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NFC members weigh in during wall panel roundtable
This program helps manufacturers monitor the quality of the wall panels they manufacture and provides the plant with a data management system.
- The strength axis of a structural panel is the direction parallel to the grain of the wood fiber in the face and back surfaces of the panel.
- The strength axis is usually the long dimension of the panel.
- The IBC provides two tables with the allowable spans and loads (psf) for wood structural panel sheathing installed continuous over two or more spans with their strength axis perpendicular and parallel to the supports.
Floor systems are as key to making framing better, faster and more cost effective as wall panels and roof trusses.
Explore the two different methods used to calculate a wall panel’s capacity to resist applied lateral loads.
A complex roof with multiple arcing panels provided design challenges both before and during construction.
Bruce Jones, a turnkey contractor in Hanover, Pennsylvania, has been in the wall panel industry for over 30 years. He estimates that in 2017 his company built over 80 miles of walls. That experience has taught Bruce a number of ways to make a better panel
Both the International Residential Code (IRC) and the International Building Code (IBC) require that the top plates of exterior braced wall panels be attached to the rafters or roof trusses above. This report will discuss the code requirements and provide alternate engineered designs and capacities, including heel/bird blocking, partial height blocking and blocking panels.
Ask the Builder expert, Tim Carter, communicates how components expedite the building process and highlights the many reasons to build with wall panels. In the video Tim explains that wall panels have been around since the 1940's but are now built using cutting-edge technology in an automated production facility. He also shares that wall panels are easy to install which allows for fewer workers with expert carpentry skills and that can save you money. Tim points out that wall panels speed up the building process, allowing the building to be dried in sooner and ensuring construction materials are more quickly protected from the impact of rain and snow.
Three months before its grand opening in June 2007, wall panels were installed in the Structural Building Components Research Institute (SBCRI) testing lab.
- The 2012 IRC does not provide sufficient details on how to connect wood trusses to braced wall panels.
- SBCA has developed a couple of details and will continue to develop standard details that provide code-compliant connections between roof/floor trusses and braced wall panels.
- Component manufacturers can provide framers with specialty or standardized blocking panel products to reduce the time needed to install the blocking between trusses for these connections.
NFC Executive Director Chris Tatge and SBCA staff member Jim Vogt demonstrated on the BCMC show floor just how quickly a structure comes together with wall panels.
If you are interested in promoting your wall panel packages to framers who prefer to stick-frame walls in the field, here are some tools you can use to begin that discussion.
If you are interested in promoting your wall panel packages to builders who prefer to stick-frame walls in the field, here are some tools you can use to begin that discussion.
- Clearspan Components in Meridian, MS is one of the oldest wall panel manufacturers in the country, servicing the multi-family housing industry.
- The company embraces a culture of grassroots efficiency in its wall panel and roof and floor truss shops.
- A custom-built internal database organizes the company’s processes from sales to design to production to delivery to invoicing.
- The “finished goods identification and control system” addresses the issue of skilled labor on the jobsite.
Having just attended the ProSales 100 Conference in San Antonio this year, one thing is very evident: Builders are looking for off-site construction solutions (wall panels, floor panels, roof trusses, etc.) that will limit the number of tire tracks onsite and help address the skilled labor shortage. The national builders also understand the importance of reviewing their workflow and portfolio of plans to eliminate wasted steps and streamline designs.
Annandale Millwork & Allied Systems ventured into the components industry differently from most manufacturers as our original business centered on doors and millwork. We diversified into wall panels in the early 1980s and eventually into roof trusses. From the beginning, we’ve always looked to use innovative processes to solve common construction problems.
If you are interested in learning about adding more value to a panelized wall assembly, join Mike Strohecker as he covers how the PUReWAll assembly delivers more value, helps reduce cycle time compared to standard framed walls, and meets new energy code requirements while maintaining a 2x4 wall.
SBCA provides an Approved Broker Program to a select group of insurance brokers who have expertise in providing insurance to companies that manufacture structural building components (trusses, wall panels and related components). If you are a broker interested in being part of this program, please review the program requirements.
- The 2009 IRC contains new provisions in Section R602.10.6 to use blocking for connecting braced wall panels to floor truss and roof framing applications.
- Lateral load can be transferred from bottom chord bearing floor trusses is by attaching wood structural panel wall sheathing to the ends of the trusses, ribbon board, and the top plate of the wall below.
- Section R602.10.6 also includes prescriptive blocking provisions for roof trusses of varying heel heights for seismic design categories and wind speeds.
- Component manufacturers can reduce waste
Integrating sprinkler systems into the open webbed configuration of metal plate connected wood trusses can be easy when following best practices. Truss construction can be manipulated with adjustments to panel lengths and web configurations to accommodate most special requirements. However, the Truss Designer needs to account for the additional weight of the sprinkler system and water. Additionally, construction loads encountered during installation need to be accounted for.
Rick Parrino will tell you that one of the most important business decisions a component manufacturer (CM) can make is to foster new and beneficial relationships with building and fire officials, builders, elected officials, and all other trades. Doing so gives CMs a new lens through which to view the manufacturing and installation of the trusses, wall panels, and engineered products they sell.
- The ICC and AWC have published and through code adoption provide as law nominal unit shear capacity values, which are to be applied in accordance with the installation requirements of the building code and/or the code referenced WFCM and SDPWS.
- Our goal at SBCRI has been to provide a technically reasonable foundation upon which to make engineering judgments when designing braced wall panels for lateral load resistance.
- True creative innovation can only take place within the light frame construction industry when there is an accurate technical foundation.
- The problem with advanced framing is there’s no mention of modern-day wall panels, raised heel roof trusses, floor trusses or the versatility of connections between the floor, wall and roof systems.
- Our products, and all the tools and materials that make our products possible, are the best way to meet the demand for efficiencies in structural performance, material use, labor and cost.
- As we look to the future, we know we can talk knowledgeably about innovative framing because we have a sure-fire way to back up our approach: the SBC Research Institute (SBCRI).
- Wall panel technology has come a long way since the 1960s.
- It is important for all component manufacturers to have basic knowledge of wall panels.
- WTCA offers various resources to help educate the industry about wall panels.
- WTCA is developing a quality control program for wall panels.
- WTCA Wall Panel QC is being modeled after the quality control panel for roof trusses, In-Plant WTCA QC.
- A group of beta testers is providing feedback as the program is developed.
- Wall panel manufacturers, equipment and education had a big presence at BCMC 2007.
- Demonstrating the cost savings and increased efficiency of using panels is how one manufacturer sells builders on the product.
- By viewing every aspect of his operation through the eyes of his customers, one manufacturer has discovered the key of wall panel success.