A common practice in the construction industry is the application of covering, e.g., cladding, panels, siding, sheathing, on exterior walls of buildings. Typically, the covering is attached to studs defining a frame of an outside wall. The studs may be load bearing or non-load bearing. For multi-story buildings, especially commercial buildings, the building studs may not extend over the exterior surface of the floor/ceiling slab between each floor. Therefore, the covering may overhang the exterior surface of the slab but is not attached to the slab. Because the covering is typically not reinforced and instead is designed with expectation that it will receive much of its structural support from the frame to which it is to be attached, the section of covering that overhangs the exterior slab surface is much more susceptible to damage than the sections of covering that are attached to the studs. Pressure on the overhanging portion of the panel, such as that caused by impacts to the panel during building construction, or by strong winds, may cause the panel to bend or fracture.
One solution is to build an exterior frame in which non-load bearing studs extend across the exterior surface of the slab. While this provides ample support for the covering, the building of the exterior frame adds additional square footage to the exterior footprint of the building, and is also more expensive than building a frame structure between each floor that spans from only the floor surface to the ceiling surface.