To Florida engineers:

[struct_eeyore]

Can somebody fill me in as to why, at least for residential buildings with wood roofs, continuous load paths from the roof sheathing to the walls are almost always ignored?
It's also interesting that the section of the IBC that specifies some typical examples of continuous load transfer/blocking (2308.10.7...) is excluded from the FBC - which would otherwise provide at least something for me to point to when questioned by contractors.

Of course, if you do start including blocking and bracing, you're now the only engineer who does that, and start being labeled as overly conservative...
I'm on the west coast - are those of you in the HVHZ encountering the same issue?

 

[lexpatrie]

If you're on the West coast, why don't you see what you can get from the folks at Miami Dade building department, the engineers there are pretty sharp.

While the FBC deletes a lot of inconvenient things, if it's an engineered structure it doesn't do "us" much good, just the non-engineered contractors.

That said, if they are outside the wind speed limits of the IRC, you may be misconstruing your fellow engineers and how they handle that force transfer. They may do as good a job as you do, after all.

If you are including hurricane ties, have you looked to see if they have an established load across that connnection?

 

[struct_eeyore]

The limit on cross grain shear at trusses without blocking is something like 60lb.( Don't take my word for it, jumping from memory) There's nothing to be misconstrued when on narrow buildings the diagram shear is commonly 1-2k/ft, and there's no direct load path still. I'll definitely call Miami Dade and see what they say.

 

[lexpatrie]

Ah 2308 is prescriptive construction similar to the IRC so you shouldn't see high shear loads like that, as to 60 lbs, it's somewhere in that neighborhood for the prescriptive toenails. Check the Isanta ESR for tabulated nailing requirements and figures if you like.

I'd suggest email as it can be a bit hard to find the right person on the first pass.

Blocking for diaphragm load transfer, (newly created FAQ)