There are products used in many buildings that are not referenced by the codes or standards. These products can affect structural strength, stability, fire resistance and other building performance attributes, which can impact public safety, health and general welfare. The International Building...

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...

With the New Year comes new International codes, IBC and IRC 2018 (referred to as the I-Codes), and fortunately, few changes to truss designs. These changes are the result of the revised design criteria contained in ASCE 7–16, which IBC 2018 relies upon. Very few jurisdictions will...

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...

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...

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...

The future is here. It is common knowledge that wood is a renewable and environmentally friendly building material. There are two types of wood-framing methods in North America. The most common method for residential construction is light-frame construction using either balloon-framing or...

Mass timber, including cross-laminated timber (CLT), has been in use worldwide for over 15 years, but most notably in Europe. However, North American designers and engineers are increasingly showing interest in picking up the trend. Building with mass timber for taller buildings has...

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...

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....