Back in the s, butterfly roofs and vertical siding made a conspicuous statement about the home of the future. But even as the Modernist movement was radically changing the outward appearance of houses, underneath, many of them were still framed the conventional way, with old-fashioned sawn lumber. Today, even in traditional-looking homes, the "futuristic" stuff is often the framing itself.
And there's a new language to go with it. They also need to understand more about load and force as strong, efficient engineered woods and steel replace milled stock. Then there are the countless metal ties and brackets—more than 1, hangers alone—they'll encounter. A house isn't just wood and nails anymore. A look at the framing done at the Cambridge house by TOH general contractor Tom Silva and his crew gives you a good idea of what some of these newer materials can do: allow for higher ceilings, larger open spaces, and even cantilevered rooms.
Advances in building technology haven't eliminated the need for good old sawn lumber—2x4s, 2x6s, 1x strapping, and the like. It's still the dominant material in a house's skeleton. Dimensional lumber as distinct from lumber made from fibers or veneers has good compressive strength—it stands up well to force pressing down on it when it's vertical—so it makes excellent studs.
But it's the least expensive framing material, so it's also used for the horizontal parts of a wall frame, such as the sole plates at the bottom, the top plates, and the blocking between studs. Interior walls are predominantly made from 2x4s, which are deep enough to fit plumbing and wiring between the studs, while 2x6s make better exterior walls because they leave more space for insulation. Most dimensional lumber is milled from softwoods like spruce, fir, and pine, then kiln-dried for stability.
There are stronger versions, such as straight-grain fir. When combined with metal ties it can be turned on the flat, with its broad face parallel to the wall, wherever there's limited space for a stud. Tom used fir in this manner to frame a cavity for a pocket door. Engineered lumber is made from wood veneers and particles, glues, and resins to create large structural elements that virtually never fail if used correctly. Manufactured in a controlled environment, the load factors for these materials are precisely calculated for every size.
Engineered lumber also saves trees by using more of the whole tree—typically 30 percent more than sawn lumber—so fewer need to be cut down.
Glulam bridge crossing Montmorency River Quebec, Canada. Pressure-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 especially in cold climate zones.
Glulam has been successfully used for pedestrian, forest, highway, and railway bridges. Glulam is also used for the construction of multi-use facilities such as churches, school buildings, and libraries, and the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland, California, is a beautiful example of glulam beams combining ecological and aesthetic considerations. Floor plates, structural columns, and exteriors will use wood materials.
CLT is manufactured using many sheets of wood stacked on top of each other and 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 market over the past twenty years, CLT has only recently become available in North America. This type of wood has excellent thermal and acoustic properties, is highly resistant to fire, and provides exceptional structural strength. CLT can be used to build load-bearing walls, floors and roofs. To date, it has mainly been used in residential construction, but tall wood buildings between 5 and 10 stories , encouraged by changes in building code in relation to timber use in tall buildings, are now starting to pop up all over the world with over mid to high rise timber buildings under construction across Canada alone in Also known as Aspenite, OSB is a panel fabricated using small strips of wood.
OSB is not as strong as plywood, or as resistant to weather, but it is a lower cost alternative to plywood. It is most often used as exterior sheathing, as well as being the centre web of engineered wooden I-Joists. OSB makes use of small 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 home , but it is generally not thought to be too great a health hazard.
Did you also know that OSB sheathing can be used as a vapor barrier in homes? See here. Plywood is most commonly found as a 4 x 8' panel that is made from thin sheets of wood 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 as studs in load-bearing walls, partitions, floor beams and roof supports. It is assembled with the grain of each layer running in the opposite direction 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 as a flooring substrate, exterior wall and roof sheathing, as well as certain interior finishing applications and furniture. Mouldings for interior finishing can be made of all sorts of materials. Solid wood is one option pine, oak, maple or yellow birch. It is still rather expensive but it 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 Zero VOC finishes will go a long way to helping you keep clean indoor air quality , though other eco-friendly alternatives to MDF are becoming available, such as formaldehyde-free MDF made from rice husks. Note: There are companies that offer 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, so 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 up around 15 years, and potentially up to 30 years if you apply a coat of paint within that first 15 years. If you prefer to paint your wood siding yourself, it will be a lot easier and a better quality if you do it on the ground before installation. It will require significant space to paint, but also the time to build drying racks for your siding to sit on while the paint finish is drying off.
