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CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Timber Design Structures
(Wood properties, Species, and Grades)

1.1 Introduction
Wood is a sustainable, economical, and aesthetically pleasing material that has been used for a long time
in civil engineering structures. Though a large proportion of low-rise buildings in the United States and
Canada are built from wood, there is a dearth of textbooks for students and practitioners alike that presents
wood structural design in a holistic and easy-to-understand manner.

In general, building plans and details are defined by an architect and are usually given to a structural
engineer for design of structural elements and to present the design in the form of structural drawings. In this
book, we take a project-based approach covering the design process that a structural engineer would go
through for a typical wood-framed
structure.

1.1.1 The project-based approach

Wood is nature's most abundant renewable building material and a widely used structural material in the
United States, where 90% of all residential buildings are of wood construction [5]. The number of building
configurations and design examples that could be presented is unlimited. Some applications of wood in
construction include residential buildings, retail buildings, offices, hotels, schools and colleges, healthcare
and recreation facilities, senior living and retirement homes, and religious buildings. The most common wood
structures are residential and multifamily dwellings as well as hotels.

Residential structures are usually one to three stories in height, while multifamily and hotel structures can be
up to five or six stories in height with the upper four stories framed with wood and the lower levels framed
with steel or concrete. Four to five stories of wood framing are a practical upper limit for wood buildings,
though a much higher number of stories are now possible for wood buildings with the introduction of cross-
laminated timber. Commercial, industrial, institutional, and other structures that have higher occupancy
loads and factors of safety are not typically constructed with wood, although wood may be used as a
secondary structure, such as a storage mezzanine.

Figure 1.1 Perspective Overview of a Building sections

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The structures that support amusement park rides are sometimes built out of wood because of the relatively
low maintenance cost of exposed wood structures and its unique ability to resist the repeated cycles of
dynamic loading (fatigue) imposed on the structure by the amusement park rides. The approach taken in
this text is to illustrate the design process required for each major structural element in a wood structure with
proper consideration as to how the design and detailing of each element is incorporated into a typical
project. In Figures 1.1 and 1.2, we identify the typical structural elements in a wood building. The elements
are described in greater detail in the next section.

Figure 1.2 Overview of Major Structural Elements

1.2 TYPICAL STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS OF WOOD BUILDINGS

The majority of wood buildings are typically platform-framed construction, in which the vertical wall studs
are built one story at a time and the floor below provides the platform to build the next level of wall that will
in turn support the floor above. The walls usually span vertically between the sole or sill plates at the floor
level and the top plates at the floor or roof level above. This is in contrast to the infrequently used and less
economical balloon-framed construction, where the vertical studs are continuous for the entire height of
the building and the floor framing is supported on brackets off the face of the wall studs. Platform-framed
construction is the predominant method of framing for wood buildings.

The typical structural elements in a wood-framed building system are described below.
a. Rafters
These are usually sloped sawn-dimension lumber roof beams spaced at fairly close intervals (e.g ., 12,
16, or 24 in.) and carry lighter loads than those carried by the roof trusses, beams, or girders. They are
usually supported by roof trusses, ridge beams, hip rafters, or walls.

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b. Joists
These are sawn-lumber floor beams spaced at fairly close intervals of 12, 16, or 24 in. that support the
roof or floor deck. They support lighter loads than do floor beams or girders. Joists are typically supported
by floor beams, walls, or girders. The spans are usually limited in practice to about 14 ft. to 18 ft.

c. Double or triple joists

These are two or more sawn-lumber joists that are fastened together to act as one composite beam.
They are used to support heavy concentrated loads or the load from a partition wall or a load-bearing
wall running parallel to the span of the floor joists, in addition to the tributary floor loads. They are also
used to frame around stair openings (see header and trimmer joists).

d. Header and trimmer joists

These are multiple-dimension lumber joists that are fastened together (e.g ., double joists) and used to
frame around stair openings. The trimmer joists are parallel to the long side of the floor opening and
support the floor joists and the wall at the edge of the stair. The header joists support the stair stringer
and floor loads and are parallel to the short side of the floor opening.

e. Beams and girders

These are horizontal elements that support heavier gravity loads than rafters and joists and are used to
span longer distances. Wood beams can also be built from several joists nailed together. These members
are usually made from beam and stringer (B&S) sawn lumber, glued-laminated timber parallel strand
lumber (PSL), or laminated veneer lumber (LVL). Beams and girders are usually supported by columns or
multiple studs within a stud wall. For heavier applications, steel beams are used.

