Is sheathing considered as bracing for the wall

[amain002]

Hello,
I have a question about whether or not wall sheathing (gypsum board) is considered as continuous bracing for the wood stud walls. I am trying to understand if we can consider a wood stud spaced at 16" oc with sheathing attached be considered fully/continuously braced or unbraced stud.
Will greatly Appreciate your help.
Thank you.

 

[JAE]

Braced.

 

[Lion06]

I assume sheathing to brace the studs in the wall for weak axis. Otherwise no 2x stud wall would work on paper.

You have to be sheathed on both side, not just one.

 

[woodman88]

For 2x4 and 2x6 studs sheathing to one face braced in weak direction. 2x8 studs sheathing one face with full depth blocking at 8'o.c. braced in weak direction. 2x10 and larger studs sheathing to both faces to be braced in weak direction. IMHO

Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.

 

[amain002]

thank you all for your help.

lets say I am using a 2x6 wall stud on ext wall. I brace the 3.5" side by blocking at every 48" OC where as on the 1.5" side I have wall sheathing i.e the gypsum board on one side and OSB on the ext side. So, both the bracing is for weak axis right?

How will I brace the strong axis then. is there any common ways that is being used?

 

[structSU10]

You design the wall with an unbraced length equal to the wall height. It should be easy to get that to work, and if you need to upsize the stud or use double studs.

 

[jayrod12]

You cannot realistically brace the strong axis. If your stud wall is failing in strong axis bending then you need to change stud size (either go bigger or double the studs) or change the stud spacing. The blocking at 48" o/c is for the fastening of the osb and gypsum and less for the weak axis bracing (although it provides bracing in the weak axis)

 

[Althalus]

Amain,

1) See IRC R602.10.3 for the proper method of using gypsum board to create a braced wall panel.
2) If you have OSB on one side, the gypsum board does nothing for bracing. The OSB (if properly attached) already creates a braced wall panel.
3) For a stud wall, there is nothing to brace the strong axis to. It is only braced where it hits a perpendicular wall. Listen to Jayrod. If you have out-of-plane bending (like wind load) then you have to use the studs to resist that load as a simply supported beam from sill plate to top plate of each floor. If you can't, you have to get larger studs or tighten the spacing of the studs.