Framing lumber choices for building homes

Framing lumber, too known as structural wood, is the grade of wood used for house framing (studs, Larsen Trusses for Double-Stud walls, headers, roof trusses and floor joists, etc. as well as in timber frame construction). Its technical characteristics make it perfectly suitable when large spans are necessary. The list beneath outlines the different types of wood used as framing lumber most usually used for house construction and increasingly in timber frames for multi-family depression to mid-rise structure throughout the The states and Canada.

Standard SPF (spruce-pino-fir) lumber – Softwood wood choices:

  • Calorie-free structural lumber is mainly used in the residential structure of unmarried family unit homes. This timber is milled from softwood trees (spruce, fir and pino) that are sawn and machine-planed to standard dimensions (2x4", 2x6", 2x8", etc.).  Forest equally a framing material is advantageous in that it doesn't undergo much transformation during processing, information technology has a low embodied free energy, it'south a renewable resource and it stores carbon.
  • Heavy timber refers to any dimensional lumber over four.v" and is often used for post-and-beam construction or timber frame homes. Big dimensions of wood tin can support heavy loads and facilitate long spans, in improver to being surprisingly burn down resistant.
  • Finger-jointed lumber (also known every bit finish-jointed and cease-glued) is manufactured using brusque, dry out pieces of wood that take been machined on each terminate and joined using a water repellent structural adhesive. This technique is ecologically benign, as it makes use of short pieces of wood to create a finished production that is larger, more than stable and easier to marshal, and is ofttimes combined with Glulam and CLT type products to brand substantial timber structural elements for "Plyscrapers" etc - (see beneath).

The existent dimensions of light structural lumber and timber for framing homes:

A constant source of confusion amongst DIY Home builders is lumber sizes, as commercially available 2x4" is actually 1.5" ten 3.v", a 2x6 is actually ane.5" x 5.v". The general rule of thumb: any width listed as 2" will actually be 1.5" and equally for the depth, actual dimensions are .5" less. The reason for this is planing; some true dimensions can be found at lumber yards, referred to as 'rough' lumber or "rough sawn" as they are unplaned wood.

Dimensional Lumber: Nominal Size vs. Bodily Size
Nominal Size Bodily Size
2-by-4 or 2 10 4 ane ane/2 inches x three one/2 inches
2-past-six or 2 x six 1 ane/2 inches x 5 1/2 inches
Two-past-eight or 2 x viii one i/2 inches ten 7 1/4 inches
Two-by-ten or 2 x x 1 1/2 inches ten 9 1/four inches
Ane-by-two or 1 x 2 3/4-inch x 1 1/2 inches
I-by-three or one x three 3/4-inch x ii 1/2 inches
One-by-four or i x 4 3/4-inch x 3 1/2 inches

Here'due south some other confusing anomoly when looking at choosing woods for framing, Canadian Lumber Standard timber commonly referred to as CLS wood timber became popular in Canada for building stiff and durable timber-framed homes only is rarely referred to as CLS lumber in North America. This timber is commonly manufactured from kiln-dried fir, pine, or spruce. It is then treated, planed, and finally finished with rounded edges to create accurate and precise tolerances. This blazon of wood is known to provide aesthetically pleasing finishes and facilitate easier and comfortable application of pigment, stains, and preservatives & in recent years CLS timber has get popular in the United Kingdom and Europe where it is mainly used in timber-frame structure, internal partition, framing, and carcassing. This forest is too platonic for internal stud walling since it is surfaced on all of its four sides and it has rounded corners. The CLS timber is produced in a wide range of sizes that adjust various uses. This product has too been machined on all of its iv faces and edges to create beautiful finishes - very dissimilar the rough-sawn timber ordinarily found in Europe.

Grading Wood in Uk & Europe

The CLS timber is usually graded in respect to its force in strict conformity to the British Standard EN 14081-1:2005. This wood tin can be graded equally either C16 or C24. The C24 is the stronger course, only both categories tend to take a similar physical appearance.

Engineered forest products for framing homes

Engineered woods requires more than processing than standard wood.  As may exist expected, engineered forest is more expensive than the types described above, and has a higher embodied energy given that information technology undergoes multiple transformations. Withal, it has many technical and ecological advantages: it tin exist very potent and facilitate large spans without requiring large trees and environmentally speaking forest framing has a lower embodied carbon footprint than concrete.

Open spider web floor joists are ideal in covered timber frame structure © Draesel Construction of Calgary

Engineered lumber products for construction also brand use of brusque pieces of wood that might otherwise be heading for a landfill, so equally shortly as you need something larger than 2x8", opt for engineered forest products whenever possible as they are also usually more stable in the long term.

