PATH Framing, Panels and Whole House Systems Publications

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Technology Roadmap: Advanced Panelized Construction June 2002
This report explores the potential advantages of shifting away from “construction in place” with respect to labor skills, quality control, standardization, and economical engineering since panelization technologies promise significant benefits.

Alternative Framing Materials in Residential Construction: Three Case Studies July 1994
This report compares the cost competitiveness of three of the most promising, commercially available building systems, foam-core panels, light-gauge steel framing, and welded-wire sandwich panels, with conventional materials and techniques.

Cost and Benefits of Insulating Concrete Forms for Residential Construction November 2001
Several benefits of Insulating Concrete Forms (ICFs) are discussed in this guide, and are quantified to the extent possible based on available technical data and analysis. The benefits of ICF house construction considered in this study are structural safety, comfort, energy efficiency, and durability.

Design, Fabrication, and Installation of Engineered Panelized Walls: Two Case Studies January 2002
This publication provides an evaluation of current technology used in the design, fabrication, and installation of panelized walls systems, including engineered wood frame walls and an innovative steel frame wall system. Two case study projects provided for a real world evaluation of existing panelized wall systems used in the home construction industry.

Developing a Calculator for Evaluating Physical Design Characteristics and Whole House Performance: A Preliminary Method June 2005
This report outlines the development of a ‘whole house calculator’ that quantitatively assesses choices available in the processes, materials, components and systems of residential construction. The calculator will make it possible to do “what if” comparisons and to strategically plan residential construction with a comprehensive systems approach.

Economical ICF To Cold-Formed Steel Floor Connections May 2001
The use of insulating concrete forms (ICF) in combination with cold-formed steel (CFS) framing is relatively new to the U.S. homebuilding industry. This study investigates and reports the performance of connections using standard 5/8-inch diameter anchor bolts or Richmond F-32 anchors to transmit the floor load from a steel ledger track, through the ICF foam insulation, and into the concrete core of an ICF wall.

Factory and Site-Built Housing: A Comparative Analysis February 1999
This report, for the first time, provides a comprehensive comparison of HUD-code manufactured housing, conventional site-built homes and factory-built modular homes along several important dimensions. The comparisons address industry structure, production cost, characteristics of occupants and purchasers, unit designs and construction materials, regulatory processes, code requirements, and buyer costs.

Factory Built Housing Roadmap (Including Recomendations for Energy Research)Factory Built Housing Roadmap (Including Recommendations for Energy Research) January 2006
This document is the second on the topic of manufactured housing. This version expands on the original Roadmap by suggesting a broad array of research initiatives including a comprehensive discussion of energy and its role in the future of factory built housing.

Field Evaluations and Recommendations for Steel Framed Homes April 1996
In 1995 in Homestead, Florida, Habitat for Humanity began construction of a 187 unit community called Jordan Commons, which features the inclusion of cold-formed steel as the framing material for the homes. This report details the results of the field evaluations, as well as builder recommendations, for steel framed homes.

Getting Lean: Assessing the Benefits of Lean Production in Factory Built Housing December 2005
This report details the first phase of a planned multi-year research effort to develop and implement lean production techniques for the factory built housing industry.

HVAC Sizing Methodology for Insulated Concrete Homes February 2004
The objective of this work was to compile available information regarding energy use in concrete homes, develop additional information as needed, and use this information to develop a methodology to properly size heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment for concrete homes in the US and Canada.

Hybrid Wood and Steel Details–Builder’s Guide July 2003
This report provides the information that builders need to construct hybrid cold-formed steel and wood homes. By providing builders and framers with the necessary tools to construct these homes economically, HUD enhances housing affordability and quality through competition from new methods and materials.

In-Plane Shear Resistance of Insulating Concrete Form Walls
The efficient use of shear walls in residential construction subjected to wind and seismic loading is of great interest to designers and builders of homes in high hazard areas of the United States. The purpose of this research program was to evaluate the performance and predictability of concrete shear walls constructed with the three major ICFs used in residential construction: flat, waffle-grid, and screen-grid.

Industrializing the Residential Construction Site July 2000
This document, released by HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R;), examines the means and methods available for integrating and industrializing the housing construction site and the housing industry. It describes the history of and possibilities for industrialization in the industry, and includes strategies for all scales of builders, from small volume to production builders.

