Brick Veneer above last wall anchor?

[KelleyA]

Hello,

I am designing a metal stud wall with brick veneer on the face of the first floor, on one edge of the building, resting on the slab. The stud system sits outside of the building and is attached back with clips, so the first floor studs are attached to the underside of the second floor studs (via. deflection head track) which are cantilevering off of the second floor slab. The height of the studs are set and cannot be adjusted to allow for drift between floors.

The issue I'm having is this, the brick veneer extends 3 bricks above the deflection head track. We cannot tie the brick into the second floor studs as any differential movement between the floors will cause the bricks to shear. Is it okay to leave rows of brick floating like that? ACI 530 has anchor spacing requirements but nothing about if an anchor is required in the final brick row or not, and I've seen plenty of details online that look like they don't fasten the very top row of bricks. We would be specifically calling out that they place the final top anchor in the brick row closest to the top of the first floor studs, thus leaving only ~5 inches of brick above the final anchor (Well under half the maximum vertical spacing allowed, 18in/2 = 9in)

Thanks.

 

[XR250]

Why not run the studs continuous to the top of parapet and tie back to the slab edges with deflection clips? That would seem to eliminate the issue.