In many cases, the added toll you may incur from choosing engineered woods will be recouped through significant labour savings. Engineered framing materials are straight and consistent - compare this to a 2x8" or 2x10" which in any given pile may have discrepancies of 3/viii" or more from the largest to the smallest. In order to build a straight floor for example, some pieces volition need to be shimmed and others volition need to exist shaved, and that takes a lot of fourth dimension.

If you didn't become your money dorsum from a quicker installation of open-web flooring joists, you certainly will when your electrician and plumber easily pass wires and pipes through existing openings rather than drilling a thousand holes through solid floor joists similar in the epitome below.

Wiring through solid wood floor joists is fourth dimension consuming © Ecohome

Here are the dissimilar types of engineered wood products used in abode construction across the United states of america & Canada and their main characteristics.

Glulam or Glued Laminated Timber

Glulam is a multi-layered type of woods that is manufactured using several thicknesses of thin pieces of solid woods held together with mildew-resistant phenol glues which emit a very minor corporeality of toxic chemicals. In Due north America, the material providing the laminations is termed laminating stock or lamstock and the beginning U.Due south. manufacturing standard for glulam was published by the Department of Commerce in 1963. This process makes it possible to produce posts and beams that are strong and well suited for wide spans.Considering glulam is strong and very easy to work with, it is often used in roof framing but is finding more and more applications in structural elements of buildings. Some notable uses of glulam beams in the Us and Canada include:

Eastern Kentucky University's Alumni Coliseum, US, wasbuilt in 1963 with the world's largest glued laminated arches, which span 308 feet, 3 1/ii inches.

The roof of the Richmond Olympic Oval, BC Canada, congenital for speed skating events at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, features ane of the world's largest clearspan wooden structures. The roof includes two,400 cubic metres of Douglas fir lamstock lumber in glulam beams. A total of 34 yellow-cedar glulam posts support the overhangs where the roof extends beyond the walls.

Anaheim Water ice, located in Anaheim California, US, is besides an example of using Glulam manufactured timber products. Disney Development Company wanted to build an aesthetically pleasing ice rink with reduced cost, and glulam was one of the near qualified materials. Architect Frank Gehry suggested a design with large double-curved Yellowish pine glulam beams, and the ice rink was constructed in 1995.

Glulam bridge crossing Montmorency River Quebec, Canada. Pressure level-treated glulam timbers or timbers manufactured from naturally durable wood species are well suited for creating bridges. Wood's ability to absorb impacts created by traffic and its natural resistance to chemicals like those used for de-icing roadways, make it ideal for these uses peculiarly in cold climate zones. Glulam has been successfully used for pedestrian, forest, highway, and railway bridges. Other examples in North America of glulam bridges are Keystone Wye, South Dakota, constructed in 1967 and The Kingsway Pedestrian Bridge in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

Glulam is also used for the structure of multi-employ facilities such as churches, school buildings, and libraries, and the Cathedral of Christ the Low-cal in Oakland, California, is a beautiful example of glulam beams combining ecological and aesthetic considerations.

Plyscrapers are another possible use for glulam, with Vancouver'south eighteen-storey Brock Eatables tower continuing as a attestation to the vast possibilities of timber in structure. Once the world's tallest timber framed building, it was built cheaper, faster and with less environmental impact than a comparable steel and concrete construction would have been – offsetting an estimated 2,432 metric tonnes of embodied carbon. Vancouver is now pushing fifty-fifty those limits by unveiling plans for the Canada Globe Belfry, an massive forty-storey belfry that would be the world's tallest wooden building, although the construction would be predominantly made out of fire-resistant wood cross-laminated timber (CLT). Floor plates, structural columns, and exteriors will utilize wood materials.

Cross-laminated timber is stable and Green particularly if FSC approved

Cross-laminated timber (CLT)

CLT is manufactured using many sheets of wood stacked on top of each other then glued together. Each layer is oriented crosswise to the next, which makes for extremely stable and strong panels. Having established itself on the European marketplace over the past twenty years, CLT has only recently become available in North America. This blazon of wood has excellent thermal and audio-visual properties, is highly resistant to fire, and provides exceptional structural strength. CLT tin can be used to build load-bearing walls, floors and roofs. To date, information technology has mainly been used in residential construction, only alpine woods buildings (between 5 and 10 stories), encouraged past changes in building lawmaking in relation to timber utilize in tall buildings, are at present starting to pop up all over the globe with over 500 mid to loftier rise timber buildings nether construction beyond Canada alone in 2019-2020.

