tall exterior wall framing
tall exterior wall framing
(OP)
just curious what other engineers do in the following situation; 4 storey wood frame building with two storey atrium along the outside wall. Opening in the diaphragm is 28ft long x 12ft wide. I'm considering two options, running an lvl beam 28 ft long spanning between walls and designing for weak axis bending due to wind load or framing the wall with long studs for full height. Anybody have an other solutions?





RE: tall exterior wall framing
Dik
RE: tall exterior wall framing
Todays clients want larger and more frequent openings with volume space. It sure makes wood framed construction difficult.
Good Luck!
woodengineer
RE: tall exterior wall framing
RE: tall exterior wall framing
Dik
RE: tall exterior wall framing
RE: tall exterior wall framing
Even easier, if the architect allows it, try thickening the wall. Vertical 2x6 LVL at 16" o.c. or 2x8 @ 16" o.c. should work. Even with large expanses of glass I've got 2x8 @16"o.c. studs to work...
RE: tall exterior wall framing
Do you have axial loads on this wall? What happens when your LVL deflects (say 2")under wind load and your studs are no longer vertical. This will cause 2nd order effects in your wall.
Best to try and make 8" full height studs work, that is what I have done in the past. if you are stuck at 6" wall thickness try LVL studs.
I have had builder build it as if there was a floor there and I told them to pull it down and rebuild it as full height studs.
regards
csd