bracing top of foundation, residential

huangyhg

bracing top of foundation, residential
question about the allowable height of foundation wall on a typical wood frame residential project: does adding +1' wood knee wall above a standard 8'tall concrete wall (8" or 10" thick w/2-#5t&b) effectively cancel out the lateral bracing of the wall?
some of my engineer colleagues won鈥檛 鈥榮ign off鈥?on that type of design, saying that without the floor joists tied to the sill plate/ anchor bolt assembly, the concrete wall loses its ability to resist lateral load of soil. they insist on retaining wall reinforcing. however, builders in the chicago area have been getting by with this detail for years without any special reinforcing or spread footings. some architects (who i will not name) say it鈥檚 no big deal either, especially when you consider how foundation walls 鈥榮tep鈥?down around the back on most of these mcmansions with walk-out basements. they rely on the weight of the structure alone to resist lateral load of soil, etc.  
tell a builder he has a retaining wall and he鈥檒l look at you like you came from mars鈥?what to do? counterforts?
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i agree to your colleagues.  if you dont do any special reinforcing on the footings, that means you assume the bottom is pinned.  if you have nothing pushing on the top of the basement wall (i.e. main floor framing), then your foundation wall wasnt designed properly.  the floor diaphragm cannot take that much load.  thats why i like to design the foundation wall with fixed at the bottom and assume the floor diaphragm doesn't take any load.  but you need additional reinforcing and bigger toe and heel to do this.