So all this Habitat Building of late and a random facebook post reminded me of a good story for this site. We Kuban men were raised to be pretty handy by our Mechanical Engineering father, but anyone that has built with us is probably familiar with what we call “Kuban Engineering”. Kuban Engineering is a faster way to build stuff “right”. Dan could do all the advanced math, he had Masters in ME and had passed the PE, but for home projects that can be rather time consuming. So instead of building stuff to exact design requirement specifications with acceptable real-world extra safety tolerances - we use a short cut. The short cut is simple: start with standard construction rules of thumb and then double or triple it for good measure. Or as Dan put it: “If it looks strong, it probably is.” Now again we are trying to avoid excessive calculations in our “cyphering” (design phase) so we often round up if the math works out easier…
I remember Rob telling me one that it was an adjustment when he first started working with Habitat regularly in college. He said it was weird only putting 2-3 nails (per H4H plans) when his instincts told him: that board needs 8 nails or maybe 16… But my favorite example of Kuban Engineering has to be the couch Dad built.
Dad built a sofa strong enough “for the boys” when we were little. The sofa was wood (up to 2×8’s if memory serves) stained and coated 3x in exterior grade poly - except the “hi-wear” areas which got 4 coats. Mom made some foam cushions and voila. The sofa survived the rigors of four boys and eventually we were all grown. At which point some deck cushions were purchased and the sofa was re-purposed (can’t throw away a perfectly good sofa) as deck furniture. After several years of sun and rain soaked cushions the sofa was still in mint condition - the cushions, however, were showing their age. As a last ditch effort, the sofa was tossed off the 2nd story deck only to damage… the ground. Seeing no alternative, the chain saws were called in so that Mom could get new deck furniture to replace the “broken” one. 