning and started framing. He hadn’t used Simpson Titen Heavy Duty Screw Anchors before and was interesting in trying them. Our structural engineers, Innovative Structural Engineering, specified these bolts as an alternative to drilling and epoxying bolts in place. The TIten HDs were cool.
Robert arrives with materials and his crew.
Titen HD screws.
Titen HD screws.
Framing the wall under the W14x43 I-beam.
FSC certified 2x6s and 2x4s for the walls.
Framed bearing wall under the W14x43 I-beam.
Framed bearing wall by the lower Powder Room.
We were invited to the TEAMWRKX table at the ’40 Under 40′ awards dinner. Our very good friend, Natasha Venzon, was a recipient of a 40 Under 40 award. She has just turned 30!
Natasha is Director, Human Resources and Corporate Secreteary for multiple companies in the TEAMWRKX family as well as a found of Sticks2Schools and ScubaFamily. She was born in Russia and speaks several foreign languages.
Natasha Venzon
All the award receipents had to say, in 10 words or less, who was most influential in their achievement.
Sheri, Benjamin (left), Natasha Venzon (center), and Kim Gregory (right).
Tish Lessley (left), Natasha Venzon (holding her award), and Mar Junge (pointing to the award).
Mike Rosendin (left), Natasha Venzon, and Stella Rosendin (right).
Jo-Anne Sinclair (left), Eric Venzon (center) congratulating Natasha Venzon.
Hector Guerra from Larson Steel came by this morning to show Bryan the HSS 5×5 by 1/2 inch tube steel.
Hector and Pete Larson wanted to ensure that we knew exactly what the tube steel would look like and set our expectations accordingly.
Hector had a couple feet of the tube steel with him and showed Bryan how the corners have ~ 1 inch radius curve. Hector explained that the thicker the wall of the tube steel, the larger the radius. This is the same with, say, HSS 2×8 by 3/16 tube steel. The corners are rounded, not square.
We thought the steel looked great.
HSS 5x5 by 1/2 inch wall tube steel. Note how the corners have a 1 inch radius curve.
After dropping Nik off at his baseball camp at Stanford University, Bryan went directly to PCBC this morning.
This morning, Bryan met with Philip Kristianson and Terese Eisseman Keller of Sierra Glass Block. They are distributors for GlassWalk structural glass floor systems, by Innovative Building Products. This product is exactly what we have been looking for to go into one of our two bridges.
Bryan met with Ray Kechely of Ultra-Tec Cable Railing Systems. Ray will introduce Bryan to qualified installers of custom cable railing sytems in the Bay Area. It was great to meet Ray.
As circumstances would have it, Bryan was lucky to see a glass floor system in a very nice house in Atherton. Just on the way home before leaving on the Father’s Day Camping Weekend.
Side view of the bridge and railing sytem.
You can see how the aluminum frame sits inside the structural steel frame. This could work in our bridge!
View under glass bridge. This will be spectacular when finished.
