#Unless you went in for like. A sealant paint specifically.

[screambirdscreaming]

I would hesitate to assume concrete in a structural column is a facade. The point of reinforced concrete is that the steel and concrete work together in a way that makes both stronger: concrete is excellent at carrying compressive load but fails quickly under tension (you might think a column would be fine - but if the load is not perfectly balanced and vertical, there's a bending component, which causes tension in part of the column.) Steel is equally strong in tension and compression, but is prone to deforming out of shape, which makes it unable to continue supporting the load. In reinforced concrete, the steel rebar carries the tension load, while the concrete keeps the steel held in place.

However: concrete cracks. It's brittle, this is pretty unavoidable. To a certain extent, concrete cracking is normal and fine - as long as it stays put. But if the crack starts to open, you've got problems. First of all: if chunks fall off, you've lost structural material, which means you've lost strength. Second of all, if it's not holding the steel in place, you've lost strength. And third of all, cracks can let water in to corrode the steel. (Weird fact: concrete also protects steel from corrosion, somewhat, by being very alkaline. This only gets you so far, though, especially by the ocean - saltwater is crazy corrosive, even as airborne spray.)

With this in mind, the steel straps around the column are more effective than they might seem: they keep the concrete held in place, which keeps the steel held in place, which retains structural function. As a temporary fix, it's pretty good! The fact that it's been painted over like it's a permanent solution, however...... I don't like that....

For one thing, there's the question of how it cracked like that in the first place. At first glance, it looks like the crack runs vertically near one edge of the column, which is weird. But on closer look, there's diagonal cracks starting farther in on the column. Now: bear in mind i am not a structural engineer. But it looks to my inexpert eye that those cracks are consistent with a bending load on the column. If the load was purely horizontal, you'd expect cracks at 45 degrees. But the column is also under compression, which pushes the failure angle steeper. I would guess that the diagonal cracks run out to the edge of the rebar cage, and then run together vertically where the reinforcing steel ends.

That would suggest that the load being transferred to the column is much more on one side than the other, and not in a way that it's designed for. What's up with that? Was it a one-time thing or is it ongoing? Is the steel strap repair enough to handle it?

On the whole I'd say this doesn't look like it's in immediate danger of collapse. But it sure doesn't inspire confidence either.

As I gaze at the structural column in Copley Station, cracked nearly in two and held together with zip ties that have been carefully painted over to match the column underneath, I feel my soul intertwined with that of a small Italian boy of days gone by, who also stopped to look up at a large, groaning, newly painted tank full of molasses

[srijellyfishtempura-archive]

I'll assume this was meant to be an ask rather than a submission, so:

Disheveledcatgirl asked:

"How did you make your long boi?"

Well, we (me and my two friends) bought a furby spine and faceplate from etsy (I would give the link but I don't have it). I believe this was 3D printed, and it was really easy to work with, just having to unscrew a few things to work with it. From this, we went to a fabric store (Lincraft) to get the three fabrics we needed. So to actually make the furby you have to make a head out of a few bits of specifically shaped fabric, then you sew them together, and then screw the faceplate directly onto that bit of fabric. This way, there's no possible liability of glue unsticking with the faceplate. After that, you have to measure how long and wide you want your furby to be, and cut the length of the belly and body (in ours the red plaid and blue fur) and then sew them together and onto the head. Basically you cut out a bunch of shit and then sew it together and also probably hot glue it together so it really doesnt fall apart. We were not good in the planning because we made ours far too fat so he doesn't bend as nicely as others' do.

Requirements: probably about like 2m^2 of total fabric (we got far too much), sewing needles, thread, hot glue, hot glue gun, furby spine and faceplate

The one thing we didn't do is paint the faceplate, because we didn't realise that paint doesn't really work on PLA (3D printing plastic) unless you put paint primer on it and then a sealant, both of which come in cans, which are illegal for minors to buy in Australia.