At what stage can you actually remove the bracing of the frame during a house construction? Say the house is rectangular with only load-bearing outer walls and truss roof trusses. The outer walls consist of standing 45x170, the roof is covered with board decking. If the walls are finished on the outside, covered with wind barrier, battens, and cladding, and the roof is tight with board decking and roofing felt. Can you then remove all the bracing of the frame? That is, both diagonal bracing and the braces against the foundation. I have discussed this with a number of carpenters but none seem to really have any straight answers. My thought is that the shear strength of the outer walls has not been achieved and they are therefore not stable against horizontal forces such as wind. Or are they stable enough when the cladding is on? If you use exterior gypsum, is the frame considered sufficiently stabilized to remove braces when the exterior gypsum is on? I'm really not clear about wind loads and I don't know if I'm exaggerating the wind impact on a small house, so all input is gratefully received!
