Post tension

Snicker-Snack! Post-Tension Tendon Finishing Options

by EVstudio AEP July 26, 2019
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Long ago, when I started my career, a contractor asked me if he could use a concrete saw to “cut all of the tendon tails at once” on his new post-tension slab on grade.  That is to say — he was hoping to cut all […]

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Restrained versus Unrestrained Members

by EVstudio AEP July 26, 2019
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In the last several months, I’ve had many questions about what constitutes a “restrained” concrete member, and what constitutes an “unrestrained” concrete member.  The volume has been such that I’ve decided to take a break from my usual post-tensioned discussions and lay this out. This […]

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Precompression vs. Balanced Load in Post-Tension Concrete

by EVstudio AEP July 12, 2019

My Post–Tension elevator speech is pretty well rehearsed at this point: “We drape steel cables — tendons — in the concrete forms, and then place the concrete.  Once it cures, we pull the ends of the tendons, which try to straighten out.  That does three […]

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Understanding Long-Term Losses in Post-Tension Tendons

by EVstudio AEP July 11, 2019

As a structural designer, I started my career working on post-tension structures.  Those of you who have been with us for some time know that those can include things as small as a single tennis or basketball court as well as some of the tallest […]

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Post Tension Slab-on-Grade Foundation

by Jim Houlette, PE April 19, 2019

A Post Tension (PT) slab-on-grade (SOG) foundation is based on a typical raft SOG foundation with one major difference; high strength steel tendons pulled into tension.  Tendons are typically ½” diameter made of 7 steel wire strands that is then greased and encased in a […]

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Post-Tension Crack Control (or, Keep that Duct Tape Handy)

by EVstudio AEP January 17, 2019

Last month, I wrote a blog post about things you can’t fix with duct tape — specifically, post-tension tendon sheathing.  A couple of my readers told me that I’d strayed dangerously close to heresy — so I thought I’d write a post about something post-tensioned […]

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Post Tension Basketball Court – Sport Court

by Sean O'Hara, AIA, LEED AP November 30, 2018
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Courts for basketball, tennis and other sports need to be free of cracking. At the same time, they are large expanses of concrete and concrete tends to crack. The solution is to do a post tension concrete court. A well designed post tension sport court […]

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Denver Engineers Not Surprised by New Post-Tension Rule

by EVstudio AEP November 6, 2018
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Good day!  Your usual post–tension maniac here, with more exciting information on post-tensioning! A few months ago, I mentioned that finishing post-tension tendons was an area of special concern, since corrosion is very much the arch-enemy of post-tension tendons.  There are actually a lot of […]

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Post-Tension Elongations: How Long is Too Long?

by EVstudio AEP September 29, 2018
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Recently, we’ve had a few projects where our post-tension elongations came up longer than expected.  As you’ll recall from my post earlier this year, elongation review is a critical part of an engineer’s acceptance of a post-tension slab.  However, I mostly concentrated on short pulls […]

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St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Castle Rock

by Jim Houlette, PE September 28, 2018

EVstudio provided post tension foundation design for the recent St Francis of Assisi Church.  The Church is being built by Fransen Pittman and designed by Architectural Innovations, LLC. This was a great project to be a part of.  The project was an addition to an […]

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Balancing Post-Tension

by EVstudio AEP March 27, 2018

Last month, I wrote a quick post about understanding the sources of long-term losses with post-tension tendons.  One of the key points to take away from that is that the more post-tension material you use, the less effective each individual tendon becomes.  However, this is […]

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Denver Dad Saves $$$ on Post-Tension Tendon Supports Using One Simple Trick

by EVstudio AEP November 29, 2017

Last month, I discussed the need for precompression in a post-tensioned slab.  In that post, I mentioned that the code minimum amount of precompression is 125 psi for elevated slabs. I’ve also mentioned some of the various types of elevated decks in the past.  One […]

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