The International Code Council (ICC) reviews and updates its family of building codes on a three-year cycle. The code change proposals that will be considered this year affect the fire provisions of the building (IBC) and fire (IFC) codes, and they have been publicly posted. These changes, if approved by the ICC Governmental Voting Members, will be incorporated into the 2021 building codes.
Some states are anxious to incorporate construction provisions for tall mass timber building into their state codes. The State of Washington recently passed a bill supporting the use of mass timber for building construction “in a manner that ensures resilient, safe, and durable structures.” The bill would require the state to adopt rules for mass timber construction following such adoption by ICC.
There were 14 code change proposals submitted by the International Code Council (ICC) Ad Hoc Committee on Tall Wood Buildings. Included were three new types of construction for “mass timber” buildings which would vary in required fire resistance ratings and the degree of noncombustible protection required. These code changes, if approved, would allow buildings with solid mass timber floors, walls, and roofs between 6- and 12-inches thick (unlike conventional repetitive-member framing), along with columns and beams sized to achieved required fire resistance ratings.
ICC’s Ad Hoc Committee was comprised of 17 committee-member experts, including building and fire officials, fire protection engineers, architects, structural engineers, and representatives from all materials groups, and worked for 19 months to develop the proposed changes. During that period, 82 issues were identified and resolved by the Committee through extensive work group activity, online and in-person meetings, and two comprehensive full-scale testing programs conducted at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) large-scale fire test facility in Beltsville, MD and at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX.
AWC has been presenting a series of three webinars on the Ad Hoc Committee-proposed changes and fire testing. The last in this series will occur on Thursday, April 5 (summarizing the outcomes and proposed changes). Viewers can register for free at: http://awc.site-ym.com/events/event_list.asp.
The first two webinars in the series are now available for review on AWC’s self-study page:
The official review of all code change proposals begins in April with an ICC committee reviewing and recommending action on each proposal. Final consideration of these recommendations will then take place by ICC’s voting members in October. A broad spectrum of interested parties supporting mass timber has formed a coalition to encourage passage of these code changes. CMA readers wanting to show their support for the effort should sign up at: www.buildtallbuildsafe.com.
To watch the test videos and read the reports, go to: www.awc.org/tallmasstimber. To access ICC TWB Ad Hoc Committee documents and research, visit: https://www.iccsafe.org/codes-tech-support/cs/icc-ad-hoc-committee-on-tall-wood-buildings/.