Forum Home
PC World Chat
 
Thread ID: 141816 2016-03-04 21:14:00 Darwin Rules ! Terry Porritt (14) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1416877 2016-03-05 04:19:00 Jumping up and down on balcony is definitely Darwin's law of natural selection. prefect (6291)
1416878 2016-03-05 06:26:00 News tonight said there were 30 people on it tut (12033)
1416879 2016-03-05 06:46:00 Personally I wouldn't trust any domestic cantilevered balcony that didn't have any support columns. Then there is the water ingress problem that could cause hidden rot.
Maybe rental properties with balconies should be checked periodically by a suitable building inspector or structural engineer, like the bush walk bridge structures are in the Wellington Regional Council area.
The point of cantilever is to avoid columns.

You should get a job with council.
Cicero (40)
1416880 2016-03-05 06:50:00 The point of cantilever is to avoid columns.

You should get a job with council.

Right, I was being deliberately oxymoronic :)
Terry Porritt (14)
1416881 2016-03-05 07:01:00 Right, I was being deliberately oxymoronic :)
Why was I such a bounder suggesting otherwise?:confused:
Cicero (40)
1416882 2016-03-05 09:28:00 i saw it on the news and they had a good shot of the deck. it shows it has broken off at all joists at the pivot point which was partly out of view in previous pics.
the 30 people on it would be a gross overestimate as i doubt they would fit on it.

i think they need to look closer at whats happened. i think it had 11 6x2 joists on edge. even with 20 people jumping on it, it should not break.
tweak'e (69)
1416883 2016-03-05 18:54:00 lifts have other safety devices. decks don't.
.

And there are still accidents.

There were 30 people, the deck was built to handle 8.
Why is it that there is never any accountability for peoples own actions, always must blame the manufacturer or whoever.
Must be the building of it, in fact I heard someone say it was the concerts fault, because it shouldn't have been played there where people could stand on decks etc...

Really? How about don't jam too many people onto a deck.
There fault, not anyone elses.
pctek (84)
1416884 2016-03-05 20:52:00 I too think it's a bit heartless laughing at the students for their ignorance. It's like blaming a child who electrocutes themselves by poking a finger somewhere they shouldn't.

These days we design things (roads, cars, electrical equipment) to be safe even when people are ignorant. I blame the design of the balcony. It should have been designed to resist as many people as could physically fit on it, plus some - as tweak'e says.

Cantilevers are tricky. If the balcony had vertical or diagonal support it would be easy. For a cantilever, I would probably extend only 800mm with 250mm joists every 400 and still worry about it

I painted my house recently and was tempted to use a temporary cantilevered platform left by the previous owner extending from a car deck towards the house. It only extended 700 mm but it felt dodgy (even though I had used it several times in the past). Anyway, I decided to replace it. I got out my 4lb hammer to bash the cantilevers sideways. One hit and the thing went crashing down! Whoever installed it had used 75mm nails... above a drop of 2 storeys
BBCmicro (15761)
1416885 2016-03-05 21:00:00 And there are still accidents.

There were 30 people, the deck was built to handle 8.
Why is it that there is never any accountability for peoples own actions, always must blame the manufacturer or whoever.
Must be the building of it, in fact I heard someone say it was the concerts fault, because it shouldn't have been played there where people could stand on decks etc...

Really? How about don't jam too many people onto a deck.
There fault, not anyone elses.

early report was 20 which seams more realistic than 30, i doubt 30 would even fit.


built to handle 8
thats an issue in itself. its not unconceivable that you could easily fit more than 8 people on it. my own deck is not much bigger than theirs and i bet its had more than 20 people on it multiple times over the years.
there is the concept of fair use and exceptions. you would expect a deck that can fit 20 would be made to withstand 20 average people. where not even talking big or obese people.

who tells the general public that there is an unwritten weight limit and that they have to guess what it is ??
no one thinks about how much weight it can support, thats the designers and builders job.
tweak'e (69)
1416886 2016-03-05 21:08:00 who tells the general public that there is an unwritten weight limit and that they have to guess what it is ??
no one thinks about how much weight it can support, thats the designers and builders job.

Certainly not drunken students. "Thinking" is just not in the party tool chest.
R2x1 (4628)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12