Wall Bracing Engineering

There are many reasons why a wall may require an engineered bracing plan. During construction, walls are potentially unstable before the installation of the joists or top slab. During selective demolition, any lateral supporting members that are removed must be replaced temporarily if the walls they are supporting are to remain in place. DHG provides clients with an accurate wall bracing engineered design no matter the circumstance on the project.

Engineered bracing plans to resist soil loading on partially constructed foundations is a very common issue in the construction industry. Typically, contractors will want to speed the pace of construction by backfilling against a foundation prior to the installation of the topping slab, joists or girders. In order to accomplish this, DHG provides contractors with wall bracing designs to temporarily support the foundation walls against the horizontal loading imposed by the backfill material.

This is typically accomplished by using pipe braces anchored to the interior slab-on-grade, or by anchoring the bracing to sacrificial concrete deadman footings. In some instances, bracing can be minimized by decreasing the backfill load against the wall. In these instances, DHG provides clients with a mechanically stabilized earth backfill design that drastically reduces the loading on the foundation wall.

DHG also provides contractors with engineered wall bracing designs to resist wind loading. This is typically found during tilt-up concrete construction, but also becomes necessary for poured in place construction of shear walls and other concrete structures. Similar in method to bracing for soil loading, the pipe braces are anchored to a concrete footing or slab-on-grade.