Manhard Consulting was brought in to work with the architect on a new 7,800 s.f. single family custom home residence located in the Galena Foothills in Reno, Nevada. The project included a 1,200 s.f. attached garage and a 900 s.f. covered balcony. The residence consisted of a two-story wood-framed structure with a walk-out basement to the backyard. Manhard Consulting provided full structural design services that included creating complete contract documents, coordinating design loads and layout of the roof trusses with the truss manufacturer, and structural observation during the construction phase.
The complexity of the project required working closely with both the architect and the contractor to ensure that the client’s vision would be fulfilled. Due to the limited wall panel lengths and the large design snow load, in-depth analysis and extra attention was paid to making certain there was complete load path to the foundation for both vertical and lateral loads on the structure. By focusing on using interior bearing and shear walls within the structure, the structure did not require any costly steel moment frames or pre-manufactured engineered structural wall panels. With the emphasis on load path and load transfer on this project, Manhard provided structural observation during the construction phase of the project to ensure that the required members and connections were installed properly to create the load path designed for the structure.