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Mr. Luddite[_4_]

On 9/18/2017 11:39 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 07:34:59 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 9/18/2017 1:44 AM, wrote:

The northern building code would not even protect most houses from a
strong Cat 1 or a 2.
When I was there they built to 80 mph but I assume they may have upped
that a little. Even so there are plenty of 30+ year old buildings
built to that code. There was absolutely zero uplift protection beyond
gravity. You were not even required to put nuts on the J bolts in
block headers when you mounted the sill plate for the stick built
parts. There is also no tie beam and no steel in the block. They
didn't even have steel in the footer. The J bolt is just mortared into
one of the block cores.
We have 4 #5 rebars in the tie beam and the top 16" is solid concrete,
that tie beam is doweled with a #5 every 4 feet and at every opening
in a grouted cell and the "hooks", top and bottom get tied to the tie
beam steel and the footer steel.

Your post caused me to think of the old farmhouse that we used to own
and had my mother living in. I doubt any codes existed when it and the
accompanying barn was built in 1800. All the support beams and rafters
in the barn where pegged together ... no nails or screws. The vertical
beams where the trunks from large cedar trees. We had a bulding
preservation expert who takes care of the buildings in "Plimouth
Plantation" (a local tourist attraction in Plymouth) visit us and he
explained to me that back in those days the barn was built like the
upside-down hull of a wooden ship, mainly due to the early ship building
history of the area.

We had the roof replaced on both the house and barn and when they tore
off the old shingles there was no plywood like you would expect to see.
The roof consisted of wood planks instead, with huge gaps between the
planks in many places. Amazing that it never leaked.

That old house and barn has withstood many a hurricane, blizzards and
storms with nothing close to meeting modern building codes.

If everything was pegged floor to roof peak it might come close to
code, particularly if the uprights were buried deep enough in the
ground.

The interior cedar uprights aren't buried at all and the exterior wall
framing sits on a foundation made of rocks.

I think the reason it has survived is because the "peg" fastening
construction that allows the whole barn to "flex" and give a bit, much
like the wings on a commercial airplane that is riveted rather than
welded. If it (and wings) were stiff, it would be ripped apart in
strong wings.