Framing for Efficiency: Advanced Light Wood Framing and the IBC

Course Description

This course introduces you to advanced framing techniques and their applications in both residential and commercial construction. You'll learn about the history, principles, and benefits of advanced framing, including its potential to reduce material costs, lower labor expenses, decrease embodied carbon, and improve energy efficiency in buildings. The course covers specific techniques such as increasing stud spacing, using single top plates, and minimizing thermal bridging. By the end, you'll be able to identify projects that can benefit from advanced framing, evaluate framing details for efficiency, and effectively communicate these benefits to project stakeholders. This knowledge will empower you to design more sustainable and cost-effective buildings that, nonetheless, adhere to building codes and structural integrity requirements.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the types of projects advanced framing techniques can be used in, by code, to design more energy-efficient buildings using less materials.

• Identify building details where advanced framing methods can be applied.

• Evaluate framing details for energy and material efficiency performance benefits.

• Explain to project stakeholders the key principles and benefits of advanced framing and the ways project outcomes, like improved energy efficiency and long-term occupant well being, work to better meet stakeholder goals.

• Appreciate the design rigor in advanced framing’s development for its material efficiency and effective long-term performance.