Michael Daly wrote:

On 28-Apr-2005, Unquestionably Confused wrote:

To overbuild is never a crime

Overbuilt can cause a failure. For example, if something is designed and
built correctly, it will tend to show excessive deflections before
failure,
providing a warning. Overbuilt things can fail spectacularly without
any warning.

Where you run into the kind of problem you describe is when a strong but
brittle material is substituted for a weaker but more ductile material.
The ductile material will bend before it breaks, the brittle material will
simply break.

As for something "designed and built correctly" showing "excessive
deflections before failure", certainly one can design things that way but
that doesn't mean that it's the only correct way. Concrete for example
doesn't flex noticeably before it breaks so by your reasoning concrete
should never be used as a building material.

When dealing with wooden beams, making the beam stronger than called for is
not going to result in sudden failure with no warning unless the original
design would also fail suddenly with no warning at a lighter load.

That could be a crime or at least expose you to a civil
lawsuit.

I would like you to quote the statute which makes it a criminal offense to
build something stronger than is required. Or provide reference to a civil
case where someone was successfully sued for building something stronger
than was specified.

Mike

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--John
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