A paired CT installation on a single 2x joist. Both the bolts and rod appear to be excessively longer than that needed. It is wondered if these longer bolts and rods were intended for another installation, and if so, did the use of these bolts and rods here cause a shortage at the installation where they were needed?

A paired CT glulam wall tie installation. In order to provide sufficient distance between the anchor and glulam pocket in the concrete block wall, the glulam beam has been padded out with 6x12's on each side. As an alternate to such installations, Mercalli XII can fabricate custom XT Cross Ties with increased rod offset distances that eliminated the need to install padding at these type of connections. This greatly simplifies installation, reduces costs, and provides for a much better wall tie installation.

Another paired CT glulam beam wall tie installation similar to that shown in the previous photo. Given a glulam beam width of 10.75", 6x12 padding each side, and 3" wide CT's, the minimum overall length of the bolts needed for this installation will be 29". Bolts of this length are likely to be a special order item that make take some time to acquire. Such issues are eliminated when custom XT Cross Ties with increased rod offset distances are used. This eliminates the need for the padding, and longer bolts. For these installations the length of the bolts required is reduced to 12", and bolts of this length are generally available.

A paired CT glulam-to-glulam diaphragm cross tie installation. Due to the presence of the support bucket on the right, it would appear that the allthread rod supplied for this installation was too short. As such, the distance between the end of the left glulam beam and first bolt of the CT appears to be inadequate. The 2x padding and OSB sheathing associated with the right CT installation does not appear to have been installed in a very professional manner. Much of this could have been eliminated if longer rods had been used instead of those shown.

When the plywood sheathing was removed for dry rot repairs at this building, many of the strap ties were found to have been badly misaligned, and just left as shown, without any attempt to attach them to the roof joists.

More misaligned strap ties strap ties similar to that shown in the previous photo. Just left as shown without any attempt to attach them to the joists, or provide for an alternate wall tie installation.

At the same building as shown in the previous two photos. At this location an attempt was made to attach the strap tie to the glulam beam with a few nails. Even so, this installation is still more or less useless.

More misaligned strap ties, but these have been attached to the joists with a few nails. Still, these strap ties will provide little capacity.

The strap ties at this building were consistently misaligned. Even though they have been attached to the joists, when loaded during an earthquake they will elongate significantly, and perform very poorly.