Industrial structural engineer for Texas warehouses and facilities
Warehouse structural design, mezzanines, equipment foundations, crane runways, and evaluations of existing slabs for racking and new equipment, for facility owners and design-builders across the metro and the rest of Texas. Practical structures, designed to be built quickly and used hard.
- Who we work with
- Owners · Design-builders · Integrators
- Deliverable
- Stamped drawings and capacity letters
- Systems
- Steel · Concrete · Tilt-wall · PEMB
- Service area
- DFW and Texas
What this covers
What industrial structural engineering covers
Industrial structures carry heavy, specific, and changing loads: racking, forklifts, machines, cranes, conveyors. The design question is rarely elegant and always concrete. What does this floor, frame, or foundation actually hold, and what would it take to hold more?
Warehouse and distribution buildings
Structural design for tilt-wall, steel-framed, and pre-engineered metal buildings: roof framing, lateral systems, dock and door framing, and foundations that account for the expansive soils under most of the region.
Mezzanines and platforms
Steel mezzanines for storage, offices, and equipment access, designed to the actual use, with stairs and guards included and the existing slab and columns checked for the loads they pick up.
Equipment foundations
Foundations for presses, compressors, generators, tanks, silos, and process equipment, including the vibration and anchorage requirements taken from the manufacturer's data.
Existing slab and racking evaluations
Capacity of existing slabs-on-grade for rack post loads, forklift wheel loads, and new equipment, using core data and soil information where available, with reinforcement details when the slab falls short.
Crane runways and monorails
Runway beams, columns, and bracing for top-running and underhung cranes, designed to the crane manufacturer's loads and deflection limits, with connections back to the existing frame.
Pre-engineered metal building support
Foundations and hardwall additions for PEMB systems based on the manufacturer's reactions, and structural coordination wherever a metal building meets conventional construction.
Typical projects
Typical industrial projects
Industrial work follows capability more than geography. These projects come from across the metro and the rest of the state.
- 01Storage mezzanine over an existing warehouse floor
- 02Slab capacity check before a new racking installation
- 03Compressor, generator, or chiller foundation with anchorage design
- 04Tilt-wall warehouse structural design with the developer's architect
- 05Crane runway added to an existing manufacturing bay
- 06Rooftop dust collector or HVAC platform support
- 07Silo, tank, and hopper foundations
- 08Foundations and hardwall for a pre-engineered metal building
Our approach
Our approach to industrial structures
Load data first. A structure is only as good as the numbers it was designed for, and industrial loads are specific.
- 01
Define the loads
Rack manufacturer post loads, forklift wheel loads, equipment reactions and anchor patterns, crane data, and whatever expansion the owner is planning next. We keep asking until the numbers are real.
- 02
Evaluate what exists
Original drawings, field measurement, slab cores, and soil data where needed. Existing capacity gets calculated, never assumed from the building's age.
- 03
Design to be built
Simple, repetitive steel and concrete details a fabricator and a concrete crew can execute without slowing the facility down, with sealed drawings and calculations for the permit.
- 04
Support installation
Shop drawing review, anchor bolt and embed coordination, and letters for the racking installer, the equipment vendor, or the city inspector.
Codes and standards
Codes and standards for industrial structures
Industrial buildings and equipment supports fall under the International Building Code and ASCE 7, which in turn reference the steel, concrete, and racking standards below.
Building department pages for the cities where most of our industrial work gets permitted:
- IBC (ICC)
- Structural design requirements, storage occupancies, and special inspections for industrial buildings.
- ASCE 7
- Design loads, including storage live loads, equipment loads, and seismic anchorage of nonstructural components.
- AISC 360
- Specification for Structural Steel Buildings: mezzanines, platforms, runways, and connections.
- ACI 318 and ACI 351
- Structural concrete, and foundations for equipment and machinery.
- RMI ANSI MH16.1
- Rack Manufacturers Institute specification for steel storage racks, including the slab and anchorage requirements racks impose.
- TBPELS
- Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors: who may stamp engineering documents in Texas.
Questions
Questions from facility owners and design-builders
Do I need an engineer for a mezzanine?
Yes, in practically every Texas city. A mezzanine is a structure with people or storage on it, and the permit requires stamped drawings covering the mezzanine itself, its stairs and guards, and the effect of its columns on the existing slab and foundation. A prefabricated mezzanine system still needs a site-specific engineer's evaluation of the floor it sits on.
What codes govern equipment foundations?
The International Building Code and ASCE 7 for loads and anchorage, ACI 318 for the concrete, and ACI 351 for machinery foundations, with the equipment manufacturer's installation data setting the reactions, anchor pattern, and any vibration limits. Rotating and reciprocating equipment gets a dynamic check as well as a static one.
Can my existing slab support new racking?
Sometimes. The answer depends on slab thickness, concrete strength, reinforcing, joint locations, and the soil underneath, all checked against the rack post loads and the forklift traffic. We evaluate from drawings, and from cores if needed. When the slab falls short, we design thickened footings or a reinforced strip under the rack rows rather than replacing the floor.
Do you design pre-engineered metal buildings?
The metal building manufacturer designs the frame. We design the foundations from their reactions, any hardwall or masonry additions, the mezzanines and equipment inside the building, and the interface wherever the metal building meets conventional construction. We also review the manufacturer's drawings for consistency with the site and the soil report.
How do you handle a facility that cannot shut down?
By designing for phased installation: repetitive details, bolted connections, precast or rapid-set foundations where they make sense, and a sequence agreed with the owner and the installer before the drawings are finalized. Structural work inside an operating plant is a scheduling problem as much as a design problem.
Related services
Related services
- 02
Commercial
The office, showroom, or clinic attached to the plant, designed by the firm that already knows the site.
View service → - 06
Retaining Walls & Global Stability
Truck court and dock walls carry surcharge from loaded trailers. We design them from the grading plan and the soil behind them.
View service →
Start a project
Have a floor, frame, or foundation to check or design?
Send the equipment data, the rack layout, or the building drawings. We will tell you what else we need and what the evaluation involves.
This page is general information about structural engineering practice and is not engineering advice for a specific site or project. Glacier Point provides sealed engineering only under a signed engagement agreement.