Why IDEAL Partners with A Structural Engineer - And Other Homebuilders Don't
December 12, 2024
Chris Ramseyer goes by many titles. He’s an emeritus professor at the University of Oklahoma’s Gallogly College of Engineering. He’s the co-designer of the iconic Skydance Bridge at Scissortail Park. He’s the author of the City of Moore’s tornado building code.
And he is the structural engineering partner for Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods.
Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods is the only local home builder that has a Ph.D.-level structural engineer partnering on home designs.
Above & Beyond Building Code
In his role, Dr. Ramseyer creates and reviews all the engineering specifications for Ideal homes.
When most people think about the plans for their home, they imagine the floorplans. However, engineering specifications are entirely different. These internal documents serve as Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods’ construction code. These plans are as thick as textbooks and contain the rules that ensure construction is performed at a high quality.
“They’re designed to promote a good product without requiring construction workers to have a Ph.D.,” Ramseyer said. “The plans point out to a worker in the field: ‘Do it this way.’”
Every Ideal community has unique soil composition, hydrology, and other factors. Dr. Ramseyer’s role is to tailor the engineering specifications to each area, ensuring they meet—or more often exceed—the International Residential Code.
A 23-Year Partnership
Dr. Ramseyer’s involvement with Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods began 23 years ago when Ideal encountered a problem and sought his expertise. A new building code required an additional six inches of width on the two return walls of the garage. Adding a full foot of width to the homes wasn’t feasible due to the homesites available, so the only option would be to rework more than 100 floor plans.
“The reason for the change in code for the return walls was to address lateral load resistance,” Dr. Ramseyer explained. “Wider is better. It’s more stable.”
However, upon reviewing the floor plans and home specifications, Dr. Ramseyer discovered that Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods was already exceeding structural standards with a longer-than-required header. Headers—beams over an opening that disperses the structural load—were only required to extend to the ends of the garages. However, Ideal Homes’ headers extended to the outer walls of the homes.
“I pointed out that because of what they were already doing, they had rotational resistance that wasn’t typical for a standard home. Because of the extended headers, they already had more lateral resistance than the code accounted for. Ideal Homes was doing it, not because code required it, but because they thought it was a better way to build,” Dr. Ramseyer said. “So I suggested that if we ran a few tests, we could prove this.”
After conducting various engineering tests, verifying materials, and identifying the ideal nail pattern, Dr. Ramseyer and Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods had proof that the extended headers far exceeded the safety purposes of the wider walls required by the new code.
Ideal presented the test results at several conventions, and the national code was updated that year. Dr. Ramseyer notes that it’s impossible to say whether the change was directly due to their work or if other engineers had also proposed the option of extended headers.
Either way, this collaboration forged a lasting relationship that has since helped ensure the structural integrity of thousands of Ideal homes across Oklahoma.
Testing Trends Instead of Following Them
One of the benefits of the long-standing partnership between Ideal Homes and Dr. Ramseyer is the ability to thoroughly test new building products and trends rather than blindly following the next “big thing.”
This approach proved invaluable when a compressed cardboard sheeting product was introduced to the market as a less expensive, lighter alternative to plywood and OSB (Oriented Strand Board). Dr. Ramseyer conducted independent tests and even participated in a nationwide blind study of structural engineers to evaluate the new product. Dr. Ramseyer and other engineers involved in the blind study found that the new product performed far below its stated value and failed to meet their standards.
While many builders in Oklahoma continue to use this cheaper material, Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods chose not to follow the trend. Instead, Ideal remains committed to the proven products they’ve always used, confident that these materials contribute to building better, safer, more reliable homes.
And at Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods, that is always the goal.
To explore new homes and floorplans in the Oklahoma City metro, Tulsa, and Stillwater, visit www.idealhomes.com
