2018 Wood Design Standards Available Online Robert Glowinski The recent approval of the 2018 International Building Code (IBC) and International Residential Code (IRC) is of keen interest to professionals in the construction industry as it often means expanded options for structural applications. In support of these two codes, the American Wood Council... Read More January 2018 Issue #10222 Page 70
All Things Wood: Wood Frame Construction Manual—a Valuable Structural Design Guide Frank Woeste While the International Residential Code (IRC) gives the structural requirements and prescriptive design data for residential framing, additional help for the non-engineer is available through the Wood Frame Construction Manual for One- and Two-Family Dwellings (WFCM) published by the American... Read More January 2018 Issue #10222 Page 73
Introducing the New and Improved Simpson Strong-Tie® Strong-Wall® Bracing Selector Caleb Knudson It’s been said that the World Wide Web is the wave of the future. Okay, maybe this is slightly outdated news, as it’s been 25 years since Bill Gates penned his internet tidal-wave memorandum, but it’s a good lead-in to this topic – web apps. More specifically, those apps... Read More November 2017 Issue #10220 Page 86
All Things Wood: Evaluating an Existing Residential Deck Frank Woeste Since 2003, deck researchers and representatives of the code community have worked to improve and expand the deck provisions in the International Residential Code (IRC). I believe the deck-related provisions of the 2015 IRC, coupled with best practices in the American Wood Council DCA6-2012,... Read More August 2017 Issue #10217 Page 66
Making Code Official Connections Robert Glowinski Building officials are the gatekeepers to building construction. To approve any construction, including where wood is the principal product, they need to know a lot of information. The American Wood Council aims to make the job of building code official a little easier when it comes to knowing... Read More July 2017 Issue #10216 Page 71
All Things Wood: Anatomy of an Inherently Dangerous Deck Frank Woeste Over the period of nine days starting on June 9, 2017, five deck collapses in five states (MT, VA, OH. MI, and WI) were reported in the news media. Using the injury data from the media, the five collapses resulted in a total of 57 injuries. In one case, WAVY.com reported that, after an... Read More July 2017 Issue #10216 Page 76
All Things Wood: How to Predict a Bouncy Floor Frank Woeste Background The model International Residential Code (IRC) permits a design live load of 30 psf for “sleeping rooms.” The model codes specify 40 psf for all other rooms. Of the annoying floor vibration complaints we have received, the most common scenario stems from the use... Read More June 2017 Issue #10215 Page 68
Building Code Update: 2018 IBC to Reference ASCE 7-16 Randy Shackelford In early December, ICC posted the preliminary results of the Group B Online Governmental Consensus Vote, which included structural changes to the IBC, IEBC and IRC. ICC reports that there were more than 162,000 votes cast by eligible Voting Members during the three-week online voting... Read More May 2017 Issue #10214 Page 83
Question of the Day: Bottom Chords and Gable End Frames Stan Sias Why do some still insist on placing flat bottom chord gable end frames adjacent to vaulted or scissor trusses when the codes clearly do not allow such framing without special engineering requirements? Can you point me to the code sections that say “No, thank you!”? This is a... Read More January 2017 Issue #10210 Page 34
A Tale of Two Houses: Design Loads for Metal Plate Connected Wood Trusses Kelly Sias Take two trusses with identical profiles and environmental surroundings, and they should have the same design loads, right? Early in my career, I recall hearing a story about two identical buildings right next to each other that were designed for two different magnitudes of environmental loads.... Read More January 2017 Issue #10210 Page 72