Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Cold-formed corrugated

I have a client who wants to use an unengineered agricultural building made of cold-formed steel as most of the envelope for a large woodshop.  I have my roof diaphragm problems solved, because its being furred out & covered w/ plywood (underside).  Does anyone have experience using corrugated metal for shearwalls?  It seems like the 4 ½”, 20ga corrugated partition panels supplied with the kit should have a lot of shear resistance if connected properly.  If I could prove it, it would be a shame to require wood shearwalls to be built right beside them.

thanks,

Gordon Goodell