Hello!
I'm designing a prefabricated cottage and am currently working on the exterior walls. I'm trying to read up on shear wall requirements, but there seem to be various opinions on what is actually needed. Most of the threads I find are quite old, so consensus might have changed since then. The house is a single-story building with external dimensions of about 12x5 meters.
Here follows a list of the planned materials from outside to inside:
Horizontal wood paneling, 13x120. Vertical battens 28x70. Exterior gypsum board 9.5mm. Vertical studs 45x195 (cc 600) + insulation. Vapor barrier. Horizontal 45x45 studs and insulation. Interior gypsum board 12.5mm.
Mainly, I'm wondering if the exterior gypsum board is necessary, or if it creates more problems than it solves (risk of mold, expensive, tricky to install?). Is the outer paneling and the interior gypsum enough to provide the required shear wall strength?
I'm designing a prefabricated cottage and am currently working on the exterior walls. I'm trying to read up on shear wall requirements, but there seem to be various opinions on what is actually needed. Most of the threads I find are quite old, so consensus might have changed since then. The house is a single-story building with external dimensions of about 12x5 meters.
Here follows a list of the planned materials from outside to inside:
Horizontal wood paneling, 13x120. Vertical battens 28x70. Exterior gypsum board 9.5mm. Vertical studs 45x195 (cc 600) + insulation. Vapor barrier. Horizontal 45x45 studs and insulation. Interior gypsum board 12.5mm.
Mainly, I'm wondering if the exterior gypsum board is necessary, or if it creates more problems than it solves (risk of mold, expensive, tricky to install?). Is the outer paneling and the interior gypsum enough to provide the required shear wall strength?
It is surely enough as you have planned, however, it is always nice to have a wooden board behind the plaster for other reasons. Apart from the outer walls, you surely have several interior walls that also contribute to stability?
Thank you for the quick response! You mean that one would have a plywood or OSB board behind the interior gypsum board to make it easier to drill up shelves and other things? In that case, one might consider that it contributes so much to racking resistance that you can use wind barrier instead of exterior gypsum?
Regarding interior walls, there are a few, yes. However, I'm a bit doubtful about how much they actually contribute to racking resistance!
Regarding interior walls, there are a few, yes. However, I'm a bit doubtful about how much they actually contribute to racking resistance!
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In that case, you could skip the exterior plastering. The interior walls have an impact because they absorb some of the loads that affect the walls' plane, such as wind. Therefore, the load "on the exterior walls" becomes lower if there are interior walls that contribute.
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