Definitions
Accepted Engineering Practice: An engineering approach that conforms with accepted principles, tests, technical standards, and sound judgment.
Anchor Bolt: A bolt, headed or threaded, used to connect a structural member of different material to a concrete member.
Approved: Reference to approval by the building code authority having jurisdiction. Product testing or a rational design by a competent design professional is commonly accepted by the code body as grounds for approval.
Attic: The enclosed space between the ceiling joists of the top-most floor and the roof rafters of a building not intended for occupancy but sometimes used for storage.
Authority Having Jurisdiction: The organization, political subdivision, office, or individual charged with the responsibility of administering and enforcing the provisions of applicable building codes.
Axial Load: A force acting in line with a member’s longitudinal axis. Examples are the gravity loads carried by columns or wall panels.
Basement: That portion of a building, which is partly, or completely below grade and which may be used as habitable space.
Building: Any one- or two-family dwelling or portion thereof that is used for human habitation.
Building Height: The vertical distance between the average grade, as measured against the building foundation, to either the highest point of the roof beams (for flat-roofed buildings) or the mean height between the eaves and the roof peak for pitched roofs.
Building Length: The dimension of a building that is perpendicular to roof rafters, roof trusses, or floor joists (L).
Building Width: The dimension of a building that is parallel to roof rafters, roof trusses, floor joists, or roof SIPs (W).
Ceiling Joist: A horizontal structural framing member that supports ceiling components and which may be subject to attic loads.
Core: The lightweight middle section of the sandwich structural insulated panel composed of molded expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation or alternative, which provides the link between the two facing shells.
Dead Load: Forces resulting from the weight of walls, partitions, framing, floors, ceilings, roofs, and all other permanent construction entering into, and becoming part of, a building.
Deflection: Elastic movement of a loaded structural member or assembly (i.e., beam or wall).
Design Professional: An individual licensed to practice their respective design profession as defined by the statutory requirements of the state in which the project is to be constructed.
Design (or Basic) Wind Speed: Related to winds that are expected to be exceeded once every 50 years at a given site (i.e., 50-year return period). Wind speeds in this document are given in units of miles per hour (mph) by 3-second gust measurements in accordance with ASCE 7.
Dwelling: Any building that contains one or two dwelling units for living purposes.
Endwall: The exterior wall of a building which is perpendicular to the roof ridge and parallel to floor framing, roof rafters, or trusses. It is normally the shorter dimension of a rectangular building’s footprint.
Exposure Categories: Reflects the effect of the ground surface roughness on wind loads in accordance with ASCE 7. Exposure Category B includes urban and suburban areas or other terrain with numerous closely spaced obstructions having the size of single-family dwellings or larger. Exposure Category C includes open terrain with scattered obstructions having heights generally less than 30 ft (9.1 m) and shorelines in hurricane prone regions.
Facing: The wood structural panel facers that form the two outmost rigid layers of the structural insulated panel.
Floor Joist: A horizontal structural framing member that supports floor loads and superimposed vertical loads.
Foundation: The structural elements through which the loads of a structure, both vertical and lateral, are transmitted to the earth.
Foundation Wall: The structural element of a foundation that transmits the load of a structure to the earth; includes basement, stem, and crawlspace walls.
Grade: The finished ground level adjoining the building at all exterior walls.
Ground Snow Load: Measured load on the ground due to snow accumulation developed from a statistical analysis of weather records expected to be exceeded once every 50 years at a given site.
In-Line Framing: A framing method where all vertical and horizontal load carrying members are aligned.
Lateral Load: A horizontal force, created by wind or earthquake, acting on a structure or its components.
Lateral Support: A horizontal member providing stability to a column or wall across either of its smaller dimensions. (Lateral support can be applied to either of the minor dimensions of an axially-loaded member.)
Live Loads: Those loads produced by the use and occupancy of the building or other structure and do not include construction or environmental loads such as wind load, snow load, rain load, earthquake load, flood load or dead load.
Load Bearing Walls: Walls subject to loads that exceed the limits for non-load bearing walls.
