Wall sheathing design

[glenn kangiser]

I was sloppy - didn't go back and check your semi-balloon until after I typed.

Blocking gives the most strength on shear walls - I think it is only required when open space in the wall exceeds 10 feet but could be 8' PEG knows I'm sure.  One place I would like blocking from my past experience is at the top edge of the second floor to nail the bottom of the sheetrock to - may not be necessary.  Now it seems with all of my typing I have only made more questions and few answers.  I better go back to steel I guess. :-/

[John Raabe]

You want to have fire blocking at the ledger between the floors. This can also serve as nailer (check the paper plan detail). Does not need to be in the model for simplicity.

You need to block and nail the sheathing seams only when you are doing an alternative braced wall panel at the corners of the building and you have less than 4' (min panel width 32") to the first window or door. This makes the panel more rigid. A standard braced wall panel is at least 4' wide and uses standard sheathed panel framing. There is more to prescriptive codes than that, but you get into that only trying to maximize the window area.

I'm sure if you put three carpenters to work sheathing this little building you would get (at least!) three different patterns for cutting the panels. While it is fun and instructive to do this on a model, you will probably do something different the day you actually build it.