fhsmith
Structural
- Nov 1, 2018
- 1
We have several apartment projects in our office, and due to the cost of wood skyrocketing, we are sharpening our pencils to trim off the fat in our design. During that process, we decided to look into the construction phase of the projects due to a horror story we heard from a colleague at another firm (5 stories built, first floor unsheathed due to tenant space, studs looked like bananas).
What we are finding is that a single 2x4 or 2x6 doesn't have a lot of load capacity when unbraced (see attached). We have used a CYA general note about what is shown in our drawings is the final state, and stability of the structure while it is under construction is the responsibility of the contractor. We have previously not had an issue with walls during the construction phase, but upon our calculations, we see a potential life safety concern for the contractor and feel like we should cover this situation more explicitly in our documents. However, we are also concerned that we will get push back from the contractor due to either added labor/material costs or sequencing concerns with other trades.
My questions are:
1) What are other engineers considering during the construction phase of multi-story load bearing wood buildings?
2) What type of notes or details are you using to cover the construction phase of multi-story load bearing wood buildings?
3) How have the notes or details been received by contractors in the field and are they pushing back?
4) When observing construction in the field, are the contractors following the notes or details?
What we are finding is that a single 2x4 or 2x6 doesn't have a lot of load capacity when unbraced (see attached). We have used a CYA general note about what is shown in our drawings is the final state, and stability of the structure while it is under construction is the responsibility of the contractor. We have previously not had an issue with walls during the construction phase, but upon our calculations, we see a potential life safety concern for the contractor and feel like we should cover this situation more explicitly in our documents. However, we are also concerned that we will get push back from the contractor due to either added labor/material costs or sequencing concerns with other trades.
My questions are:
1) What are other engineers considering during the construction phase of multi-story load bearing wood buildings?
2) What type of notes or details are you using to cover the construction phase of multi-story load bearing wood buildings?
3) How have the notes or details been received by contractors in the field and are they pushing back?
4) When observing construction in the field, are the contractors following the notes or details?