Wall structure

Most of our plans are wood stud walls on poured concrete foundations. We are able to provide custom plans using concrete block or solid brick walls. We have also designed for log buildings, Styrofoam/plywood and Styrofoam/concrete composites.

Siding

The walls are sheathed on the outside with a wood structural material, optionally sheathed on the inside with gypsum wall board and optionally with insulation between. Milder climates use 2X4 studs at 16″ or 24″ center to center and harsher climates use 2X6 studs at 16″ or 24″ center to center. The 2X4 stud wall allows for R-13 insulation and 2X6 studs allow for R-21. The stud walls have one or two plates on the bottom and two plates on the top. The bottom plate in contact with the concrete must be pressure treated. The outside sheathing is edge to edge panels of sheathing nailed to the studs. Generally the sheathing is 1/2″ plywood or 1/2″ O.S.B. (oriented strand board). T1-11 is a plywood siding that serves as the exterior siding and the structural sheathing. Other siding materials require separate sheathing with a vapor barrier between. We call out “Horizontal Lap Siding” as our default siding which includes “Hardy-Plank”, Cedar Lap, aluminum, steel, and vinyl siding.

Some southern states use brick veneer or stucco as siding. The wall construction is the same but the masonry siding is attached to it with clips or wire mesh.

Foundation

Our default foundation is a poured concrete footing with the bottom 18″ below the surface of the earth. Some areas require deeper footings and others require shallower footings. The areas “frost line” determines the depth. A 6″ poured concrete stem wall is centered on the footing and the stud wall is anchored to the top of it with 1/2″ or 5/8″ diameter anchor bolts. Our alternate foundation is “Mono-Pour” or a thickened slab foundation. It is poured at the same time as the slab and saves cost by requiring only one concrete pour. The bottom of the thickened edge slab is below the frost line and the top is at the same level as the slab. A thickened slab footing may have a curb on the top to prevent the walls from being exposed to water. Some areas use concrete block footings, stem walls, and curbs. We consider concrete block as a direct replacement for poured concrete.

Braced Wall Panels

In areas with seismic, high winds, or both wall bracing is required. In most cases it is accomplished with increased nailing of the sheathing to the studs and additional tie-down from the panel to the foundation. Our plans include the prescriptive code bracing that covers most areas. Some states require extreme bracing. We do our best, but sometimes it requires an engineer to calculate the bracing.