offset, i.e.non-colinear, shear walls, conv/wood 2-story house

[tricalcim]

1. I have both interior and exterior shear wall lines that are offset, 2', 3', 4', and 5. The IRC/UBC seem to allow "braced wall lines" to be offset 4' and still be considered the same wall line. I believe because I'm "engineering" the walls I should not site the 4' code. Agree/disagree

If you do not consider the offset walls to be the same wall line, what is/are rational analysis/design/construction methods for diaphram, chord, and wall.

This is a 2-story, conventionally wood framed house in CA.

 

[JAE]

You have to decide if you are designing under the light framed provisions of the code or directly engineering it.

It sounds like you are NOT using the empirical light framed provisions so by engineering it you can avoid the 4' offset limit and design away.

There are provisions in the code for diaphragms that take shear due to offsets. These are found in Chapter 16.

 

[AlohaBob]

I've done this. I resolved the in-live forces to the shearwalls, but considered the induced torque from the offset. I occasionally put a strut in the opposite direction to resolve the balance force into perpendicular shearwalls. The trick is to keep it simple.