Wall Simple
can you explain to me what the difference is between a shear wall, a stem wall, a retaining wall, and?
a load-bearing wall, and lintels?
im not that familiar with the construction of a building or a simple wall, but im trying to understand what the difference is between these types above.
thanks
A shear wall in a structure absorbs lateral forces to stabilize the walls perpindicular to it. Like in a Garage for instance, you typically have no interior walls to absorb the lateral forces in the building to keep them from leaning, so the corners of the exterior walls have to be sheathed and fastened to the concrete according to certain specs (depending on location, wind, siesmic differences) to absorb these loads. In most buildings though there are interior walls perpendicular to the exterior walls that can be used to absorb these shear or lateral forces.
A stem wall as I understand the term are the partially poured walls in a basement or partially underground structure. They usually aren't full height, and use a conventional framing method above the ground level. The concrete block or poured walls of a home over a crawl space could also be considered stem walls.
A retaining wall is used where the ground level is above the floor level, but typically outside, like next to a patio off of a basement.
A load bearing wall is a wall that supports roof and/or floor loads from levels above. In most cases all exterior walls are considered load bearing walls. Some interior walls are as well, but it depends on the construction methods and how many stories the house is. If there are roof, floor, or ceiling joists that sit on or are braced to walls perpendicular to them, then they are typically load bearing. They transfer these loads to the slab and/or footings below.
Lintels or headers are members that are used to carry loads across the span of an opening or from pier to pier. All openings in load bearing walls require a lintel to carry that load to the studs on the side of the opening. On houses that are built over a crawl space there are lintels under all of the load bearing interior walls that span from pier to pier. Garage door openings typically have a large beam/lintel that spans the opening to support the weight of the roof/floor above.
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