About

Monkey Wrench Solutions is a company that develops new products intended to improve the quality of our lives. Monkey Wrench Solutions Inc. is proud to introduce a brand new United States Patented product that has been in development for several years, the Sheathing Fastening Bracket, or “SFB System”.

The SFB System is a series of galvanized steel brackets that fastens the sheathing to the trusses or rafters of the roof and will greatly enhance the stability of the entire roofing system.  It can also be used to fasten perimeter sheathing to the studs in walls. In addition, this innovative solution could possibly be used to replace the H-Clip as a 1/8-inch spacer between sheets of sheathing.

The SFB System has gone through rigorous testing which was performed by Hurricane Engineering and Testing Inc. (HETI), a State of Florida Approved Independent Testing Laboratory.  HETI concluded that the anchoring of sheathing in roofs using the SFB System in conjunction with current building code nailing patterns is significantly stronger than nailing alone. 

The SFB System is proudly manufactured in the USA.  Miami-Dade County whose building codes are the most stringent set of building codes in the United States has approved the SFB System.

With the addition of the SFB System, the flex from the sheathing is removed and significantly strengthens the structure and makes it much more rigid.  By transferring the load to the SFB System’s galvanized steel brackets, the effects of the loads and uplift will be tremendously reduced.

High winds and hurricane forces typically impact a site for a long period of time.  The effects of excessive winds on a roof include:

  • Inward-acting or positive pressures act on windward surfaces and usually leaves the roof intact; however, the circular nature of hurricanes exposes all roof surfaces at some point during the storm to negative pressures

  • The outward-acting or negative pressures act on leeward surfaces of roofs exposing the roof elements to failure.  This occurrence happens when wind gusts thrust the nails that hold the sheathing in place in a reverse direction from the direction that each nail was hammered.

  • These negative pressures also expose roof surfaces to failure when winds are parallel to the ridge.

  • Localized suction or negative pressures at eaves, ridges, edges, and corners of roofs affect loads on roofs that can also cause failure of these elements.

  • Window, doors, and other openings are subjected to wind pressures and impact of windborne debris which act as missiles. If these openings fail or are breached because of either wind pressures or windborne debris, then the entire roof becomes subject to wind pressures that can be twice as great as those that would result if the building remained fully enclosed. 

  • Observations of hurricane damage have confirmed that once the roof of a home is breached, the failure of building elements normally follows shortly thereafter.

The causes and effects of roof failure include:

  • When homes fail under exposure to hurricane-force winds, the order of failure usually begins with the roof followed by window and door openings, and then walls and foundations. NOTE: Roof systems are exposed to higher loading than any other building element. Field observations of the damage from hurricanes Hugo, Andrew, and Iniki confirmed that once the roof of a home was breached, failure of other building elements followed;

  • In 1993, HUD identified roof sheathing as a critical component that locks all other roof members together to form a structural system. Roof sheathing failure was a common problem during hurricanes Andrew and Iniki;

  • Attachment methods can have an effect on the uplift resistance of sheathing. In the aftermath of hurricane Andrew, damage showed that some panels appeared to have pulled loose after fastener heads pulled through the sheathing panels.

So, why the need for the SFB-System?

Attaching sheathing with the SFB-System will immensely improve resistance to uplift and, in turn, will undoubtedly reduce its loss in high winds insuring Safer Stronger Structures.