scope:

This guide is intended for the planning, design, and construction of reinforced concrete structures in new lowrise buildings of restricted occupancy, number of stories, and area. Although the information presented was developed to produce, when properly used, a reinforced concrete structure with an appropriate margin of safety, this guide is not a replacement for a licensed design professional's experience and working knowledge. For the structure designed by the guide to attain the intended margin of safety, the guide should be used as a whole, and alternative procedures should be used only when explicitly permitted in the guide. The minimum dimensioning prescribed in the guide replaces, in most cases, more detailed procedures prescribed in the supporting codes and standards listed in 1.4.

Purpose

The guide provides a licensed design professional with sufficient information to design structural reinforced concrete members that comprise the structural framing of a low-rise building with the limits set in 1.3. Design rules set forth in this guide are simplifications that, when used together, comply with the more detailed requirements of the reference standards listed in 1.4.