Shear walls
 

this is a questions for u framer/carpenters

i have a brand new townhouse and im curious to know which side of the partitioning walls would the shear wall be on? is there any building codes that states which side it should be installed? dont want to poke holes in drywall to find out

reason im asking is in the future, might want to run some wiring from the 2nd to 3rd floor, and unfortunately the only common wall i have to work with is either of the partitioning walls.

Shear walls are built to prevent lateral load or movement, So you probably looking at a long hallway or stretch . Its hard to say because location is also dependent on your roof and size of the town house and foundation. There are codes that had just been implemented and changed. Not too sure what the ratio is and rules are ( structural engineer stuff / math ). Your better off finding it out on the plans or from a structual engineer. Again all dependent on you buildings specs. hope this helps

ask your building manager to see the architectural drawings

meh, building management is not in place yet,
so i talked to developers, and apparently they cant give out this type of information

i guess ill just have to find out myself.

but out of curiousity, lets say i cut a hole on my side of the party wall, does it need to be 'firestopped' in the case of insurance reasons??

Sheer walls are typically between suites or along hallway corridors depending on the layout. Like RenoMan pointed out, they're there to counteract lateral load/movement.

If the wall is a fire separation, any work you do to it should be properly patched and fire stopped after you've done your work. I'm not sure how it will affect your insurance though if there ever is a fire.

You also don't need to have walls line up flush to run cables or lines from one floor to the other. When you get to the next floor you can always run it between the floor joists, if it is wood. If it's a concrete floor, you'd need to do trenching or drill through the slab.

yeah, i know what shearwalls are for

i know i can run it between floor joists. its just too much damage for a brand new place lol
but for my layout, its actually alot more patch work / more paint colour to match / more painting for me

If it were me I'd cut a piece of the celing out between the joists on the second floor next to the wall. Use that hole to gain easy access to the wall above as well as the wall on the second floor.

Run your wires and then add backing to the hole and put the same piece of drywall back. It's an easy patch from there, a little bit of mud and paint and you're good to go. Unfortunatley if you have textured ceilings then this won't really work.

The blueprints should all be on public record with the city permit department.

I'd think the developer would be required to share this kind of info as well - some potential buyers might find design details an important selling point. As in, "I want to know how well this place is designed/built before I invest."

If you're pre-buying in a place that's still under construction, a lot of developers will let you customize your unit... pre-wiring should be a no-brainer, if they're not past that point in the build. I know our townhouse was prewired for an alarm system, one of only four or five in our complex of 56 units, because the original owner requested it during construction.