Hey all,
My engineer tells me that local codes no longer show knee bracing as an approved method of lateral support due to earthquakes. He says the code doesn't DISALLOW knee bracing, but that the loads are drastically reduced by some kind of ratio that he couldn't explain to me. Something to do with how much the structure will be able to flex with knee bracing alone. I guess it makes sense that you don't want a heavy top load moving laterally because that would be a lot of momentum. Anyway, I don't want to do sheathing or SIPs necessarily. Was hoping to do strawbale or other stackable wall infill (which will not provide much structural support).
Have others ran into this problem? If not, because you are not in an earthquake area? The engineer is trying to figure something out to keep the knee brace method, like running metal cables through the braces or X-bracing metal cables between the columns or something, but he says that is not ideal either. Again, in my project, the building codes seem to be pushing me towards a standardized McHouse using materials that are not appealing or affordable for me. Ok, sorry, I'm whining a bit...
Thanks.
