single wall construction

[wire89]

I have a 1920's cottage that is single wall construction (no stud framing). I am curious about how this system performs structurally, both axial and lateral, when transferring loads through this rather minimal 3/4" vertical diaphragm.

 

[haynewp]

What is supporting the vertical diaphragm? Is this just plywood spanning from floor to roof beam?

 

[Taro]

The majority of older houses in Hawaii are single wall construction. Although they would not pencil out if you tried to run calculations on them, they have performed adequately for many decades. The local building code now does not allow single wall construction except for repair or additions to existing single wall buildings.

 

[haynewp]

On second thought, I don't think plywood was around back then. If it is just a single diaphragm of boards spanning you could think of each board being pinned at each end, so theoretically I don't think it would work out.

 

[wire89]

It has a hip with spaced 1x sheathing, 2x4 rafters and 2x6 ceiling joists.
the vertical wall diaphragm is essetially a board and batten wall of 1x12 boards and milled batts. it's been a while but I seem to recall the raftes resting a 2x top plate that is then, somehow, attatched to the baords. It may occue via the 1x3 ceiling trim. At the sill the boards appear to be face nailed to the floor rim joist/blocking. It seems reasonable that the interconnections between boards and batts in a continuous wall length act as a diaphragm for in line loading. What I don't get is the loads applied perpendicular to the wall plane. The reason for the question is that I'm trying to determine if a retrofit of some kind is worthwhile (I'm in central california).