LEESBURG, VA – The American Wood Council (AWC) has released its three new 2024 wood design standards: the National Design Specification® for Wood Construction (NDS®), Wood Frame Construction Manual (WFCM) for One- and Two-Family Dwellings, and Fire Design Specification for Wood Construction (FDS).
The 2024 NDS and 2024 WFCM are referenced wood design standards in the International Code Council’s 2024 International Building Code and 2024 International Residential Code.
The NDS is the primary design standard used when designing wood structures. Extensive changes were made in the 2024 NDS design provisions for shear in bending members, connections of multi-ply connections, and to NDS Chapter 16 to bring its provisions into alignment with provisions within the 2024 FDS.
The 2024 FDS is a new design standard for wood construction containing provisions for fire design of wood members, assemblies and connections. It includes calculation procedures for determining structural fire resistance, thermal separation, and burn-through resistance of protected and unprotected wood members and assemblies. The FDS also has provisions to address the added fire resistance and thermal protection provided by the addition of wood cover, gypsum panels, and insulation.
The WFCM details design and construction provisions for connections, wall systems, floor systems, and roof systems to resist dead, live, snow, seismic, and high wind loads. The Manual applies to wood structural elements like sawn lumber, structural glued laminated timber, wood structural panel sheathing, structural composite lumber, wood I-joists, and wood trusses. Most of the changes to the WFCM were to align the structural requirements with recently updated wind and snow loading provisions in ASCE 7-22.
“This concludes over five years of design standards development for the 2024 editions,” said AWC Vice President of Engineering Bradford Douglas. “To make our code-referenced standards the most user-friendly they can be, we will now be developing supporting publications including Commentaries, revising technical reports and design aids, and conducting further research to ensure continued widespread acceptance of wood in construction.”
All three standards are available for free viewing on the AWC website. A printed or electronic version of the 2024 NDS and 2024 WFCM will be available for purchase once the Commentaries are added later this year.
All AWC design standards are developed by AWC’s Wood Design Standards Committee through a consensus process approved by the American National Standards Institute. AWC particularly thanks the volunteers on our Wood Design Standards Committee for their work on these important publications.
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