Free searchable Ontario Building Code 2024 note reference (Ontario) - 64 notes, each cited to the Article

[BradAtHarmony]

Posting this for the Ontario crowd, since our note libraries all have the same problem.

Mine came from a set I inherited years ago and has been copied forward ever since. Mostly fine. But a plans examiner asked me once where a particular foundation note came from and I could not tell him without going to the Compendium. That bothered me enough to do something about it.

 

I looked for a searchable, current, cited reference first. Municipal standard detail PDFs are stamped "general information only" and none of them are OBC 2024. Template note sets, including the good ones, are not tied to citations. So I built what I wanted.

 

64 notes: Part 9 structure, foundations, ICF, envelope, fire separations, decks, egress, secondary suites. Each one shows the Sentence it rests on, the verbatim Code text, and a note on where the rule actually bites.

 

Three that are worth checking against whatever is in your library right now:

 

- **Walkout rear walls.** 9.15.4.3.(3): opening over 1.2 m wide, or total openings over 25 percent of wall length, and the wall beneath is laterally unsupported unless reinforced for the earth pressure. A 2.4 m patio door takes a 200 mm wall from 2.15 m retained to 1.2 m.
- **ICF corners.** 9.20.17.3.(1) reads "of interior and exterior corners of exterior flat insulating concrete form walls". Exterior ICF walls, not every wall in the building. Easy to write it broader than the Code does.
- **Tall wall studs.** Table 9.23.10.1: exterior wall carrying roof plus three floors is 38 x 140 at 300 mm o.c. to 1.8 m. The 400 mm figure is the roof plus two floors row directly above it. And a blank cell in the span tables means not covered, not unlimited.

 

Free, no login. Copy whatever is useful straight into your own template. I am not trying to replace anyone's note set, mine is still in Chief and staying there.

 

https://smartstruc.ca/tools/obc-notes 

https://smartstruc.ca/resources/code-notes-older-than-your-cad-software

 

Declaring the obvious: I build a structural tool for Ontario residential, so I have an interest. The catalogue is just the notes though, free and no strings. If you find an error in one, say so in the thread and I will fix it.
 

Edited Wednesday at 01:55 AM by BradAtHarmony