Occupancy Category for private owner's passenger vehicle garage/carport 1

[jcb683]

I am trying to get a retro-active "garage" building permit approved through the city of Dunsmuir CA. See attached pic for "garage." I am trying to figure out what Occupancy Category > Importance Factor to use for snow loads of 70 psf on a garage roof. The structure needs some modifications for shear loading as well since the blocking is toe-nailed between the 4x4 studs, but only serves compression in one lateral direction per wall with no lateral resistance along the entrance to the structure.

The owners built the structure with torque type star head screws, not nails, so I don't know if I need to tell them to rebuild the whole thing with nails or not.

Any structural modification suggestions are welcome.

 

[dik]

In these environs, Parkades fall into Storage areas...

Dik

 

[jcb683]

@dik

In ASCE 7-10 this structure would fall under Occupancy Category I?

 

[dik]

jcb... thanks for the info...

Dik

 

[jcb683]

That's not a statement of information, it is a question.

 

[Lomarandil]

I'd certainly call that Occ Cat I -- unless maybe it could collapse onto something more sensitive? Based on your photo, I don't think that's the case.

----
The name is a long story -- just call me Lo.

 

[racookpe1978]

Seems like you'd be very hard-pressed to justify changing from the Torx-head wood screws to a weaker fastener (plain nails.)

 

[dik]

ou'd be very hard-pressed to justify changing from the Torx-head wood screws to a weaker fastener

Only if they were overtightened so that the wood threaded part was stripped... a problem with installing lag screws with a hammer... on one of the Mike Holmes shows, one of his crew can clearly be seen using this type of installation.

Dik

 

[wannabeSE]

Screws can be brittle and fail suddenly. Nails are ductile.

 

[oldestguy]

Looks pretty weak against blowing over, regardless of the types of screws holding the plates at the joints. How about adding some diagonal braces to help stiffen up the bending-resistance of the joints? Is this "sail" anchored down? As to class or occupancy. I'd say don't occupy it until improved.