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Component Manufacturing dverti$er
All things Wood
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Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
January 2018 #10222 Page #73
Wood Frame Construction Manual—a Valuable Structural Design Guide By Frank Woeste and Buddy Showalter
W
hile 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 Wood Council (AWC). The WFCM offers a pathway to accomplishing a code-conforming framing design for everyone from a layman to the most experienced residential designer, engineer, or architect. Building code officials will also find the document valuable for plan review. The WFCM includes design and construction provisions for connections, wall systems, floor systems, and roof systems. A range of structural elements are covered, including sawn lumber, structural glued laminated timber, wood structural sheathing, I-joists, and trusses.
Figure 1. AWC’s Colonial Homes Idea House in Williamsburg, VA, designed by nationally acclaimed architect William E. Poole, was used in the 2014 Virginia Tech WFCM course.
Demonstrating its functionality as a design resource, in 2014, Virginia Tech offered a two-day program on how to use the WFCM to design the framing system of the two-story home depicted in Figure 1. Using the manual, the instructors led the participants through the design process assuming all of the load conditions contained within the IRC. Covering an intense two days (which some participants suggested should have been at least three days), the 91-page workbook for the course can still be downloaded and printed from: http://www.awc.org/pdf/codes-standards/publications/wfcm/AWC-WFCM2015-Workbook-160901.pdf Continued next page
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