Industrializing the Residential Construction Site Phase II: Information Mapping June 2001
As the common denominator on all construction sites, information is a critical beginning for understanding integration, and one that HUD believes is central to its ongoing research to determine why the home building industry lags behind other industries in technological innovation and adoption. This document is the product of that research, and it includes a record and analysis of the information flows and breaks on construction sites, as well as recommendations for overcoming these breaks.

Innovative Residential Floor Construction: Horizontal Diaphragm Values for Cold-Formed Steel Framing March 1999
This report details the use of cold-formed steel framing in the residential market, which has increased over the past several years because of previous cooperative efforts by HUD and industry to implement cost-effective alternative materials and methods.

Innovative Residential Floor Construction: Structural Evaluation of Steel Joists with Web Openings March 1999
Examines the specification of local buckling behavior of solid webs and webs with small circular holes.

Insulating Concrete Forms: Comparative Thermal Performance December 1999
Insulating Concrete Forms: Comparative Thermal Performance contains results on energy and thermal comfort performance, as well as computer modeling of energy use.

Insulating Concrete Forms: Installed Cost and Acoustic Performance March 1999
Despite an increase in ICF use in homes and an increasing number of manufacturers entering the market over the past decade, information regarding the performance of ICFs compared to more conventional home building systems is needed. A primary objective of this study is to help answer some of the questions surrounding the in-place costs of ICF homes compared to a typical wood-frame home.

Insulating Concrete Forms for Residential Construction May 1997
Insulating concrete form (ICF) construction increases comfort, saves energy, muffles exterior noise, and requires less maintenance than standard techniques, a new HUD-sponsored study shows. Insulating Concrete Forms for Residential Construction reports on a demonstration program coordinated for HUD by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center on the use of this alternative structural material for single-family houses.

Integrating Panels into the Production Homebuilding Process September 2005
How do builders decide whether to use panelized house systems? What factors come into play when a builder is contemplating making a move to panelized construction? And for what reasons would builders who are inclined to try a new building technology choose not to use panelized construction? These are some of the questions asked in this study conducted for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s PATH (Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing) program in an effort to understand how builders decide to use panel systems

International Conference on Factory Built Housing: Innovation in Home Manufacturing November 2005
This report describes the findings of a summit held to evaluate the opportunity and need for, and potential benefits of, an international conference on factory built housing. An additional objective was to begin to characterize the content and structure of such a conference.

Lintel Testing for Reduced Shear Reinforcement in Insulating Concrete Form Systems March 1998
The purpose of this test program is to investigate the structural capacity and performance of the concrete lintels typically used in ICF construction.

Model Guidelines for Design, Fabrication, and Installation of Engineered Panelized Walls January 2002
This guide serves as a resource document for the housing and building component industries and as a comprehensive guideline for design, fabrication, and installation of panelized wall construction. More importantly, it provides a starting point for development of an industry standard which, through a reference in future building codes, could advance panelized wall construction as a safe and affordable housing technology.

NextGen House Final Report
By its retail price and final installed cost, the NextGen HUD-Code house demonstrates it is both attractive and affordable to potential buyers.

Organizing Residential Utilities: A New Approach to Housing Quality November 2004
Utilities are run almost haphazardly through the walls of stick-built homes, sometimes compromising structure and insulating integrity, and always making repair and modification difficult. In the future, utilities will become more complicated as homes become centers of work, learning, communication, entertainment, preventative health care, and distributed energy production. This report outlines methods of disentangling utilities, with the goal of increasing the functionality of housing, while reducing its cost.

Panelized Wall Systems: Making the Connections August 2006
Want to try panelized wall systems on your next construction project, but unsure about connection standards? That’s because until now, there haven’t been any standards except what the manufacturers provided. Check out this new report to see what the codes inspectors will be looking for.

Technology Roadmap: Advanced Panelized Construction June 2002
This report explores the potential advantages of shifting away from “construction in place” with respect to labor skills, quality control, standardization, and economical engineering since panelization technologies promise significant benefits.

Technology Roadmap: Whole House and Building Process Redesign June 2002
This report explores a systems-oriented view of houses and the process we use to build them to see if there are ways to do it faster, at lower cost, with higher quality.

Perforated Shear Walls With Conventional and Innovative Base Restraint Connections May 1999
This report explains what exactly shear walls are, as well as the financial side of the shear walls versus wall bracing methods which, historically, have been used in conventional construction.

