This Simple Wall Keeps Your Utah Home Sturdy

In Utah, we have severe forces that want to pull our buildings down. With some of the renovation projects that have been underway to make temples and other historic facilities stronger, I have been curious about what is needed to make our private domains safe against these forces.

I was talking to an engineer this week about that and he taught me about the power of sheathed \or shear walls.

You might have heard of load-bearing walls. these are specific walls that carry the weight of parts of your home and are extremely important. A sheathed wall is another definition of a wall that is very important to the strength of a building.

Definition:

If you look at a wall in new construction you see vertical boards set apart by some code-determined distance. As you can imagine this wall is very strong against the weight that will sit on it, but if you, or you and a few friends, pushed it from the side you could probably make it topple. A sheathed wall is a regular wall with an added sheet of plywood or other material attached to it.

Think about the bookcase you have purchased that needed assembly. You build the rectangle with supporting screwed-in shelves but when you stand it up it is very wobbly. Then when you put on the backing it becomes solid from side to side.

You may have noticed how thin that backing is, it can be like a glorified cardboard. I have heard myself chuckle about how cheap the bookcase company is to provide such a flimsy material. The truth is that the material doesn't have to be that thick to provide stability to the bookcase.

This is true for a sheathed wall, Engineers determine what material is required and how far apart the nails can be to provide stability to your home. The sheathed wall is also bolted into the foundation of the building to provide needed stability.

Thankfully Utah requires the use of a sheathed wall in your home, but not all states do. As you can see in this video without this added protection a building can be vulnerable.

Explore your home whether it be a new build or an existing one knock on walls and see if you can identify the sheathed walls.