Holdown Anchorage Solutions Paul McEntee A couple years ago, I did a post on selecting holdown anchorage solutions. At the time, we had created a couple engineering letters that tabulated SSTB, SB and PAB anchor solutions for each holdown to simplify specifying anchor bolts. About a year later, a salesperson suggested we tabulate SSTB,... Read More March 2018 Issue #10224 Page 94
Get Your Building Official to Vote on Code Changes Robert Glowinski The International Code Council (ICC) building code update process for the 2021 code cycle is officially underway! In late December, the ICC Tall Wood Building Ad-hoc Committee submitted a package of 19 proposed changes for the 2021 edition of the building code that would collectively allow... Read More February 2018 Issue #10223 Page 73
New Codes are Coming Joe Kannapell 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... Read More January 2018 Issue #10222 Page 6
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
Trusses and Mechanical Systems Joe Kannapell Truss designers be aware: energy codes are changing HVAC systems. Until recently, duct layouts were designed like truss layouts of the 1970s – hand-drawn on blue prints. Since Building Officials don’t require residential heating/AC layouts, you may have not known of collisions until... Read More November 2017 Issue #10220 Page 19
Onerous Wood Dust Proposal Modified in California Robert Glowinski In 2016, the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) proposed to significantly lower the permissible exposure limit (PEL) of wood dust from 5 milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m3) to 1 mg/m3. Earlier this year the Cal/OSHA Standards Board considered that proposal.... Read More November 2017 Issue #10220 Page 69
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
What You Need to Know About Differences in Wind-Speed Reporting for Hurricanes Darren Conrad With Hurricane Irma wrapping up, the cleanup after Hurricane Harvey’s devastation underway in Houston and more big storms already churning in the Atlantic, it seems like a good time to discuss hurricanes and high wind. There is a great deal of good information out there to help us better... Read More October 2017 Issue #10219 Page 92
Wall Panel Designer Primer Joe Kannapell In the 1960s, Ed Ryan set basic standards for panelizing walls, and for decades his homebuilding company (now NVR Inc.) followed his lead. His standards also made it easy for us to provide his wall panel equipment. The name we gave it, “Panel-Rite,” would have pleased Ed, since he... Read More September 2017 Issue #10218 Page 6