A brace that is slack is a brace that is decorative
Metal angle bracing only works in tension.
In short: A metal angle brace recorded untensioned on a Gledswood Hills frame.
What the brace is for
It stops the wall racking, which is the parallelogram movement a rectangular frame makes under lateral load. It does that by working in tension across the diagonal.
Why tension is the whole thing
A slack brace does nothing until the wall has already moved far enough to take up the slack. By then the movement it was installed to prevent has happened.
What we recorded
A metal angle brace installed and fixed but never tensioned, on a Gledswood Hills frame inspection.
How it is corrected
Tensioned properly and re-fixed. It is one of the quickest items on any frame list.
The related finding
On the same job a fixing was missed on plywood bracing, which is the other way a brace ends up present and ineffective.
Written by the Owner Inspections team from inspections carried out in Gledswood Hills. Licensed building practitioners, NSW Fair Trading licence 366177C.
