Learning branch

Construction systems

Understand how foundations, floors, walls, roofs, openings, and stairs constrain one another.

Start here

Treat a building as a continuous load and weather path. Changing one assembly can affect every assembly above and beside it.

Each draft provides a direct answer, worked example, decision logic, limitations, primary sources, and a route into a relevant tool or starter plan.

Frame slab, crawlspace, basement, pier, and specialized concepts around site and building constraints.

Estimate layout quantities while keeping load paths, bracing, fire, moisture, and member sizing visible as unresolved design work.

Keep spans, supports, openings, levels, vibration, moisture, and services connected to room decisions.

Model slope and plan area for early quantities while separating geometry from structural and weather design.

Reserve wall, floor, and roof openings together with access, support, weather, fire, and fall-protection context.

Turn a floor-to-floor height into a riser count, an actual riser height, a total run, and the floor space a flight really needs.

How rise over run converts to degrees and a slope factor, and what changes across covering, area, cost, and usable space when the pitch changes.

How to read a span table well enough to place beams and bearing walls, and why the table is a starting point rather than an answer.