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What is a Wind Post?


Oldsteel

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We are at the tender stage and our groundworker's quote for putting in the foundations included a £1000 section for the installation of the base plates for 'wind posts'. I asked my structural engineer whether he thought these were necessary and he had no idea what they are! I googled it and it seems they are some kind of steel post to help prevent wind damage? In any event we are not building on a clifftop so can I assume they are not required?

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A wind post is a steel that is  placed vertical in a long wall that has no other buttressing to stop it bending or flexing under wind load. It will be bolted down to the foundations and is only used when the walls are in excess of a certain distance. The SE would need to have designed it  in so they should know about it !!

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It is just a type of vertical reinforcement for masonry, sort of like an independent structural column for wall ties - but can also have flanges or other means of connection to the masonry.  Depends on the wall makeup, loading etc. 

 

Who spec'ed them?

Edited by Carrerahill
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Our SE initially specified Wind Posts, 4 of them in each corner of the TF.  It looked to make the foundations a lot more complicated with a reinforced concrete cast upstand for them to bolt to and it looked like it would have some thermal bridging implications.

 

So I questioned him as I had never seen that in a domestic timber frame before.  His answer was because we have no brick or block outer skin, the building needed more racking strength than a normal timber frame.

 

He came up with an alternative solution which was to use two layers of OSB with staggered joints to give a stronger racking layer and that is how we have built it.

 

Talk to your SE to find out why he specified them and ask him for alternative solutions.

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I have had wind posts specified quite often.  Used to support and strengthen masonry.  The ones I have had just bolt down to the foundation with expansion bolts, so not really a £250 each job!

 

I have fitted 13 of these on my own in less than a day.

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11 minutes ago, Oldsteel said:

@mvincentd .. walls not turning corners are less stable. This makes sense in the context of our design! 

@mvincentd if you keep an eye out for garden walls that are say 6ft high, you will see that they have thicker piers or columns in the straight sections which do the same job.

 

Equally if you go out after a windstorm you can see the characteristics of weaker ones which may have blown over.

 

F

Edited by Ferdinand
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