RE: Non-load bearing walls

Seth Guthrie — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:29:47 GMT

The basic problem as you saw was that you cannot model a beam and a wall on the same level in the same spot. Typically I would advise that the wall be moved laterally a small distance so that you can have a beam picking up the deck and a wall offset slightly with only a tiny tributary area. For some situations that won't work. Not modeling the wall at all, and adding in a line load is a good work-around for those cases. At you noted in your last image, if that line load needs to get down to the foundation as a line load and not as a pair of column reactions, then a short story with a gravity wall will work fine. Be aware, for continuous footings under walls, we only check the extension of the footing, not the length where the the wall above stiffens the footing. For more on walls see:

RAM SS Walls FAQ

RE: Non-load bearing walls

Amber Hoey — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:12:21 GMT

Below is how the building has been modeled.. as noted on the graphic - I'm not sure how I can model or account for (in my foundation design) the weight of the non-load bearing wall? I've updated the model as shown in the 2nd graphic. The update added a story for the stemwall (previous just lowered the foundation) and then adding a line load on the stemwall where the non-load bearing wall is located.

Model update.. Is this a solution to account for the non-load bearing wall and stemwall weight in the foundation design?