NAFS User Guide Now Available

The American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA), Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and Window and Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA) have released a User Guide to the 2011 AAMA/WDMA/CSA 101/I.S.2/A440, North American Fenestration Standard/Specification for windows, doors, and skylights (NAFS). The guide is the result of a multi-year effort by the three associations.

The user guide was developed as a non-mandatory, advisory document and has been published as a public service, according to the associations. Intended users of NAFS include code officials, manufacturers, architects, engineers, consumers, builders, contractors, trade associations, testing laboratories, specifiers and government agencies. The user guide is intended to provide those users with guidance for the proper application of NAFS; it contains commentary, illustrations and examples to help answer common questions associated with the standard.

“The NAFS User Guide is the latest product of the ongoing effort to harmonize fenestration standards in North America,” says Joe Hayden, senior project engineer for Pella Windows and Doors, who served as WDMA’s Joint Document Management Group (JDMG) co-chair. “This effort started nearly 20 years ago and is evidence of the fenestration industry’s desire to offer our customers a single, unified performance specification across borders. As someone who is a strong advocate for industry collaboration, I am very appreciative of the efforts, diligence and cooperation from all three associations. Everyone involved has worked hard to reach this point and remains committed to continued improvement in future editions.”

Ray Garries, corporate manager of external affairs for Jeld-Wen Inc., who served as AAMA’s JDMG co-chair, adds, “The NAFS User Guide was created to give manufacturers, testing laboratories and product designers greater insight into the requirements of NAFS, what they mean and how they were generated. Placing this information in a user guide helps the marketplace compare and specify the best products.”

The User Guide also incorporates appropriate reference material from outside sources and is structured to parallel the standard itself, with section numbers identical to those in the main standard, allowing users to quickly find the User Guide commentary and the corresponding section in the standard.

“The user guide represents yet another significant step toward achieving seamless trade across the U.S./Canadian border for fenestration industry manufacturers. Canada has had a user guide to the Canadian fenestration standard for a number of years,” says Greg Hildebrand, head of the façade engineering group at exp Services Inc., who served as CSA’s JDMG co-chair. “The NAFS User Guide puts all of the reference and explanatory information into one place and will simplify the content for the next (2017) edition of NAFS.”