non load bearing cmu
 

non load bearing cmu
the non load bearing cmu walls i have seen before have beams running parallel to the wall, and just to the inside of the wall. therefore, from the inside of the building you can see the beams all around at the roof, with the wall going past.
i have a job that is going to have new additions. it looks like the beams on the original building were actually placed centered above the wall. is this common and what are the advantages?
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steel beams or precast or insitu concrete beams ?
perhaps the answer has to do with the ease of construction. it is much easier for a mason to build conrete block flying past a beam rather than try to bed the blocks neatly under the beam. however, in fly past mode the block wall does have to be tied to the beam with some form of fixing. building outside the beam also dramatically increases the useable floor area for negligable extra structural cost.
they are steel beams and it is a single story building. the cmu connects below the beam and the outside brick runs up past the beam and closes out the wall. i guess either way you should be able to use the cmu as a shear wall given an adequate attachment. i am just used to seeing the whole wall going up past the beam. thanks for your response.
sillingineer (visitor)24 sep 02 2:36
what is cmu?
concrete masonry unit