Designing a House 4

[abusementpark]

For those of you who have designed or regularly design stick-framed wood houses, what is your general approach?

I find stick-framed wood structures to be difficult to simplify. There many different angles and lengths of rafter braces and the exact locations of the braces aren't always known. Also, for complex roofs (which are usually the case with houses), the distribution of the loads down to the foundation can be very non-uniform and a pain to accurately trace, particularly with openings that don't line up from second floor to first floor.

Do you just develop a bunch of rules of thumbs through experience?

 

[SLTA]

Which states need an engineer stamp? Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Some states are overarching, like Florida and California, but often it's up to the individual counties, and sometimes even the individual plan reviewer. Of course I engineer round homes, so that's a bit different.

Generally, any place with high wind or seismic, or when design elements don't fall in the prescriptive code portions, will require an engineering stamp. We do our own design so I can't speak to the usual process.

 

[vandede427]

to follow up on prescriptive IRC stuff:

I don't mind using the wood floor/roof joist tables as a quick reference.
I would NEVER EVER use the basement wall tables. You won't catch me calling out a hollow block wall.

I said it once earlier and I'll repeat it. Reproduce the IRC's minimum nailing schedule for wood to wood connections. This covers all the little stuff that you don't want clogging up your section cuts, but it's good to have in your drawings, stuff like:

ceiling joists lapped over supports
blocking to joists
collar ties to rafters
top plate splices/laps
top plates to studs
studs to sill plates
sill plates to rim joist
rim joist to joist ends
rim joist to top plates
built up box headers
built up corner studs
jack studs
etc etc etc

 

[EIT12]

I agree witn dcarr82775. Avoid designing houses if all possible, especially custom houses. Too many details and
very low fees.

There is never a rule of thumb. Each house is different and
have its own challenges.

 

[asixth]

Use typical framing details as per you timber codes wherever possible. Good local builders will be familiar with these codes and will question your design if you start detailing anything otherwise.

I would say to follow the loads thru to the foundations and ensure that every load path has a detail and can be built. In my experience, you don't want to leave details up to the builder because it is likely their detail will not be up to code.

Msquared,

Do you provide any connection to transfer diaphram loads into external shear walls other than nails?