ExAC Reference Books for 2026: The Four That Matter Most and How to Handle the Rest

The first time you scroll through the ExAC reference list, it reads like a library catalogue. Handbooks, codes, contracts, cost data, research notes from the 1980s. Nobody reads all of it, and nobody needs to.

The list has a structure, and the Preparation Guide tells you what it is. A short group is labelled Principal References. Everything else is labelled Other References. This guide walks through both, using the 2026 edition of the list.

The four principal references

The guide describes the primary references as the documents that help in professional practice and with intern experience. There are four.

If your time is short, it goes here. CHOP alone supports three of the four sections, because so many objectives are about what an architect does and when.

The only two books allowed in the room

For Section 2, and only Section 2, you may bring paper copies of the NBC 2020 and the NECB 2020. No other book, note or reference is permitted in any session.

• Your copies may be highlighted, underlined, annotated by hand and tabbed.
• You may not add pages, such as your own index or summary table. Added pages can be confiscated.
• You may not write in your copies once you are in the exam room.
• The exam uses the national code. If you bring a provincial code, the guide says you do so at your own risk.
• A printout of the PDF edition needs the appropriate licence. Copyright compliance is your responsibility.

That makes the code the one reference where preparing the physical book is part of studying. Our guide to NBC 2020 on the ExAC goes through how to set a copy up.

The fifty others, sorted by what they are for

The remaining titles make sense once you group them by the job they do.

Contracts and services

RAIC Document Six (the client and architect contract) and Document Nine (architect and consultant), both 2018 and revised 2021. CCDC 2 (2020), the stipulated price contract, and CCDC 24, the guide to model forms and supporting documents. These sit behind the bidding and construction-phase objectives in Section 4.

Cost

Hanscomb Yardsticks for Costing and several RSMeans titles, including Building Construction Costs, Assemblies Costs and Metric Construction Cost Data, plus a guide to Uniformat II construction budgets. Section 1 has a cost management topic. You are learning how estimates are built, not memorizing unit prices.

Materials, assemblies and building science

Building Construction Illustrated by Ching, Architectural Graphic Standards, Canadian Wood-Frame House Construction from CMHC, the Concrete Masonry Handbook, and the Building Envelope Thermal Bridging Guide. A run of short National Research Council papers covers rainscreen walls, sound transmission, fire resistance of gypsum board assemblies, basement insulation, windows and ventilation. These feed the Final Project objectives in Section 3.

Sustainable design

LEED v4 and the LEED Core Concepts Guide, the WELL Building Standard v2, the Zero Carbon Building Design Standard, an embodied carbon primer, a life cycle assessment practice guide, the BC Energy Step Code guides and a CSA standard on flood-resilient communities. Section 3 includes Sustainable Design Literacy, with objectives on climate risk, life cycle analysis and embodied carbon.

Early design

Functional Programming, The Architect's Studio Companion, Heating, Cooling, Lighting, Architectural Acoustics and Neufert. These support programming, site analysis, engineering systems and schematic design in Section 1.

Practice and project delivery

Management of Building Projects, extracts from Mastering the Business of Architecture, and Alternate Forms of Project Delivery. These back up CHOP on the Section 4 management objectives.

Which references serve which section?

Treat this as a starting map. Many titles cross sections, and the guide does not assign references to sections itself. The grouping above follows the topics each section is listed as covering.

How deep should you go?

Use one rule. Study the principal references. Consult the others.

• Study means reading with the objectives list beside you and testing yourself on it afterward.
• Consult means knowing what the document is for, reading its summaries, and opening the full text only when an objective you are weak on points there.

Work from the objectives outward. Each specific objective in Appendix 1 starts with a verb: identify, explain, apply, analyze. If you can do what the verb says without the book open, move on. If you cannot, that is your cue to pull the reference.

Where do you get the references?

Check what you already have access to before you buy anything.

• NBC 2020 and NECB 2020. Published by the National Research Council of Canada. Check the licence terms before you print an electronic edition.
• CHOP. Published by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
• IAP manual. Available through your licensing authority.
• RAIC and CCDC documents. Available from the RAIC and the Canadian Construction Documents Committee.
• Everything else. Your firm's shelves, your licensing authority's library and a university library will cover most of it.

The ExAC Committee notes that it cannot guarantee every listed title is still in print, and that some are available in only one language. Two titles on the 2026 list are French only.