Exploring the New & Improved BCSI
Providing Safety Guidance with Updated Content
By Greg Greenlee, P.E.
Don’t let your jobsite packages get muddy! The Building Component Safety Information (BCSI) guide contains great guidance for installers of structural building components, but it has historically been a challenging document to navigate and digest. The new and improved BCSI documents, including the B-Series Sheets in the jobsite package, have been completely overhauled with the installer in mind.
In late 2023, SBCA began a consensus-based approach with the goal of updating the guide. A committee of 17 individuals, including SBCA’s E&T Committee, TPI’s Technical Advisory Committee, and members of the National Framers Council, plus SBCA staff members, was formed for the project with the objective of ensuring that the safety and prescriptive bracing recommendations included are relevant, technically correct, and practical. The committee tasked itself with developing a new visual look and layout changes. Involving the framers in this process provided additional insight into what is important to those on the jobsite using these materials. At the end of January 2025, the committee completed its work and released the new Building Component Safety Information - Guide to Good Practice for Handling, Installing, Restraining and Bracing Structural Building Components, BCSI-2025.
Overview of Changes
Many of the changes incorporated in BCSI-2025 are layout and visual changes. New content was added to describe the component design and approval process, code requirements, and jobsite planning. Prescriptive temporary bracing recommendations were enhanced, and new permanent bracing recommendations were added. Additionally, the guide utilizes chapters, section numbers, updated graphics, and refined defined terms as described below.
Chapters – The most notable change to the guide is that the layout has been revised to a chapter format instead of the previous section format organized by B-Series content. The new guide consists of thirteen chapters and four appendices.
Section numbers – Section numbers were added to the document to facilitate referencing specific parts or sections of the document. This will make it easier to communicate recommendations to component manufacturers, installers, designers, and building officials.
Updated graphics – The guide’s graphics were all updated, and photographs were replaced with graphics to provide a clean, consistent look. This makes the document easier to understand, which provided an opportunity to include additional notes and clarification where necessary.
Defined terms – In previous editions of BCSI, defined terms were capitalized. In BCSI-2025, the defined terms are italicized, which is consistent with how defined terms are recognized in the building codes. Efforts were also made to consolidate the defined terms used. Most notably the terms lateral restraint and diagonal bracing were determined to be the preferred terms to describe the temporary or permanent members added to stabilize trusses laterally. The glossary in Appendix A provides a list of terms including the defined terms with definitions.
Significant Changes
Beyond these visual and layout changes, there are many changes in the document to make temporary and permanent bracing requirements easier to understand and install. The following is a list of notable changes:
Ground Bracing Recommendations – The previous edition of BCSI provided two ground bracing options with limited installation guidance. BCSI-2025 provides 14 different options including both interior ground bracing and external ground bracing. These added options incorporate best practices and include new ground bracing options.
Reinforcing and minimum members sizes for ground brace diagonals and ground brace vertical members have been added. Additionally, the option to offset the connection of the top end of the ground brace diagonal from the truss top chord has been added. This helps reduce the required length of the ground brace diagonal.
Web Member Diagonal Brace Spacing – Previous editions of BCSI have recommended installing diagonal bracing at every 10 truss spacings where lateral restraint is required. This recommendation has been revised so that now the spacing of the diagonal braces is a function of the force in the web member to be braced provided on the truss design drawing. As the force increases, the recommended diagonal brace spacing will decrease. The diagonal brace spacing will vary between three truss spacings for trusses with high force web members and ten truss spacings for lower force web members. Additionally, the single brace option has been removed from BCSI-2025, with a preference for the double brace option that provides more capacity with the prescriptive nailing requirements. Depending on the truss layout and web member forces, it may be preferrable to use web reinforcing instead of lateral restraint and diagonal bracing.
Web Reinforcing Recommendations – The web reinforcement table was revised by removing the ‘L’, ‘U’, and scab reinforcement options. Although, the ‘L’, ‘U’, and scab reinforcements are viable options, they are not always equivalent to the one or two rows of lateral restraint as indicated in the current table.
Piggyback Trusses – Similar to web member diagonal brace spacing, the permanent restraint and bracing requirements for piggyback trusses were enhanced to limit diagonal brace spacing as a function of the compressive force in the flat portion of the base truss top chord. An option to use structural sheathing to brace the flat top chord member has been added as an alternative solution.
B-Series Sheets
After BCSI-2025 was completed, work began on updating the B-Series Sheets that are provided within the SBCA Jobsite Packages. It was recognized that the names of the documents, B1, B2, B3, and so on, are part of the construction industry vernacular, so the decision was made to maintain the current names of these sheets. The content of the B-Series Sheets was updated to correspond to the information and recommendations in the new BCSI guide.
Document Availability and Adoption
BCSI-2025 is available for purchase now, and the corresponding B-Series Sheets will be available for purchase as of May 31, 2025, at www.pubs.sbcacomponents.com. After this date, the existing BCSI B-Series Sheets will no longer be printed and available for sale. SBCA understands that there may be stock to go through before purchasing the updated documents, and as such has set an effective use date of September 1, 2025, for adoption of the new version of these documents. That said, SBCA recommends immediate adoption of the updated language in these new documents as soon as they are available, especially the B3 Summary Sheet. To keep up with industry best practices, it’s best to update your materials promptly, ensuring that your teams have access to the most current and accurate information.
To assist with the transition from the current B-Series Sheets to the new ones, a B3 Summary Sheet Supplement that captures the substantial changes to B3 will be included with SBCA Jobsite Package and B3 Summary Sheet orders that contain the current B3 Summary Sheet.
Thank You
SBCA is excited about the release of BCSI-2025 and the new B-Series Sheets. These documents represent a continued dedication to the successful use of building components in construction. “The publishing of the new BCSI-2025 marks a career achievement for me,” says Chris Tatge, NFC Steering Committee Member, SBCA Board Member, and President of Dynamic Construction. “The BCSI is widely recognized as the primary resource for truss installation and bracing across North America, and up until now, there has been very little input from framers on a document that has a big impact on how we do our jobs. The new BCSI-2025 is easier to understand and does a better job of highlighting the different options framers have for safely installing roof trusses; it is the result of good collaboration from all the stakeholders involved.”
A special thanks to the members of the BCSI-2025 Committee. Their many hours of work and countless meetings were imperative to the completion of this project.