RFreund
Structural
- Aug 14, 2010
- 1,880
I'm wondering how other engineers feel about this situation and how they typically handle it?
This is a detail that I see often in homes with a crawl space. Usually the foundation wall is about 4'-0" tall 8" wide with an 18" wide footing. Instead of the floor framing bearing on the foundation wall there is a knee wall built usually about 2' or so tall then the floor framing bears on the knee wall.
A 'hinge' is formed at the bottom of the knee wall / top of foundation wall. I have seen quite a few houses with this condition and there is nothing visibly failing. However it seems hard to justify. The foundation wall would either have to span horizontally or the weight of the wall needs to resit overturning. If this detail comes up in design how do you handle it? Cantilever retaining wall, horizontal beam, kickers ?
If this has been discussed elsewhere let me know as I tried to search but couldn't find too much. Is there another name for the 'knee walls' maybe?
EIT
This is a detail that I see often in homes with a crawl space. Usually the foundation wall is about 4'-0" tall 8" wide with an 18" wide footing. Instead of the floor framing bearing on the foundation wall there is a knee wall built usually about 2' or so tall then the floor framing bears on the knee wall.
A 'hinge' is formed at the bottom of the knee wall / top of foundation wall. I have seen quite a few houses with this condition and there is nothing visibly failing. However it seems hard to justify. The foundation wall would either have to span horizontally or the weight of the wall needs to resit overturning. If this detail comes up in design how do you handle it? Cantilever retaining wall, horizontal beam, kickers ?
If this has been discussed elsewhere let me know as I tried to search but couldn't find too much. Is there another name for the 'knee walls' maybe?
EIT
