Brace the walls

The sudden, intense pressure exerted on a wall by a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake can be devastating. To withstand these forces, the walls must be well braced. As a novice carpen­ter, I used to cut 2.x stock with a handsaw and let it into the studs, running it diagonally from plate to plate. It was a good brace, but it took about an hour to make each one. These days, braces are much easier to install. You can attach L-shaped metal angle braces or nail ply­wood or OS В sheathing to the frame. Code requirements vary, so be sure to check with your building department to find out how the walls should be braced. In some areas, bracing is also required on certain interior walls.

USING METAL ANGLE BRACES. Metal angle braces are easy to install (see the photos on the facing page). In many areas, they can be used instead of plywood or OSB sheathing. If the finished siding you plan to install can be nailed directly to the studs or furring strips (clapboards and fiber-cement boa res are good examples), metal braces can save von the expense of plywood or OSB sheathing. Every exterior wall should receive a metal brace at every corner as well as every 25 It. between

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corners. The typical metal brace has an

1. — shaped profile; it’s designed to be let into a kerf cut diagonally across the wall. Here’s how to install one:

1. Position the brace and mark the cut.

Lay the brace across a framed wall so that it extends at a 45-degree angle from the bottom plate to the double lop plate. Trace a pencil mark along one side, as shown in the top left photo on the facing page.

3. Nail off the bottom of the brace. Slip one flange of the brace into the slot and nail it to the bottom plate with three 8d nails. Drive one more 8d nail through the brace and into the first stud. At the double top plate, start an cSd nail alongside the brace and bend the nail over to hold the brace in place as the wall is raised.

4. Raise and plumb the wall. It’s important not to install the brace completely until after the wall has been raised and plumbed. See pp. 100-108 for details on raising and plumb­ing walls.

5. Finish nailing the brace to the studs and plates. Drive one 8d nail through the brace and into every stud it crosses. At the top of the wall, drive three nails through the brace and into the top and double top plates. If the top of the brace extends above the double top plate, trim it Hush with a hacksaw.

USING PLYWOOD AND OSB BRACING. When nailed properly to wall framing, plywood and OSB provide much stronger racking resistance than metal braces do. Wall sheathing is essen-

tial as a substrate for some types of exterior siding. It also acts as a wind and weather bar­rier. Many codes require that a full sheet of OSB be nailed at each exterior corner and every 25 ft. along the wall. The spaces between can be filled with sheets of rigid foam insula­tion. That’s the sheathing strategy we used on this house.

There are different wavs to install wood sheathing panels. Sometimes sheathing is positioned to extend over the wall and cover the rim joist. I try to keep OSB A in. away from concrete so it won’t absorb water. On a one-story building, my preference is to

sheathe the walls once thev are raised. This is

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especially true when working on a slab that has plumbing pipes sticking up.

Other builders prefer to sheathe the walls

while thev are flat on the floor. One of the

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problems with sheathing the walls before rais­ing them is that thev become heavy. To raise a long 2×6 wall fully sheathed with OSB or ply­wood, vou may have to call in the National Guard. Or you could use a wall jack, a device that hooks under a wall and slowly raises it up
(see Resources on p. 278). Sheathing a wall while it’s still flat on the subfloor also requires greater accuracy—the wall must be dead-on straight and square before it’s sheathed. You can do this by making sure the bottom plate is

directly on the chalkline and the end comer

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studs are Hush with the outside of the build­ing. It doesn’t hurt to measure from corner to corner to check the wall for square. After the wall is ready, you can attach the required sheets of plywood or OSB (8d nails every 6 in. o. c. around the perimeter, 12 in. o. c. in the field, or middle of the sheet). Be sure to insu­late headers, corners, and channels before cov­ering them with sheathing.