Bracing up for Windloads
By SenselessSince I live about 30 mles form the Gulf in Florida I'm used to the accasional bout of bad weather and I really hate to evacuate. I built the house into a hill, which is hard to find in Florida, so I have a level that is underground on three sides and that by itself makes for a pretty safe place to hunker down as Jeb likes to put it. The walls are concrete block filled with rebar and concrete, and I glued and nailed plywood to the ceiling before I hung the sheetrock. The floors above it are 3/4 inch plywood as a subfloor and 3/4 inch Oak nailed every eight inches.
All the interior walls of the main and top floor are shear walls. I glued and nailed 1/2 inch cdx and a few of the more important walls, like the ones facing West, are 3/4 inch plywood.
I also have allthread connecting the top chord of my trusses to the foundation and most of the interior walls have them inside connecting the floor joists to the trusses, I think I use 80 or so total.
I wouldn't shake my fist at the Weather Gods and dare them to test me but I will never need to evacuate for a hurricane.





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