Patent ID: 8720154

Claim:
A cold-formed steel, structural, wall and floor framing system for a multi-story building, the framing system adapted for transferring bearing loads from a top of the building, through structural floor levels to a building foundation, the framing system comprising: a roof structure; a plurality of spaced apart, vertical upper wall studs, a top portion of the upper studs engaging and supporting the roof structure thereon; a horizontal, elongated, bottom spanning track with a “U” shaped configuration, the bottom spanning track including a horizontal bottom portion and a pair of parallel, spaced apart, vertical sides, each of the vertical sides having an outwardly extending “L” shaped flange, a bottom portion of the upper wall studs received against the “L” shaped flanges of the bottom spanning track and attached thereto; a horizontal, elongated, top spanning track with an inverted “U” shaped configuration, the top spanning track including a horizontal top portion and a pair of parallel, spaced apart, vertical sides, each of the vertical sides having an outwardly extending “L” shaped flange; a plurality of spaced apart, vertical lower wall studs, a top portion of the lower wall studs received against the “L” shaped flanges of the top spanning track and attached thereto; and a horizontal floor, the horizontal bottom portion of the bottom spanning track disposed above and spaced apart from the horizontal top portion of the top spanning track for receiving the horizontal floor therebetween, the horizontal bottom portion of the bottom spanning track engaging a top of the floor and bearing thereon, the horizontal top portion of the top spanning track engaging a bottom of the floor and bearing thereon; whereby bearing loads from the roof structure are transferred from the upper wall studs to the bottom spanning track, from the bottom spanning track to a portion of the horizontal floor, from the portion of the horizontal floor to the top spanning track, from the top spanning track to the lower wall studs, and from the lower wall studs to the building foundation.