In the last article, we described the primary structural and wood-related changes in the 2021 International Residential Code, Chapters 3 and 4. This article will continue with the primary changes to Chapters 5 through 8 of the IRC. Decks For the 2018 and the 2021 IRC, an informal group...

Not all post-installed mechanical anchors are created equal. There are key differences between screw and expansion anchor types — differences that include how they gain their holding strength, installation requirements, and overall anchor performance. In the following article, field...

This August marked the 30th anniversary of the Florida landfall of Hurricane Andrew, one of the most damaging, and influential, hurricanes ever to hit the United States. Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida with Category 5 winds early on the morning of August 24, 1992. Andrew caused damages of $25...

Connector Selection Guides (CSGs) are tools Simpson Strong-Tie has created to assist users in designing and building with engineered wood products (EWP). They consist of a series of short fliers (available as PDFs on strongtie.com for printing or mobile use) guiding builders on how to select...

If you’ve ever spent a few hours working on your hands and knees to drill holes and drive screws, you know how time consuming and tedious it can be. Now, imagine spending consecutive weeks, months or even years fastening wood planks to steel on a manufacturing production line. For...

With the recent introduction of our new LSSR rafter hangers for 2x lumber, we thought we’d provide some background on how these new hangers were developed and why. Field-adjustable sloped and skewed hangers allow designers to specify widely available, economical connection solutions....

Over the last decade — in outlets reaching from construction industry journals to the Boston Globe and the Economist; from CNN and Fast Company to Popular Mechanics; to Nautilus and TED talks — we’ve been hearing increasingly about mass timber and related phenomena:...

In the last few years, Simpson Strong-Tie has heard from a number of structural engineers expressing frustration with the lack of performance data for shallowly embedded, post-installed anchors (shallow anchors). Engineers of Record (EOR) have identified a common application for shallow anchors...

Since the introduction of strength design for post-installed anchors in IBC 2000, determining the designed capacity of anchors has become increasingly complex. Dozens of variables, such as geometry, concrete conditions, and the specific properties of different anchor types, make a quick,...

Whether you’re designing and building a one- or two-story single-family residence, or doing the same for a multifamily, mid-rise wood-frame structure, fire and smoke protection features must be considered, and in most cases are required. When a fire starts, time is of the essence and the...