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Residential

Doughtery Addition

Location: Watsonville, California
Architect: Marty Fiorovich, A.I.A.

This oceanfront property located on the Pajaro Dunes was a remodel/addition project. The existing structure was approximately 2,250 square feet. The addition added about 1,350 square feet to the structure. An attached garage, office, family room, and expanded decks were parts of the addition. The remodel, however, was a complete face-lift on the house.

The entire roof system of the structure was taken down and re-engineered. The existing roof was a traditional gable shape, which was replaced by a system of large, cambered glulam roof rafters. The glulam rafters were special ordered, and custom fabricated steel connections were designed by our engineers. Splices in the glulam rafters could not be avoided in order to transport them to the project site. We engineered steel plate splice connectors for the rafters.

The layout of the remodel did not leave very many walls to be utilized for lateral resistance, or shear walls. The ocean front view is the most attractive part of this home and windows make up most of that side of the residence. A custom steel moment frame was engineered by our team to resist lateral seismic and wind forces. The steel frame is comprised of large gusset plates that are welded to rectangular structural steel tubes, which are are anchored to concrete piers large enough to resist the lateral forces.

A Simpson Strong Tie “Strong Wall” was utilized in the front of the new garage. A combination of large seismic loads and limited space made use of the “Strong Wall” the most economic solution.