Fellow Engineers -
Say one was designing a residential project in SDC D or higher with a daylight basement using concrete walls. The residence above would be wood framed. ASCE 7-05 says that the concrete walls have to be Special Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls because of the SDC D or higher. ACI 318-05 Section 21.2.4.1 says that you must use a minimum of f'c = 3,000 psi. Typically one would call out f'c = 2,500 psi for residential concrete so that you don't trigger special inspection, that is until I came across this. Do either of you know of an exception to this for residential design? Perhaps in the IRC? I don't know the IRC too well.
Andre J. Sidler, S.E.
Quantum Consulting Engineers
Seattle, WA