f. Ridge beams
These are roof beams at the ridge of a roof that support the sloped roof rafters. They are usually
supported at their ends on columns or posts. For new construction, it is cost-effective to support the
rafters using joist hangers connected to the ridge beam while for retrofitting projects with existing rafters,
the new ridge beam is usually located underneath the existing rafters.

g. Columns or posts
These are vertical members that resist axial compression loads and may occasionally resist additional
bending loads due to lateral wind loads or the eccentricity of the gravity loads on the column. Columns
or posts are usually made from post and timber (P&T) sawn lumber or glulam. Sometimes, columns or
posts are built up using sawn-dimension lumber. Wood posts may also be used as the chords of shear
walls, where they are subjected to axial tension or compression forces from the overturning effect of the
lateral and seismic loads on the building.

h. Roof trusses
These are made up typically of sawn-dimension lumber top and bottom chords and web members that
are subject to axial tension or compression plus bending loads. Trusses are usually spaced at not more
than 48 in. on centers and are used to span long distances up to 120 ft. The trusses usually span from
outside wall to outside wall.

i. Wall studs
These are axially loaded in compression and made of dimension lumber spaced at fairly close intervals
(typically, 12, 16, or 24 in.). They are usually subjected to concentric axial compression loads, but exterior
stud walls may also be subjected to a combined concentric axial compression load plus bending load
due to wind load acting perpendicular to the wall. Wall studs may be subjected to eccentric axial load:
for example, in a mezzanine floor with single-story stud and floor joists supported off the narrow face of
the stud by joist hangers.

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j. Header beams
These are the beams that frame over door and window openings, supporting the dead load of the wall
framing above the door or window opening as well as the dead and live loads from the roof or floor
framing above. They are usually supported with beam hangers off the end chords of the shear walls or
on top of jack studs adjacent to the shear wall end chords. In addition to supporting gravity loads, these
header beams may also act as the chords and drag struts of the horizontal diaphragms in resisting lateral
wind or seismic loads.

k. Overhanging or cantilever beams

These beams consist of a back span between two supports and an overhanging or cantilever span
beyond the exterior wall support below. Cantilever framing is common in multistory wood buildings
especially in residential buildings where they serve as balconies at the floor levels and roof overhangs
at the roof level.

l. Blocking or bridging
These are usually 2x solid wood members or x-braced wood or steel members spanning between
adjacent roof or floor beams, joists, or wall studs, providing lateral stability to the beams or joists. They
also enable adjacent flexural members to work together as a unit in resisting gravity loads and mitigating
floor vibrations, and help to distribute concentrated loads applied to the floor.

m. Top plates
These are continuous 2x horizontal flat (double or single) members located on top of the wall studs at
each level. They serve as the chords and drag struts or collectors to resist in-plane bending and direct
axial forces due to the lateral loads on the roof and floor diaphragms, and where the spacing of roof
trusses rafters or floor joists do not match the stud spacing, they act as flexural members spanning
between studs and bending about their weak axis to transfer the truss, rafter, or joist vertical reactions
to the wall studs. They also help to tie the structure together in the horizontal plane at the roof and floor
levels.

n. Bottom plates
These continuous 2x horizontal members or sole plates that are located immediately below the wall
studs and serve as bearing plates to help distribute the gravity loads from the wall studs. They also help
to transfer the lateral loads between the various levels of a shear wall. The bottom plates located on
top of the concrete or masonry foundation wall are called sill plates and these are required to be
pressure treated because of the presence of moisture since they are in direct contact with a concrete
or masonry.

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1.3 TYPICAL STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS IN WOOD BUILDINGS

• Roof Framing
• Floor Framing
• Wall Framing

1.4 WOOD STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES

Wood is a biological material and is one of the oldest structural materials in existence. It is
nonhomogeneous and orthotropic, and thus its strength is affected by the direction of load relative to
the direction of the grain of the wood, and it is naturally occurring and can be renewed by planting or
growing new trees. Since wood is naturally occurring and nonhomogeneous, its structural properties
can vary widely, and because wood is a biological material, its strength is highly dependent on
environmental conditions. Wood buildings have been known to be very durable, lasting hundreds of
years, as evidenced by the many historic wood buildings in the United States. In this section, we discuss
the properties of wood that are of importance to architects and engineers in assessing the strength of
wood members and elements.

