I agree with the masonry being reeled in. I didn't even think you could get G40 anymore. As far as wind bourne debris and exposure, the only issue I knew with that was in the pan handle region. I do not do much work there. What about intermittent diaphragms? With regards to gable end walls and two story clear sections? I know that some builders use the old school wood on cmu method w/o having the cmu designed as a cantilever wall or a designed diaphragm. It seems that they are cracking down on that a bit as well.
They did change the masonry laps but to require 50% increase in laps if steel stress exceeds 80% means that in real life you use 72db or design for .8Fs since you can't control where the laps will occur--the whole issue of rapidly changing codes is driving me crazy--was there a rash of problems that I didn't hear about
Where did you see the lap increase? My copy finally arrived. I noticed a new equation for the lap splices but it failed to yield a higher value than I typically use. I was running 25" for G40, with the new equation I am running 25" with G60. I did not see anything related to the actual stress on the bar??
Got it, I was looking in the new ACI not the FBC. Interesting to note that this requirement is not in the Residential portion of the code. Also, it is an FBC requirement which supersedes the most current ACI 530-05.
