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Unit shear capacity of wood shear wall for non-common nail sizes

Unit shear capacity of wood shear wall for non-common nail sizes

Unit shear capacity of wood shear wall for non-common nail sizes

(OP)
So I have a situation where a contractor discovered that the previous contractor nailed off some shear walls with the wrong size nails.

My first check I wanted to run was if tightening up some spacing with the same nails would work out, but all the IBC tables are based on common nail sizes. The IRC lists some alternates for shear wall attachment but doesn't give capacities, as it's all prescriptive.

Is there any information out there on unit shear capacities of wood shear walls sheathed with wood structural panels and nailed off with different sized nails?

The easy alternative, of course, is to have the proper nails picked up and have them re-nail the entire wall with the correct nails at the original spacing, but this would be some good information to have on hand if it's out there.

RE: Unit shear capacity of wood shear wall for non-common nail sizes

Are you talking about different diameters?  Like something other than the 6d, 8d, and 10d nails indicated?

Or are you talking about different nail types - like sinker nails?

With the different diameters, as long as they are common wire or box nails (with similar diamter-to-head ratios) I would think that just adjusting the capacities based upon relative single shear nail values found in the NDS would get you close.

But with different nail types (sinker nails) then I would be concerned over the failure mechanism being different and simple ratios of shear capacities wouldn't be right.
 

RE: Unit shear capacity of wood shear wall for non-common nail sizes

(OP)
I haven't gotten 100% confirmation yet, but I believe they used a standard box/sinker off the shelf from Lowes or Home Depot, etc.

If I'm not mistaken, the main failure mechanism in a shear wall is local buckling at the edges of a panel via withdrawal of the nails and thus adjusting any values would not be based on single shear values.

My hope was that there might be an ICC/ESR report with tested values out there. If there isn't a code report, I won't be attempting to justify anything in this case

RE: Unit shear capacity of wood shear wall for non-common nail sizes

The IBC has charts for this.  Check them out.

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