Name Assigned: Residential single car garage

Address: Unknown

Coordinates: N30d26’42.5”/W089d05’25.0”

Structure Description: There was a 16” return on one side of the garage, and approximately a 48” return next to the man-door. The garage door was breeched. It seemed that the builder tried to follow conventional construction. There were two 4x8 sheets of wood structural panels, however, the braced wall on the right hand side of garage was compromised by cutting the panel in an L-shape. The remainder of wall was filled with fiberboard sheathing, which is recognized as a method of wall bracing in modern prescriptive residential codes. The garage was tied down well to the foundation, including approximately 800 lbs hold down straps in the areas of the narrow garage fronts. There was no anchor bolt in the 16” garage front. Trusses were tied down to walls with hurricane clips. Wall studs were tied to the top plate with hurricanes straps. Nails were used as the method of attachment, size, spacing, and location (fiberboard vs. studs). There was no notable racking of the wall.

Failure Description: It appears that garage pressurized, and the gable truss was “blown out” relative to the front wall. Also, there was a loss of vinyl siding in the area of the roof gable, which was sheathed with fiberboard, as well as loss of siding next to left hand side of garage door. It is theorized that the vinyl siding was attached directly to the fiberboard sheathing.

Additional Information: The garage was located due north of a larger residential structure that sustained some roof damage. Also, in this general vicinity, there were several other garage door breaches.