cmu wall corners

huangyhg

cmu wall corners...
good morning.
i have a general question about masonry load-bearing wall construction. considering a typical exterior building wall corner, constructed of load-bearing cmu in running bond. assume that no control joint was indicated to be located precisely at the corner; neither by the structural drawings, nor the architectural drawings.
with only these facts in mind, and under conventions of construction typical in the masonry industry of today, would i be more likely to end up with a wall corner that was constructed integrally (i.e. one wall 鈥渢ied鈥?to the other by 鈥渢oothing in鈥?of units), or rather should i expect these walls to be constructed structurally separate from one another?
any insight, from your unique perspectives in the industry, would be greatly appreciated.
respectfully,
walterbrennan
i would expect the corner to be fully bonded. we don't expect control joints to be added at locations not shown on the drawings, especially when it may affect the integrity. do the walls span vertically or horizontally?
i would hope that you could point to some statement in your structural notes or specifications regarding bonding at intersecting walls. if the project is small and perhaps does not have notes or specifications, you should still be able to require the contractor to follow the governing code requirements. for instance, the section in ibc 2000 that you need to refer to is 2109.7.2, intersecting walls. if the governing code references aci 530-99, then check out 5.8.2.
i hope this helps!
the wall corner should be constructd in running bond as jike mentions. corner "dur-o-wal" reinforcement shoulkd be used, or at least corner bars to lap with the bond beam reinforcement. for lighter construction, one vertical should be at corner, but most offices use 3 verticals (one each adjacent cell in addition to corner).
jike,
the walls i was thinking of were reinforced to span vertically to a roof or floor diaphragm. which means, since aci 530 section 5.8.2 talks about masonry walls, 鈥溾