Wall Live Load Reduction

[CTSeng]

Curious how or if others are taking a live load reduction on walls. How do you determine the tributary length of wall to use? 1 foot? 10 foot? full length?

I thought I've seen this in a thread in the past but could not locate it, any advice is appreciated.

 

[lkjh345]

CTSeng:

I assume you are talking about a load bearing wall. Supporting a floor(s) load.

I have the same problem rationalizing a consistant method.

I an typical case, were say you have an exterior bearing wall, with interior column lines with girders, and floor beams spanning between the two, I treat the wall as if it was a girder with a span equal to the distance between the columns on the first adjacent row of column next to the wall. And reduce the live load according.

If you don't have interior columns to work off of (say, you have beams spanning from bearing wall to bearing wall) I assume some appropriate 'girder' lenght. I try to picture what I would space columns at if I was asked to replace the a wall with columns and girders, and use that. For a typical office building, I usually will not use an imaginary 'girder' length of greater than 30 feet.

I realize there is nothing scientific about my method, but I think it is somewhat rational.