Posts Tagged stud wall
Stud Wall Design For a Quiet Living Space
Posted by Adam Wilson in General Engineering on January 21st, 2008
Stud wall design plays an important role in noise transmission from room to room in your home. Staggered stud wall design can help soundproof any area of your home.
Construction begins with a wider than normal top and bottom beam, usually a 2 x 6 or a 2 x 8 instead of a 2 x 4. 2 X 4 studs are screwed in an alternating pattern along the base plate. The studs are spaced 16 inches on center across the beam and two 2×2’s are security each end to support the weight of drywall. This creates form of discontinuous construction. This prevents noise from being conducted from one sheet of drywall, through the studs, and into the next room.
Metal studs can also be used in place of timber to further reduce the conduction of sound vibrations. You may also consider increasing the amount of dead space within the walls to accommodate larger amounts of thick insulating material to help absorb sound. All seams in the drywall must also be properly sealed in order to block out unwanted noise.
Finishing the wall with denser materials such as brick, sheetrock, or plaster can also significantly reduce the noise level that is transmitted from room to room. Double layers of sheetrock can be used with an adhesive layer of glue or silicon caulking in between. By alternating seems out of wall covering, the soundproofing qualities of a room are greatly increased.
Special order thicker doors such as those used in commercial applications may also be needed to prevent sound from being transmitted. Common interior doors are lightweight and have a hollow center. Heavier commercial-grade doors block sound more efficiently. If you are installing double layers of drywall or sheetrock, you may also have to special order thicker doorjambs to accommodate the increased width.
Discontinuous stud wall design is ideal for walls separating the garage and the living space of your home, as well as typically noisy areas such as children’s playrooms and laundry rooms. Incorporating discontinuous stud wall design into areas such as your home office and bedroom can enrich your levels of rest and productivity by keeping out unwanted noise.
Discontinuous stud wall design used in conjunction with double layers of dry wall provides an adequate level of soundproofing for a fraction of the cost of using specially design soundproofing materials. The level of soundproofing achieved by changing the design of the stud walls and selecting denser building materials is usually adequate for the purposes of most homeowners.
StruCalc employs a stud wall design feature in its column design module.
StruCalc Column Design
Posted by Adam Wilson in StruCalc Features on January 21st, 2008
The column module in StruCalc is set up to design most posts in residential or light commercial projects. The program first asks the user to specify the type of column to be designed. There are five different types of materials available in the column module:
- solid sawn
- glulam
- structural composite
- steel
- tube steel
Each of these materials then has selections from the current National Design Specification in use for species, grade, width and depth.
After the material has been selected the overall height of the post must be entered followed by the unbraced length in each direction. The unbraced length of the column would be the distance between any sort of bracing that might be provided within the structure (drywall, sheathing, kickers, etc.). The column end condition, K (e) is automatically set at 1.0 for pin-pin supported columns and 2.1 for cantilevered columns.
Once the overall conditions of the column have been established the loads must be entered. The module first asks for any vertical load applied to the column followed by the load eccentricity. The load eccentricity is a measure of how far away from the center of the column the load is applied. Looking at the post in plan view there would be both an x and y measurement to how far the load is away from the center of the column, and hence, the module asks for both to be entered.
Once the vertical loads have been applied, the module then asks for any lateral loads to be entered. Lateral loads can be entered in the form of:
- a uniform load across the entire column
- point loads placed at various locations on the column
- partially distributed loads on the column
It will also ask which face of the column the lateral loads are being applied. As well as if the lateral loads are wind and/or seismic loads (for wood, glulam, or structural composite columns).
One other important feature within the column module is the ability to do a stud wall design. This part of the module will verify the adequacy of stud size and spacing based on the length of the studs and the vertical and lateral loads applied to the studs. This part of the module will unfortunately not specify shearwall nailing. Here is a view of how StruCalc applies loads and measurements in stud column design:
Here is a view of how StruCalc applies the loads and measurements in its normal column design module:
Finally here is a view of the load entering interface for column design please click the thumbnail for a detailed view:
