Wondering what others thoughts are on this one. I have a 15' tall x 15'-8" wide wood sheathed wall for a commercial building that has 2 large openings in the middle (door + window above) essentially leaving only 3'-10" wide legs on either side. The height exceeds 10' to address as a conventional portal frame wall and the aspect ratio of the legs is greater than 3.5:1. The in plane loading is relatively light.
Would seem that an engineered solution is certainly possible as a portal frame (2 stacked on top of one another) or as (2) individual shear walls but that code restraints may not allow such proportions. Is there something in the code that I am unaware of that would allow this to be engineered.
If not, I fear I need to approach the client to ask them to make the legs of sufficient width so that 3.5:1 aspect ratio is met. Unfortunately this could be an awkward conversation as "another" engineer/firm provided drawings on a previous project of the same dimensions and provided what I believe was something that may not have technically worked. Their design treated the legs as individual walls but provided hold downs only at the boundary element of the entire wall (at say 1' and 14'-8" marks), and provided no detailing for strapping or nail patterns of the headers to the walls.
The project is SDC "D" in WA.
Would seem that an engineered solution is certainly possible as a portal frame (2 stacked on top of one another) or as (2) individual shear walls but that code restraints may not allow such proportions. Is there something in the code that I am unaware of that would allow this to be engineered.
If not, I fear I need to approach the client to ask them to make the legs of sufficient width so that 3.5:1 aspect ratio is met. Unfortunately this could be an awkward conversation as "another" engineer/firm provided drawings on a previous project of the same dimensions and provided what I believe was something that may not have technically worked. Their design treated the legs as individual walls but provided hold downs only at the boundary element of the entire wall (at say 1' and 14'-8" marks), and provided no detailing for strapping or nail patterns of the headers to the walls.
The project is SDC "D" in WA.
