Pca’s First Ansi-Styled Consensus Standard Covers Residential Wall Design

The National Standards Development Committee of the Portland Cement Association (PCA) approved the first PCA standard utilizing the American National

The National Standards Development Committee of the Portland Cement Association (PCA) approved the first PCA standard utilizing the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-accredited voluntary consensus process. PCA 100-07 Prescriptive Method for Design and Construction of Residential Concrete Walls facilitates the use of cast-in-place concrete wall systems incorporating either removable or stay-in-place formwork (including ICFs or insulating concrete forms). It applies to the construction of detached one- and two-family dwellings.

PCA 100-07 provides a simplified approach for the design and construction of cast-in-place concrete foundations and above-grade exterior walls. That approach is based on the requirements of ASCE 7-05 Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures; ACI 318-05 Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete, and test results.

The previous prescriptive method included in the International Code Council (ICC) Residential Code was not developed via an ANSI-accredited standards development process and, thus, was not consistent with the ICC policy for referenced standards, notes PCA Director of Code and Standards Steve Szoke. Through a cooperative agreement between PCA and the American Iron and Steel Institute, we have expanded the scope to address the connection of concrete walls to cold-formed steel framing in addition to wood framing.

PCA anticipates that the 100-07 standard will be available by year’s end, then referenced in the 2009 edition of the International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings (IRC).