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Residential Foundation Design Options and Concepts

George E. Thomas, PE


Course Outline

This course is intended to improve your structural engineering knowledge related to housing foundation design and performance by providing state of the art engineering concepts for light frame construction. It compliments current design practices and building code requirements with value-added technical information and guidance. In doing so, it supplements fundamental engineering principles with various insights that focus on improving the understanding of conventional and engineered housing construction. Thus, it will address deficiencies and inefficiencies in past housing construction practices and structural engineering concepts through a comprehensive design approach that draws on existing and innovative engineering technologies in a practical manner. It is hoped that this course will help facilitate and advance efficient design of residential housing whether built in conformance with prescriptive (i.e., "conventional") practices or specially engineered in part or whole. The desired effect is to continue to improve the value of engineers in terms of economy in construction and performance.

This course includes a multiple choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of the course, the student will:

Intended Audience

Architects, Engineers, Residential Designers, and Builders


Benefit to Attendees

The information gained from this course will allow for the engineer to design different types of foundations for a variety of situations and conditions relating to residential construction.


Course Introduction

This course is intended to improve your structural engineering knowledge related to residential foundation design and performance by providing state of the art engineering concepts for light frame construction. It compliments current design practices and building code requirements with value-added technical information and guidance. In doing so, it supplements fundamental engineering principles with various insights that focus on improving the understanding of conventional and engineered housing construction. Thus, it will address deficiencies and inefficiencies in past residential construction practices and structural engineering concepts through a comprehensive design approach that draws on existing and innovative engineering technologies in a practical manner.


Course Content

In this lesson, you are required to download and study the following course content in PDF format:

Residential Foundation Design Options and Concepts

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.


Course Summary

In summary this course was developed to help facilitate and advance efficient design of residential housing foundations whether built in conformance with prescriptive (i.e., "conventional") practices or specially engineered in part or whole. The desired effect of the information presented is to continue to improve the value of engineers in terms of economy in construction and performance.

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

Take a Quiz


DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.