Residential Wood Deck Design Wind Loads?
Residential Wood Deck Design Wind Loads?
(OP)
In looking over the DCA6 for Residential Deck design, no mention is made of wind loads. I am designing a residential wood deck around a large pool area 4' of the ground, thinking of applying the open structure wind pressures on the deck structure, but I am unable to find any reference that may show that this a design requirement. Uplift on the underside of the of deck would increase footing sizes. Has anyone dealt with this in a high wind area? Thanks in advance





RE: Residential Wood Deck Design Wind Loads?
I did for mine 15 years ago and have seen no problems. It too is four feet off the ground with an open X mesh wood skirting.
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
RE: Residential Wood Deck Design Wind Loads?
Basically agree w M^2 - haven't seen too many decks blow away. If worried throw in a couple of more yards of concrete running about $90 a yard around here!!
RE: Residential Wood Deck Design Wind Loads?
Invite all the local MILFS over and after your wife kills you, you will still have the deck and HOT tub.
RE: Residential Wood Deck Design Wind Loads?
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
RE: Residential Wood Deck Design Wind Loads?
RE: Residential Wood Deck Design Wind Loads?
Irrespective of the MILFS at the pool, you do have to pay attention to lateral loads on the deck and properly bracing it and/or tie it into the building. In the residential wood deck design guide I'm looking at, Min. Reqr'mts., item 7, second page says "This document does not address wind and seismic design issues." God help us, I guess they still expect us to apply some engineering judgement and experience in our designs. ASCE 7 might be used as a guide for wind loads, but after reading 60 or 70 pages of that, spending hours looking for the meaning and value of some obscure multiplying factors and running you computer for an hour or two; you might just take the projected area of the deck, double or triple that since the wind will be applied to many joists, not just the rim joist, and apply 15-20 lbs./sq.ft. and call it good. The bigger question in terms of lateral stability of the deck is, where would the worst location be for three or four drunken, 300 lb. defensive linemen, swaying in unison, to impress the cheerleaders and other guests? That's a loading parallel to the ledger, but 10-12' away from the bldg. at the handrail, applying a high tension component at one end of the ledger, corner of the deck. Or, a group of people running to one handrail to see some commotion. That pulls the whole ledger away from the bldg. And, I suppose you'll have trouble finding those in the codes also. I have trouble calculating those forces too. But, those are the types of loads which more often than not peel a deck away from its ledger or the building, when not connected or braced properly. And remember, jst. hardware has very poor strength values when loaded along the axis of the jst.
Obviously, you have a different problem if you have privacy walls, or several different levels of deck, or some of these wildly unsymmetrical deck plans. Also, a very heavy deck in EQ country needs some special attention.
RE: Residential Wood Deck Design Wind Loads?