Welders: I need your opinion!

[piaffepony]

I hired a contractor to put up a 72’ wide 30’ tall end wall to enclose the north end of my arena. I know him fairly well and I’ve seen his work elsewhere.. he was recommended by my vet as well.

He is in and out, while his crew is here working. I’m a very novice welder but I was out there looking at their work.

Is it common practice to only weld one corner? In the picture, you’ll see the only weld holding up that end of the tubing...

 

[4570Man]

Can you post a couple more pictures of what that piece is doing?

 

[BLSXJ]

at 1st glance, I'd say that is a decent weld.

The weld should be called out on an engineered drawing.... that might be all the engineer called for.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

That's a good looking weld. Are you expecting hurricane force wind loads? I think the sheet metal will tear away first in a tornado. That looks to be 6" tubing, so the weld is about 5". That will hold a lot.

You might ask whoever designed the wall. The standard in most areas is 40 psf wind load. If the girts are 4' o/c, the weld needs to hold 4x(girt length/2)x40 lbs. for instance, if the girt spans 20', the weld has to hold 4x10x40 lbs, or 1600 lbs. A 5" weld will probably serve, but you might ask him to run a bead on top of the tube too.

Once again, the person who designed the end wall did the calcs on the attachment points. You can get weld strengths out of any structural steel book of tables. If it were mine, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, but I live in the middle of the lowest average wind speed in the US. My house was 25 years old when I bought it, and they had never bothered to nail off the T1-11 siding.

edit: The weld location is excellent. The wind loading to be concerned about comes from the inside of the building. With that weld, there will be no twisting force on the girt tube. If the wind wants to tear it off the column, it will have to pull straight off. It looks like a professional job.

 

[Rustyiron]

Trust your recomended welding contractor. I'm sure this is not his first job. Looks good to me. :thumbsup:

 

[flyerdan]

It looks good, if you hooked onto it and tried to pull it apart the surrounding material would tear first. By doing it that way it also preserves the cosmetic effect on the front, and it will require fewer skinny wheels to cut it apart later, should layouts change.

 

[Stimw]

Vertical Down Stick Weld- That's the least strong weld to be made.
Maybe they will add more when it's laid out. ???

 

[piaffepony]

After looking at it a few hours later, it looks like they might be adding some angle iron to it like the other door way... thank you guys for helping set my mind at ease. Due to my DIY ex husband over selling me on his abilities, and now I’m left with doing all the repairs myself (hiring out most of it is too expensive). Not that I was ever and indoor kinda girl, but most heavy duty power tools scared me... now I have to do it all.... welding, fencing, electrical, engine repair and maintenance, plumbing, planning and designing improvements.. most of it completely by myself, watching YouTube, google and bugging the crap out of you guys. I’ve lost so much faith in others but I sold my beloved skid steer to pay a contractor for this dammmn wall... I’m just paranoid something is going to go wrong.

Thank you all so so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I can’t even begin to tell y’all how hard and frustrating it has been! I finally lost my schitt when I couldn’t manage to change out a simple phucking T8 bulb in one of my highbay lights that’s 25ft in the air on this rickety azz lift (i don’t do so well with heights either). Some how I’m supposed to figure out how to convert all 24, 6 bulb fixtures to LEDs at night (while the crew isn’t hear) and I only have till Monday morning before the lift goes back because “my ballasts are old and will need to be replaced anyway”.... and I can’t seem to even get 1 bulb out of 144 to even come out??!!

Argh!!!!! Sorry for the tangent rant..

 

[4570Man]

Just shoot the bulbs out with a BB gun. Putting the LEDs back in might be harder. Joking obviously.

 

[Stimw]

Some bulbs need to be turned 90* , others are spring loaded, you push or pull to compress spring then drop down.
I bought 4' LED fixtures with bright light (4500 lumens) at Rural King for $24.99. They offer free shipping over $50. IIRC.
6 Fixtures in 40' X 60' building, see pic-