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Girders for open porches

Whatever way you can get there (comfortably)....AWC, SYPC, tables, stairways.org..... S traps are specifically prohibited now (some things change for a reason) but stuff that is left silent, some judgement is needed....With as much back up as you can find or you can get them to provide...
 
The American Wood Council (AWC) Wood Frame Construction Manual for 1 & 2 Family Dwellings is listed in IRC chapter 44. Plates 3.6a&b show notched stringers. Most of the details in this manual have been accepted practice since the 1940s.
 
The American Wood Council (AWC) Wood Frame Construction Manual for 1 & 2 Family Dwellings is listed in IRC chapter 44. Plates 3.6a&b show notched stringers. Most of the details in this manual have been accepted practice since the 1940s.
Good try, but that figure is only referenced and intended for the purpose of discussing openings in floors. I wouldn't count on it for stair construction guidance anymore than than I would count on it for guidance of when to use a through-penetration fire stop systems. (take a look at the figures again and you'll see what I mean, ha, ha!)

My point is the incorrect use of the term firestopping is as unrelated to the point of the figures as the illustrative stair stringers are.

I do not disagree that we have been accepting this since the 40's, but whether we individually like it or not, times are not the same as they 40s. We are in the age of protectionism.
 
Thank you Glenn for all your research on the subject. I saw your video a few years ago and agree with you but I still need to inforce using the hold-down tension devices. It makes me wonder how many requirements in the code were really tested and researched or just made up.

PA took out the over 20 pages of braced wall design because they said there was no proof of a house in PA of ever having damage because it lacked wall bracing. (I don't mind, it looks too complicated anyway) And also the housing industry has a lot of political power. But that is another story and left us with a hodgepodge of a code from 3 different editions of the IRC put together, and some things made up without a PA edition of the IRC to put it all together in one book.

What ticks me off is when there is no consistency of terms. There shouldn't be many words that mean the same thing. If a porch, deck, landing, category 1 sunroom is the same thing then it should have the same name with a definition. I think balcony is treated different but still no definition..
May be true rick but how many quakes have you ever had?
 
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