Wood fibers are composed of small, elongated, round, or rectangular tube-like cells with the cell walls
made of cellulose, which gives the wood its load-carrying ability. The cells or fibers are oriented in the
longitudinal direction of the tree log and are bound together by a glue-like material called lignin. The
chemical composition of wood consists mainly of cellulose and lignin. The water in the cell walls is known
as bound water, and the water in the cell cavities is known as free water. When wood is subjected to
drying or seasoning, it loses all its free water first before it begins to lose bound water from the cell walls.
It is the bound water, not the free water, that affects the shrinking or swelling of a wood member. The
cells or fibers are usually oriented in the vertical direction of the tree. The strength of wood depends on
the direction of the wood grain. The direction parallel to the tree trunk or longitudinal direction is referred
to as the parallel-to-grain direction; the radial and tangential directions are both referred to as the
perpendicular-to-grain direction.

1.4.1 Tree cross section

There are two main broad classes of trees: hardwood and softwood. This terminology is not indicative
of how strong a tree is because some softwoods are actually stronger than hardwoods. Hardwoods
have broad leaves, whereas softwoods have needle-like leaves and are mostly evergreen. Hardwood
trees take longer to mature and grow than softwoods, are mostly tropical, and are generally denser
than softwoods. Consequently, they are more expensive and used less frequently than softwood lumber
or timber in wood building construction in the United States. Examples of softwood trees include Fir,
Hemlock, Pine, Redwood, and Spruce, while hardwood trees include Maple, Oak, Birch, and Basswood
Softwoods constitute more than 75% of all
lumber used in construction in the United
States, and more than two-thirds of softwood
lumber are western woods such as Douglas Fir-
Larch (DF-L) and Spruce. The rest are eastern
woods such as Southern Pine.

The growth of timber trees is indicated by an

annual growth ring added each year to the
outer surface of the tree trunk just beneath the
bark. The age of a tree can be determined
from the number of annual rings in a cross
section of the tree log at its base. The tree cross
section shows the two main sections of the
tree, the sapwood and the heartwood.
Sapwood is light in color and may be as strong
as heartwood, but it is less resistant to decay.
Heartwood is darker and older and more

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resistant to decay. However, sapwood is lighter and more amenable than heartwood to pressure
treatment. Heartwood is darker and functions as a mechanical support for a tree, while sapwood
contains living cells for nourishment of the tree.

1.4.2 Advantages and disadvantages of wood as a structural material

Some advantages of wood as a structural material are as follows:
• Wood is renewable.
• Wood is machinable.
• Wood has a good strength-to-weight ratio.
• Wood will not rust.
• Wood is aesthetically pleasing.

The disadvantages of wood include the following:

• Wood is more combustible than other building materials.
• Wood can decay or rot and can be attacked by insects such as termites and marine borers.
Moisture promotes decay and rot in wood that can lead to structural failure.
• Wood holds moisture.
• Wood is susceptible to volumetric instability (i.e ., wood shrinks and warps).
• The properties of wood are highly variable and vary widely between species and even between
trees of the same species. There is also variation in strength within the cross section of a tree log.

1.5 FACTORS AFFECTING THE STRENGTH OF WOOD

Several factors that affect the strength of a wood member are discussed in this section:
(1) species group,
(2) moisture content
Seasoning of lumber, the process of removing moisture from wood to bring the moisture content
to an acceptable level, can be achieved through air drying or kiln drying.
• Air drying involves stacking lumber in a covered shed and allowing moisture loss or dying
to take place naturally over time due to the presence of air.
• Kiln drying involves placing lumber pieces in an enclosure on kiln at significantly higher
temperatures.
(3) duration of loading
(4) size and shape of the wood member
(5) defects
• Natural Defects
1. Knots – natural defects formed where the tree limbs grow out from a tree trunk.
2. Check – the separation of the wood fibers at an angle to annual rings and occurs due to
rapid drying of lumber where the interior parts of the members shrink less than the exposed
outer parts, and therefore restrain the other parts of the wood member which causes the
wood fiber to separate.
3. Splits – the separation of wood fibers that occur at the end of the wood member and
extending completely through the width or thickness of the member parallel to the direction
of the fibers.
4. Shake – occurs due to the separation of the wood fibers parallel to the annual rings.
5. Decay – the rotting or crumbling of wood due to the presence of moisture and wood
destroying fungi that feeds on the wood fiber or cellulose.
6. Wane – the corners or edges of wood cross section lack wood material or have some of the
bark of the tree as part of the cross section.

• Seasoning Defects
1. Warping – results from uneven or differential drying shrinkage of wood between the radial
and tangential to grain direction, causing the wood member to deviate from the horizantol
or vertical plane.

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2. Compression or reaction wood – caused by a tree that grows abnormally in bent shape due
either to natural effects of to the effect of wind and snow load.
(6) direction of the primary stress with respect to the orientation of the wood grain, and
(7) ambient temperature.

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