Prescriptive Method for Connecting Cold-Formed Steel Framing to Insulating Concrete Form Walls in Residential Construction February 2003
This document was developed as a guideline for the connection of cold-formed steel (CFS) frame assemblies and structures to insulating concrete form (ICF) exterior walls in the construction of single-family homes.

Prescriptive Method for Insulating Concrete Forms in Residential Construction May 1998
Builders, code officials, design professionals, and others will find Prescriptive Method a helpful guide to using this new material for residential construction. Based on thorough testing and research, the prescriptive method section of the report outlines minimum requirements for ICF systems including wall thickness, termite protection, reinforcement, lintel span, and connection requirements.

Prescriptive Method for Residential Cold-Formed Steel Framing November 1997
This publication is intended to raise industry awareness about steel framing as an alternative construction system and provide long-awaited guidance for code officials and inspectors.

Reliability of Conventional Residential Construction: An Assessment of Roof Component Performance in Hurricane Andrew and Typical Wind Regions of the United States January 1999
In this study, the experience of conventional residential construction is evaluated with respect to the performance of roof components and the risks associated with the actions of wind.

Research and Development Needs for Structural Performance of Light-Frame Residential Construction
January 2002
As part of an effort to establish research priorities, this report identifies critical research and development needs for the structural performance of light-frame residential construction.

Residential Panels Benchmark RequirementsResidential Panels Benchmark Requirements September 2004
This report identifies the panelized wall systems currently available in the U.S. and international markets and concludes with a “Future Strategies Report,” based on the research, on what direction HUD should take with future research into panelized systems.

Residential Structural Design Guide: 2000 Edition February 2000
This guide is an initial effort to document and improve the unique structural engineering knowledge related to housing design and performance. It compliments current design practices and building code requirements with value-added technical information and guidance.

Review of Structural Materials and Methods for Home Building in the United States: 1900 to 2000 January 2001
This paper examines the evolution of U.S. housing construction during the 20th century. Of particular interest are changes in construction practices associated with the materials and methods used in home building that affect structural performance.

Steel Framing Prototype Development: Final Report December 2003
The research effort described in this report explores the potential of steel framing for the construction of factory built homes that conform to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) code, or the International Residential Code, with the goal of developing technologies that are competitive with wood framing.

Structural Design Loads for One- and Two-Family Dwellings May 2001
This guide serves the express purpose of promoting a practical and technically sound method of determining design loads for typical residential construction in the United States.

Testing and Design of Lintels Using Insulating Concrete Forms March 2000
This publication summarizes the results from a study focusing on the structural performance of concrete lintels without shear reinforcement. The study, conducted by the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) Research Center, Inc., investigated the need for shear reinforcement and developed an improved ICF lintel design methodology based on testing results.

The Rehab Guide Volume 1: Foundations June 1997
This is the first of a series of nine rehabilitation guidebooks that spread the word on state-of-the-art housing rehabilitation. Volume One, The Rehab Guide: Foundations, covers topics from the design and engineering of rehab foundation systems to shoring and repair, waterproofing, crack repair, drainage, and insulation.

The Rehab Guide Volume 2: Exterior Walls
This is the second volume of The Rehab Guide, a series of nine guidebooks to inform the design and construction industry about state-of-the-art materials and innovative practices in housing rehabilitation. Volume 2 contains an overview of exterior wall framing that includes wind-resistance and seismic-resistance information, as well as information about design and engineering; masonry/brick veneer; sheathing; insulation; siding; stucco; exterior trim; sealants and caulks; and paints.

Whole House Ventilation Strategies
The purpose of this research was to provide a baseline for evaluating whole house ventilation strategies for manufactured homes.

Wood Shear Walls with Corners September 1997
This study was designed to provide empirical and analytical insights into the response of shear walls with corner framing and to determine the uplift load sharing mechanism between the adjacent walls.

Residential Steel Framing: Fire and Acoustic Details September 2002
This report investigates regulatory requirements, available test data, and typical practices relating to acoustics and fire protection of cold-formed steel framing. The intention is to give an overview of current regulations, as well as a “snap shot” of available fire and acoustic cold-formed steel assemblies.

Steel Framing Prototype Development: Final Report December 2003
The research effort described in this report explores the potential of steel framing for the construction of factory built homes that conform to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) code, or the International Residential Code, with the goal of developing technologies that are competitive with wood framing.

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