OSB outside sheathing with foam fastened © Ecohome

OSB (Oriented Strand Lath)

Besides known as Aspenite, OSB is a panel fabricated using small strips of forest. OSB is not as stiff as plywood, or equally resistant to weather condition, but it is a lower cost alternative to plywood. It is well-nigh often used as exterior sheathing, too as being the centre web of engineered wooden I-Joists. OSB makes use of pocket-sized pieces of waste wood and is bonded using a phenol formaldehyde, a far less toxic substitute for the urea formaldehyde of days past. All that to say, it certainly won't improve the air quality of your dwelling house, but it is generally not thought to exist too great a health run a risk. Did you lot also know that OSB sheathing can be used as a vapor barrier in homes? Encounter here.

Hardwood veneer plywood  © Columbia Woods Products

Plywood

Plywood is well-nigh normally found as a four x 8' panel that is fabricated from thin sheets of woods veneer that are bonded together using phenol formaldehyde glues, although certain manufacturers are leading the way with formaldehyde-free plywood products. Plywood is used for different structural elements such equally studs in load-begetting walls, partitions, floor beams and roof supports. Information technology is assembled with the grain of each layer running in the opposite management of the previous one, making  a very stable and strong final product that is highly resistant to cracking, twisting and shrinkage. Plywood is commonly used on residential construction sites every bit a floor substrate, exterior wall and roof sheathing, as well every bit sure interior finishing applications and furniture.

1 matter to bear in mind with all engineered forest products in homes is that it's at greater risk of moisture impairment than solid timber used for framing and structural elements,  for instancePolyethylene vapor barriers in combination with OSB & ac in homes can rot walls learn more here.

Before deciding which lumber to use when framing a house, larn which is ameliorate OSB or plywood for walls, roofs & Floors here

Interior finishing wood

Mouldings for interior finishing can be fabricated of all sorts of materials. Solid wood is i option (pine, oak, maple or yellowish birch). Information technology is still rather expensive but information technology has the advantage of being a durable material that doesn't require harmful adhesives. MDF mouldings (Medium Density Fibreboard) are more reasonably priced and made largely of waste wood products, but they are fairly heavily ladden with toxic adhesives. Solid wood products with Naught VOC finishes will get a long way to helping you go along make clean indoor air quality, though other eco-friendly alternatives to MDF are becoming available, such as formaldehyde-gratuitous MDF made from rice husks.

Timber for Outside Siding & Finishing of Homes

  • Pros of Wood Siding: Information technology makes for a smashing looking traditional terminate to the siding on a home. Certainly with FSC wood siding, extraction & manufacturing tin can be sustainable, and very little pollution is generated in production and manufacturing. Wood is abundantly available to united states of america in Canada & Northward America, provided that forests are managed properly.
  • Cons of Wood Siding:It is not the virtually durable choice to protect your home from weather, and conspicuously woods siding isn't the best for burn resistance. Wood can be susceptible to damage from insects and rodents, also as mold and rot from moisture & humidity.
  • Cost of wood siding:$8 to $20 per square foot installed, depending on type of forest, mode and the complexity of the task.
  • Expected siding lifespan:Durability of40 to 55 years if the wood siding is regularily & carefully maintained

Note: In that location are companies that offering pre-painted wood siding products, a quality that you cannot match on a ladder with a brush. Several coats of paint are applied, to both sides, and then your job is simply to cut the siding to length, paint the ends, and install it. A reputable company will give your siding a warranty upwardly around 15 years, and potentially up to 30 years if you apply a coat of paint within that starting time 15 years.

If you prefer to pigment your wood siding yourself, it volition be a lot easier (and a better quality) if you lot exercise it on the basis before installation. It volition crave significant space to paint, only too the time to build drying racks for your siding to sit on while the paint end is drying off. To encounter more than almost choosing the best siding for your house, see here

Wooden Furniture

Regardless of the type of woods that is used, piece of furniture for utilise inside the home should ideally exist free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including formaldehyde, to protect your indoor air quality. For finishings and maintenance - once again to protect your air quality - look for zero VOC paints and finishes.

At present you read about the all-time lumber choices for framing homes, learn more nearly framing timber for homes in the specific Guide Section devoted to Wood & Organic Materials for high efficiency dwelling construction here,or read all about eco-friendly Hemp Furniture Board here, or check out our Guide page about wood-frame construction or fifty-fifty observe out most cuteShou sugi ban carbonized wood exterior cladding herefrom the EcoHome Light-green Building Guides