Yes you are right. ACI does cover this. Thank you for pointing this out.
My follow up questions are as follows, and pertain mainly to CSA A23.1-2009, but I am interested how ACI 318 covers some of these items as well:
CSA A23.1 Table 17: For "Cast against and permanently exposed to earth", CSA requires that there be 75 mm (3") cover but ALSO requires (assuming no sulphate exposure) that the concrete be at least CSA exposure class F-2 (which has a maximum w/cm = 0.55 and minimum air content of 4% - 7% for 20 mm (3/4") nominal maximum size coarse aggregate) even though the footing may be in a heated building . ACI has the same cover requirement, but seemingly not any limit on w/cm.
Question: Until the year 2000 when this w/cm & air content requirement was introduced into CSA, it was standard practice to use 75 mm cover but not to impose any w/cm requirement, other than the strength required for structural design. Is anyone aware of any problems with that traditional practice (for about 100 years) that would have warranted the change to CSA in 2000? I am doubtful that engineers are conforming with this w/cm for footings in heated buildings.
CSA A23.1 Table 17, lists "Beams, girders, columns and piles" as requiring 30 mm cover. What is meant by piles? I would include drilled piers in the usual definition of piles. In this case, wouldn't the piles fall into the category of "cast against and permanently exposed to earth" (assuming the steel liner is withdrawn) which required 75 mm of cover? What cover does ACI require for rebar in piles?
Footing Cast Against Skim Slab: if the footing is cast on a 75 mm thick skim slab (or sometimes called a mud slab), what cover is required for the bottom rebar? There is no categroty in CSA Table 17 to cover this case.
CSA & ACI; For basement walls cast against wood lagging (or against vertical drainage board fastened to wood lagging) what is the required cover? by ACI? by CSA?
CSA & ACI: does "earth" include "rock"?