Diagonal Bracing: Does it matter later?

[Amish Electrici]

I again thank all for their time and consideration.

I'd like to take a moment, and explain my position(s), so folks might better understand my goals.

It all comes down to two sayings: Proper planning prevents poor performance; and, A man's got to know his limitations.

I do not accept 'building to code' is a valid design philosophy. Yes, one must know the rules - but one must also understand where the rules come from, and what they are trying to accomplish.

That's why the 'will it be inspected' debate is so pointless. The laws of nature don't care if someone signed a piece of paper, or not. It's been my experience that one tends to have bad things happen when standard practices are ignored.

I accept the value of permits, and inspections. Yet, the range of comments by this membership only illustrate that there's a lot we all need to learn. I expect the city inspector will be just as befuddled as we all are. That's why I am taking my time, now, and doing my homework. I will have drawings to present to him, and references to cite, for every detail. When he asks "what about ...," I intend to have an answer ready.

These penetrations are but part of a much greater remodel. While I do not intend many other structural changes- there will be some changes to the roofline- this is truly a complete-to-the-frame remodel.

 

[Amish Electrici]

I had a visitor last night, a man who went into property flipping after a career as a deliveryman. He saw the wall, and strongly encouraged me to cut the brace ... 'it's not doing anything, it was just put there for construction, with the plank sheathing you have plenty of bracing in the wall.'

Ahem.

We've already seen how the code has a somewhat different take on the topic.

I'm not surprised. As we can see in the thread "Cantilever uncovered after fire," you can get away with quite a bit - but that doesn't make it right.

So, perhaps, the skeptics out there might better appreciate why I'm being so anal about this stuff. It's my house.

"It's my house." Funny how that statement is understood by some. Some see that as the beginning of this statement: "It's my house, I can do anything I want, there won't be an inspection, no one will know, I have a constitutional right to do things wrong. I even have an obligation to do things wrong, just because I can. Why do them right? That only costs money."

No, dammit. It's my house, so I'm in charge. I've spent a career watching shady contractors do bad things, and have cleaned up after many of them. I'm not about to follow their bad example. I have the chance to 'do it right,' so I shall.

In this instance, I can live with a smaller window.

 

[peach]

I'm assuming that the stud spacing was done so that the notches for the let in brace were further offset. While the 60 degree angle is not as effective as 45 degrees would be, it appears the brace supplemented by the board sheathing was purposefully done to support the corner of the structure laterally (for shear).

I'd work around it.

 

[Amish Electrici]

I dropped by the local Building Dept. to get my permit in order, etc. I had a nice chat with those folks ...

First off, they were a bit (pleasantly) surprised that I was coming in, before the fact, and that I had some manner of drawings with me. I guess that doesn't happen too often. I have a 'green light' for my project.

I will not need the stairs on the outside of the door ( 2-steps) in place for the inspections. That's nice- my plans for the outside are a few years in the future.

Then they asked: Why the small window? Why so high? Well, I brought them to this site, and we looked at the picture.

First off, they were not aware of this site. I expect that they will have lots of fun here.

Second, it was their opinion that my fears were unfounded. In their opinion, that brace was only there for construction, and added little or nothing to the shear strength of the completed wall.

I will consider their opinion, and revise the window. I might also -just to be anal- see if I can add other bracing to make up for it. Maybe I can make use of those Simpson straps, or maybe face the inside of the wall with a layer of plywood. After all, it doesn't take much movement for windows and doors to start having problems.