Concrete is the "modern" construction material that has helped shape the fundamental static principles of structural load bearing. Similar to masonry, concrete effectively transmits pressure downward, but its weak point is tractive forces. Concrete has also enabled freer use of architectonic forms. This title imparts the basic knowledge every architect needs to master for planning reinforced and non-reinforced concrete construction.

Concrete can be a pretty unforgiving building material. Ask any of the builders who come into your store and they'll usually have a horror story to share about a concrete job gone awry and how much it cost them.Basic Concrete Engineering for Builders may be one of the only books available today that explains how to avoid common concrete problems with foundations, slabs, columns, and more. It gives step-by-step explanations on how to plan, mix, reinforce and pour concrete. It also shows how to design concrete for buildings -- the calculations, the tables, and the rules of thumb, with examples and insight into the working knowledge that every builder needs.Most builders don't end up specifying requirements for structural concrete work. That's the job of an engineer. But most builders working with concrete need a good general understanding of the concepts behind structural concrete engineering. They need to know about: surveying, foundation layout, formwork, form materials, forming problems, aggregates, admixtures, reinforcing, mixing and placing requirements, pumping, creating joints, curing, and testing the concrete's strength. They need to know basic design for walls, columns, slabs, slabs-on-grade, one- and two-way slabs, elevated slabs, equipment pads, pre-cast walls, retaining walls, basement walls, crib walls, reinforcing beams and girders, driveways, sidewalks, curbs, catch basins, manholes and other miscellaneous structures, as well as how to calculate the reinforcement needed for these structural components. You'll find all this information in this book and on the software included in the back.Includes Free Engineering Software: A CD-ROM is included with easy-to-useengineering software for designing simple concrete elements for beams, slabs and columns.

The book combines history with academic notes for use at the university level, presenting design examples from actual jobs with applications and detailing for the practicing engineer. Chapter 1 tells the history of post-tensioned concrete as only Ken Bondy can tell it. Chapters 2-8 are the notes Dirk Bondy uses to teach Design of Prestressed Concrete Structures at UCLA and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. Chapters 9-13 are design examples that address many of the decisions faced by practicing engineers on typical projects. Chapters 13-14 cover the art of detailing and observing the construction of post-tensioned concrete. This knowledge was obtained over many years of working on our own projects and listening and learning from the the pioneers of post-tensioned concrete. Chapter 15 covers the slab on grade industry, which represents more sales of post-tensioning tendons than all other post-tensioning applications combined. Chapter 16 discusses the challenging application of post-tensioning-external post-tensioning.