Archive talk:Brew Hut Rebuild/Prefab Construction

Wind load update

I did some research and the top end of design loads for wind I can find is 40lbs / sf. This is for skyscraper type buildings that stick way up into the wind and are supposed to not fall down during storms. For the brew hut, our worst case is for wind loads above the window sill. It's about 10ft from the window sil to the rooftop, and the hut is 20 ft. wide, so that makes 8000lbs of total wind shear.

end walls are 12 feet long each, minus 5 feet each for windows, leaving 14 feet total. They are sheeted on both sides, so that gives us 28 feet of effective wall. An internet source I have[1] says 15/32 mid grade sheeting with #8 nails spaced 4 inches apart should hold 380lbs per foot. 380*28= 10640lbs, which is more than 8000lbs. However, apparantly any shear wall less than 2 feet, 8 inches wide doesn't count as a shear wall. We might need to removed one of the windows from the back wall to get the strength up to an acceptable level.

This assumes that we block the edges of each sheet and nail every 4 inches along the top and bottom edges. With no blocking, strenth is reduced by 50% which is not acceptable. Alternatively, we could avoid blocking by putting the sheet vertically on the outside of the end walls. Vertical sheeting reduces strength by 8.5%

Scott Nelson 19:33, 30 Mar 2005 (MST)