ᐅ Reinforced concrete columns at the corners of the bay window

We have a very simple house design. Nevertheless, on the ground floor, there are 6 reinforced concrete columns with a cross-section of 24x24cm (9.5x9.5 inches), and on the upper floor, there are even 8 columns in the knee wall. The ring beam is embedded 1.5m (5 feet) deep into the interior walls. Even the garage has reinforced concrete columns at all exterior corners and one more in the middle of the 9m (30 feet) long shared boundary wall.

So, it doesn’t seem uncommon to use reinforced concrete for structural purposes.

11ant schrieb:
Not allegedly, that is actually correct. They are positioned exactly right for this purpose; thermal insulation would be more complicated at the exterior corners. Therefore, neither the structural engineer nor the energy consultant should be surprised by this. The office dog understood it immediately 🙂

Okay, the location of the steel supports at the inner corners is better energetically (and certainly also structurally) than at the outer corners. But are they even necessary?

It’s interesting that quite a few have such reinforced concrete supports.

Mycraft schrieb:
So, then thin beam ceilings with little steel...

No, what is common today is not really called beam ceilings. The reason lies in the "tongue" of the ceiling above the bay window, whose framework mainly consists of windows and which should not bear this load alone.

ares83 schrieb:
We have that in at least one spot as well. It was required for structural reasons alongside the 4cm (1.6 inch) thicker ceiling.

Is it partially 4 cm (1.6 inch) thicker?

bluminger schrieb:
But are they even necessary?
Interesting that quite a few have such reinforced concrete columns.

In today’s common wall constructions with bricks, which compared to traditional solid bricks almost resemble hollow core blocks, it is probably easier to integrate this than using higher strength bricks that were more common in the past.

The exact "how" is subject to a changing trend—but the principle of incorporating beams or lintels here and there (and providing them with a support layer with increased compressive strength) is not new. In earlier times, panoramic bay windows were less commonly built.

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11ant schrieb:

Is it partially 4cm (1.5 inches) thicker (?)

No. Consistently throughout.

@11ant, I understood that the passages refer to the large kitchen/dining/living area (which is not unusually large), but I will clarify this during the meeting with the structural engineer on Wednesday.

Our ceiling above the ground floor will now be made 2cm (0.8 inches) thicker than originally planned due to structural requirements.

Here is how I see it:

bluminger schrieb:
Our ceiling above the ground floor now has to be 2cm (0.8 inches) thicker than originally planned due to structural requirements.

Where stronger reinforcement is needed, the concrete cover must not be reduced. Therefore, the entire slab (in that area) will be made thicker.

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