Re: The third dimension
In the 1980s a structural engineer ran his eye over my 1974 house.
He said that breeze-blocks were no longer used for internal walls on wooden joists - they were too heavy. He also found that the builders had saved materials by spacing the floor joists wider than the design plans. The joists' cross-sections, in the days before stress grading, were generously oversized - but too many of them were "wane" timber***
He decided that the stairwell's design had allowed for a 200% overload - which had all been eaten up by the above problems. His parting words were "don't have any parties until it is all fixed".
The saga later on included the repair builders fitting joists that had been sitting in puddles at the timber yard for years - and sprouted spectacular fungi as soon as they started to dry out.
*** "wane" timber is the piece that has lost a corner because it was cut from the curved outside of the tree trunk.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