To see more about choosing the best siding for your house, see here. Regardless of the type of wood that is used, furniture for use inside the home should ideally be free of volatile organic compounds VOCs , including formaldehyde, to protect your indoor air quality. For finishings and maintenance - again to protect your air quality - look for zero VOC paints and finishes.
I'm surprised to see that All OSB is manufactured with phenol-formaldehyde. I was trying to figure out how to tell which companies used phenol and which ones used urea. Same with plywood - I was under the impression that most interior grade plywood used urea formaldehyde, while exterior grade plywood used the phenol stuff.
The biggest culprit for urea formaldehyde in homes is cabinetry products, that you can bet will be filled with urea unless they specifically advertise otherwise. There is one formaldehyde-free plywood - Purebond from Columbia forest products which is the healthiest such product we've come across so far and which can be specified prefinished as formaldehyde-free plywood with a VOC free clear finish. I am chemically sensitive and so I need to be very aware of the materials that I add to my home, what is your recommendation for healthy finishing products?
Everything I have found for wood finishing is toxic to some level, even the oils seem to contain solvents. Thanks in advance for any help! There is a company in Quebec named Livos that provides natural and non-toxic finishing oils, have a look, I think they should have the finishing products you need that will also safeguard the air quality of your house. Great article! I've always found it confusing whether to use the words lumber, wood or timber in connection to construction in the US and Canada, and I think i get it now.
Timber frame and timber in general isn't just what a lumberjack shouts, this refers to larger structural elements and manufactured wood, whereas lumber and simply wood describes the standard type tree-derived sawn or planed products used in house framing for building homes in North America.
My name is Lina. I needed plywood for my boat, at first I ordered plywood from the first company available on the Internet without doing proper research. After 2 months, the plywood began to crack and turn black, although I ordered it specially water-resistant. As a result, I had to redo everything. I read a bunch of reviews this time and decided to order plywood on the internet and for good reason!
In general, very high quality plywood sourced online was a very great discovery so thanks Ecohome for pointing me at Columbia Forest products for great plywood! Sign Up to Comment. The best way to insulate the exterior of a house has a lot to do with what is going on inside the walls, and how extensive your energy-efficient renovations will be. The following page will help you understand some of the risks and find the best way forward -.
The easiest way to insulate walls from the exterior in older homes. It is also hydrophobic, meaning it is very resistant to moisture and water damage.
The most common reason that a good product can cause a wall failure is by putting it in the wrong place. The safest advice we can give you is to learn the science behind walls so you can choose wisely. There are some rigid insulation panels with air barriers, vapor barriers, some with none and some with both.
In cold climates you want vapor barriers on the interior, so you need to be careful not to apply a vapor-impermeable panel to the outside. On the Halo website they speak of 'breathability' of the Exterra product, so that's good, though it would be nowhere near as breathable as Rockwool. Choosing the best exterior insulation will also depend on your climate, so if you tell us your climate zone or closest city we may be able to offer a bit more insight.
In the meantime, here are a few more pages that will help you find the best option. You can make a stud wall frame from of either 75mm x 50mm or mm x 50mm of sawn timber. This comprises four things. There's a ceiling or head plate, which is fixed to the ceiling joists. There's also a matching length nailed to the floor, called the floor or sole plate.
Why do they call it a 2x4? Because of this extra milling, a 2x4 no longer measures a full 2 inches by four inches. What is stud grade lumber? Stud grade lumber is for vertical uses, such as load bearing walls. It is often sold in specified lengths for typical construction uses. Stud grade is the only grade in Stud category, in sizes 2x2 up to 4x Structural Joists and Planks grades are products that are 5 inches or greater in width.
What is a stud in slang? What type of wood does Home Depot sell? Pine boards are among the most common given they are good to use across many project types. The Home Depot also offers barn wood that gives a rustic look and comes as either treated reclaimed wood or new lumber that has been distressed to give the appearance of reclaimed wood.
What is a board foot of wood? The board foot or board-foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It is the volume of a one-foot length of a board one foot wide and one inch thick. What type of wood is plywood?
Plywood is an engineered wood from the manufactured boards family, which also includes particle board and oriented strand board OSB. The types of wood species that are used in engineered plywood include ash, oak, birch, maple, cedar, spruce and pine.
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