Hi,

I am trying to take a couple feet off my downstairs hallway to open it up and when I removed the drywall I came across a metal strap that I am unsure what it means. I don't see why the wall would be structural as there is nothing continuous above, just a half wall. There are 3 joists in the area but the 2 smaller ones seem to only serve the purpose of tying the hallway wall in. Also, the hallway wall wasn't continuous all the way to the next beam, it stopped about 4 feet prior, and the wall as you can see is parallel and not perpendicular to the joists.

Pics below. I can provide more if needed:

The whole wall... no continuous load to roof:


View of joists and strap -- perpendicular lumber is bulkhead, not a wall. Also strap is only on the 1 side.


Another view of strap

Never mind. I am open to people's thoughts but I don't think it's important. I got into the void with a flash light and see that the strap does not wrap over the joists like I suspected. Its just nailed to the side of it. 2 nails on the joist and 2 on the wall. Not sure what they were doing, but it's not significant to structure, its not even lateral support for the joist.

You may need to rethink your position that this strapping is of no consequence...

Looks like required earthquake strapping to me...

Alberta appears to be in an active earthquale zone where such strapping may be required...

Check with your local National Building Code of Canada officials before going farther.

Thanks for the reply. I am not sure where you read Alberta was in an earthquake zone, but there are no earthquakes here. Nothing of any significant or noticeable magnitude and there is nothing in our Alberta code for it.

I can see why you may think that though looking at it. But even if that was the case, there would be more than just that one flimsy strap through the rest of the construction. I exposed several studs doing this and it was only the end one that had it.

I believe they put similar straps on every stud and then some in earthquake/hurricane zones. I am developing my whole basement and have not come across anything like it elsewhere on any exterior or partition walls.

I have a framing inspection Monday and will run by him/her to see if they think its significant anyway.

Cheers.

quote:

Thanks for the reply. I am not sure where you read Alberta was in an earthquake zone, but there are no earthquakes here. Nothing of any significant or noticeable magnitude and there is nothing in our Alberta code for it.

You need to look again.

According to the National Building Code Seismic maps for Canada, Calgary and most of west and south western Alberta are indeed in active seismic zones:

http://earthquakescanada.nrcan...502Adams_Halchuk.pdf

I am not going to pretend to know what that means specifically for your location... since I am a US based building official and builder.

But the types of straps are very commonly used for earthquake or high wind locations......and it would be in your best interest to find out if these straps indeed are part of seismic building requirments, or were part of an engineered design for the framing of the structure when built.

Either way, dismissing these 'straps' as unimportant before knowing why they are there is not a good idea.

Good luck with your inspection.

Let us know what the code inspectors have to say.

Passed inspection. Inspector couldn't understand why they had those straps there either. He said they looked to be binding straps used for items like rake walls but that they were not used correctly and had no logical reason for being there.There was also no other use of them any where else (I had removed much more drywall in that area).

I guess they were just something they had around that helped them out temporarily in the building process.

To note: he chuckled when I asked if they were required for any sort of seismic movement. I didn't think so either but sheepishly asked anyway.

Thanks for the input.