| For those of you who don't know what an anchor | | | | especially if it ever failed. |
| bolt is, it's usually an L shaped bolt that goes into | | | | The biggest problem with contractors and builders |
| the concrete and is used to connect the bottom | | | | who think that they know more about building |
| framing plates to the concrete slab, footing or | | | | foundations and L bolts than the structural |
| building foundation. But here are some of the | | | | engineers or even the city engineers, should try |
| things that you might not know about your | | | | to keep one thing in mind. They're not responsible |
| building foundation and metal bolts and how they | | | | for any structural problems that were assembled |
| can work more efficiently together. | | | | according to the building plans, but the structural |
| Did you know that there are different lengths of | | | | engineers are. |
| anchor bolts? Do you know that there are | | | | The next time that you're looking at a set of |
| different sizes of foundation bolts, for instance | | | | blueprints and it calls out for a 7 inch minimum |
| I've seen foundation bolts as small as 3/8 of an | | | | anchor bolt embedment, make sure that you |
| inch and as large as three quarters of an inch. It's | | | | purchase the right L bolt's for that particular job. |
| hard to imagine that we need so many different | | | | I'm not writing this article, because I've never |
| types of L bolts for our building foundation. | | | | seen this happen, I'm writing this article, because I |
| Now here's something that even some builders | | | | know someone who installed the wrong anchor |
| have a problem with. It's not a big problem, but | | | | bolts on one of their projects. These L bolts were |
| I've seen contractors argue with structural | | | | later removed as the city building inspector |
| engineers about which types of anchor bolts are | | | | requested a correction for the change. |
| actually going to be required for one particular | | | | The building inspector found the problem and the |
| project. Now remember, most builders don't have | | | | contractor got the education. Even though the |
| the knowledge or the responsibility a structural | | | | contractor knew better, he still got the education. |
| engineer might have, about building foundation, | | | | |