All Things Wood: How to Predict a Bouncy Floor Frank Woeste Background The model International Residential Code (IRC) permits a design live load of 30 psf for “sleeping rooms.” The model codes specify 40 psf for all other rooms. Of the annoying floor vibration complaints we have received, the most common scenario stems from the use... Read More June 2017 Issue #10215 Page 68
All Things Wood: A Common-Sense Design to Create Durable Overhangs Frank Woeste Decay, or wood rot, requires three conditions to be present: liquid water, oxygen, and a favorable temperature (generally between 35 and 100 degrees F). Of the three, the only factor that can be managed by building design is liquid water. Hence, overhangs of sufficient width are critical to... Read More May 2017 Issue #10214 Page 66
All Things Wood: A “Truss Frame” Safe Room for Protecting Your Family? Frank Woeste Being that it is early spring, it may be a good time to think about taking steps to protect your family in the event of a tornado. The 4th Edition of FEMA P-320, introduced below, contains a “treasure” of design information for constructing a residential safe room, either in the home... Read More April 2017 Issue #10213 Page 67
All Things Wood: Impact of Sustained Elevated Temperature on Wood Frank Woeste Unlike solid-sawn lumber, the mechanical properties of some materials are greatly affected by ambient temperatures and solar-radiation heating, as depicted by the photograph. However, while the engineering design properties of solid-sawn lumber are not affected by ambient temperatures, they can... Read More March 2017 Issue #10212 Page 66
All Things Wood: Heavy Timber with "Heavy Connection" Frank Woeste Photo taken at a restaurant in Maine located on the first floor of a historic textile mill building. Such buildings were constructed in the 1860-65 timeframe. The column is about 18”x18” and apparently continues upward into the next floor (or floors). The side mounted connection was... Read More February 2017 Issue #10211 Page 59
Letter to the Editor: On IBC bracing requirements Frank Woeste Dear Anna: A recent long span truss collapse during installation reminded me of the new 2009 (and later) IBC bracing requirements for the Owner of a project with metal plate connected (MPC) wood trusses spanning 60 ft. and greater (churches, schools, commercial, retail, and so on).... Read More November 2016 Issue #09208 Page 74
Rethinking Ways to Encourage Permanent Truss Bracing Frank Woeste For Component Manufacturers (CMs), it is generally well known that the Registered Design Professional (RDP) is responsible per ANSI/TPI 1 for the design of the permanent bracing system for the wood truss system. However, the issue of responsibility is only the first part of the actual design and... Read More July 2016 Issue #09204 Page 59
Controlling Floor Vibration Frank Woeste Home buyers naturally take for granted that the floor system in a new house is safe and complies with the building code—and rightly so. But home buyers also have expectations for their floors that are unrelated to safety or the building code. In particular, many home buyers are aware of... Read More February 2016 Issue #09199 Page 43