Multiple Span: The span made by a continuous member having intermediate supports.
Non-Load Bearing Walls: Walls that are limited to a lateral (transverse) load of not more than 5 psf (240 Pa), a superimposed vertical load per member, exclusive of sheathing materials, of not more than 100 lb/ft (1460 N/m), or a superimposed vertical load per member of not more than 200 lbs (890 N).
Oriented Strand Board (OSB): Sheets made from narrow strands of wood fiber oriented lengthwise and crosswise in layers, with a resin binder, conforming to DOC PS2. In the building codes it is included in the class of products called “wood structural panels”.
Panel Thickness: Thickness of core plus two layers of wood structural panel facers.
R-Value, Thermal Resistance: The inverse of the time rate of heat flow through a building thermal envelope element from one of its bounding surfaces to the other for a unit temperature difference between the two surfaces, under steady state conditions, per unit area (h.ft2.°F/Btu).
Ridge: The horizontal line formed by the joining of the top edges of two sloping roof surfaces.
Roof Snow Load: Uniform live load on the roof due to snow accumulation as given in ASCE 7.
Seismic Load: The force exerted on a building structure resulting from seismic (earthquake) ground motions.
Seismic Design Category: A classification assigned to a structure based on its Seismic Group and the severity of the design earthquake ground motion at the site. Seismic Design Categories A, B, C, correspond to successively greater seismic design loads.
Sill Plate: A horizontal member constructed of wood, steel, or other suitable material that is fastened to the top of a concrete wall, providing a suitable surface for fastening structural members constructed of different materials to the concrete wall.
Structural Insulated Panel (SIP): A structural sandwich panel which consists of a light weight core securely laminated between two rigid facings (such as wood structural panels).
Smoke-Development Rating: The combustibility of a material that contributes to fire impact through life hazard and property damage by producing smoke and toxic gases; refer to ASTM E 84.
Solid Wall Length: The length of wall which is without openings. It could be comprised either of a single or multiple SIPs.
Span: The clear horizontal distance between bearing supports.
Spline: A long, narrow strip that fits into a groove cut into the longitudinal edges of the two structural insulated panels to be joined (refer to Figure 6.1). Alternately, the strip (spline) can be a section of structural insulated panel (insulated panel spline) with overall thickness equal to the core thickness of the two structural insulated panels to be connected (refer to Figure 6.2).
Story: That portion of the building included between the upper surface of any floor and the upper surface of the floor next above, except that the top-most story shall be that habitable portion of a building included between the upper surface of the top-most floor and the ceiling or roof above.
Story Above-Grade: Any story with its finished floor surface entirely above grade except that a basement shall be considered as a story above-grade when the finished surface of the floor above the basement is (a) more than 6 feet (1.8 m) above the grade plane, (b) more than 6 feet (1.8 m) above the finished ground level for more than 50 percent of the total building perimeter, or (c) more than 12 feet (3.7 m) above the finished ground level at any point.
Strap: Flat or coiled sheet steel material typically used for bracing and blocking which transfers loads by tension and/or shear.
Stud: Vertical structural element of a wall assembly, which supports vertical loads and/or transfers lateral loads.
Townhouse: A single-family dwelling unit constructed in a group of three or more attached units in which each unit extends from foundation to roof and with open space on at least two sides.
Truss: A coplanar system of structural members joined together at their ends usually to construct a series of triangles that form a stable beam-like framework.
Wall Height: The clear vertical distance between the finished floor and the finished ceiling. Where a finished floor does not exist (i.e., crawlspace), the wall height is the clear vertical distance between the interior finish grade and the finished ceiling.
Structural Walls: See Load Bearing Walls.
Non-Structural Walls: See Non-Load Bearing Walls.
Wind Exposure: Refer to Exposure Categories.
Wind Load: The force or pressure exerted on a building structure and its components resulting from wind. Wind loads are typically measured in pounds per square foot (psf) or Pascals (Pa).
Wind Speed: Refer to Design Wind Speed.