Sheathing layout on 14' wall. Efficient material use

Question

I'm sheathing a garage with 14ft walls and with a panel of zip at 80$ I want to make sure I'm making efficient use of materials. On each wall there is a 2' cutoff if two 8' panels are use like ways vertical. How can I incorporate that 2' into the layout so I don't have to buy a ton more sheets. Any code references on minimum sheathing width? Blocking required al all seams?

I do have fire block at 10' and shear block at 8'. Is it code legal to go 8' then a 2' piece and finish with a 4' piece or is the answer stacking 4', 4', 4', 2' the right answer?

Answer 1

Try using the 4x8 panels in a horizonal manner. This means that three horizontal runs gets you up to 12 feet. Then another panel cut down the center to get two 2x8 panels, one of which can finish off the first 14' tall section. The second half of that split panel gets used in the next horizontal stack of panels.

Assembling in this horizontal manner also greatly increases the chance that the remainder that you cut off the last panel stack at the first corner can be used as a starter stack as you go around the corner (with some additional trimming of course).