[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: Advanced Framing/OVE in Midwest?

[Lawrence Lile]

Jason, My dad started building with 2X6 on 24" ctr in 1972 in the
Midwest, because of energy concerns. None of his houses, to my
knowledge, have blown away yet.   

In my recent house project, I used 2X6 walls, but  I was NOT able to
convince carpenters to get away from cripples in windows, or to use
Simpson hangers to hang headers instead of setting them on cripples.  I
had to prove to an inspector with calculations that a 2X6 wall that was
about 14 feet tall would not suffer from excessive wind forces (it
wouldn't).  

I was able to get them to use hollow outside corner studs, instead of
stacking up studs in the corners.  I had 1" of foam wrapped around the
entire exterior, which I believe mitigates the insulation short-circuit
created by cripple studs.  

I was under the impression that the R-19 requirement in the code
basically requires 2X6 walls, or 2X4 with R-5 of foam sheathing.  

 
 
Lawrence Lile, P.E., LEED AP