WOOD CHEMICAL TREATMENT

Chemical treatments are used to counteract two major weaknesses of wood: its
combustibility and its susceptibility to attack by decay and insects.
Two wood major chemical treatment:
 Fire-retardant treatment (FRT): is accomplished by placing lumber in a vessel and
impregnating it under pressure with certain chemical salts that greatly reduce its
combustibility. This chemical treatment is so expensive.
 Preservative-treated wood: is used where decay or insect resistance is required, such as
with wood that is used in or near the ground, that is exposed to moisture in outdoor
structures such as marine docks, fences, and decks, or that is used in areas of high
termite risk.
WOOD FASTENERS
Fasteners have always been the weak link in wood construction. The interlocking timber
connections of the past, laboriously mortised and pegged, were weak because much of the wood
in a joint had to be removed to make the connection.
LIST OF FASTENERS
1. Nails

Most
nailed
framing connections are made with
common nails, box nails, or their
machine-driven equivalent.

Box nails are also used for fastening wood shingles and other types of
siding.
Casing nails, finish nails, and brads are used for attaching finish components; their heads are
set below the surface of the wood with a steel punch, and the holes are filled before painting.
Deformed shank nails, which are more resistant to withdrawal from the wood than smooth
shank nails, are used for attaching gypsum wallboard, sheathing, subflooring, and floor
underlayment, materials that cannot be allowed to work loose in service. The most common
deformation pattern is the ring-shank pattern shown here.
Concrete nails can be driven short distances into masonry or concrete for attaching furring strips
and sleepers.
Cut nails, once used for framing connections, now serve mostly for attaching finish flooring
because their square tips punch through the wood rather than wedge through, minimizing
splitting of brittle woods.
Roofing nails have large heads to prevent tearing of soft asphalt shingles.

2. Wood Screws and Lag Screws

Screws are spiral-threaded fasteners installed by turning action whereby the

threads draw the screw tightly into the material being fastened. In
comparison to nails, screws cost more and take longer to install, but they can
be inserted with greater precision, can exert greater clamping force
between joined pieces, have greater holding power, and can be backed
out and reinserted if a component needs to be adjusted or
remounted.

Some common screw types.

Flat-head screws are used
without washers
and are
driven

flush with the surface of the wood.

Round-head screws are used with flat washers and oval-head screws with countersunk
washers.
The drywall screw does not use a washer and is the only screw shown here that does not require
a predrilled hole.
Slotted and Phillips heads are most common. Screw heads with square and star-shaped recesses
to mate
with special driver bits of the same shape are becoming popular because of the very positive
engagement that they create between the driver bit and the screw.

3. Bolts
Bolts are used mainly for structural connections in heavy timber framing and, less frequently, in
wood light framing for fastening ledgers, beams, or other heavy applications. Commonly used
bolts range in diameter from 3/8 to 1 inch (10 to 25 mm) in almost any desired length
 4. Timber connectors

Various types of specialized timber connectors provide increased load-carrying capacity

over bolts. The split-ring connector is used in conjunction with a bolt and is inserted in matching
circular grooves in the mating pieces of wood.

5. Toothed Plate

Are used in factory-produced lightweight trusses. They are inserted into the wood with
hydraulic presses, pneumatic presses, or mechanical rollers and act as metal splice plates, each
with a very large number of built-in nails. They are extremely effective connectors because no
drilling or gluing is required, they can be installed rapidly, and their multiple closely spaced
points interlock tightly with the timbers of the wood.

Manufactured Wood
Components

1. TRU
S
SES

The
designer or builder

need only
specify
the
span, roof pitch, and desired overhang detail. The truss manufacturer then uses a preengineered
design for the specified truss or custom engineers a truss design and develops the necessary
cutting patterns for its constituent parts. The manufacture and transportation of trusses are shown
in, and several uses of trusses are depicted in. Roof trusses use less wood than a comparable
frame of conventional rafters and ceiling joists.

2. WOOD I-JOIST

Manufactured wood I-shaped members, called I-joists, are used for framing of both roofs and
floors. The flanges of the members may be made from solid lumber, laminated veneer lumber, or
laminated strand lumber.
 TYPES OF WOOD CONSTRUCTION

1. Heavy timber frame construction

Building services in heavy timber buildings

Traditional timber framing has been revived in recent years by a number of builders who
have learned the old methods of joinery and updated them with the use of modern power tools
and equipment. (a) Assembling a bent (a plane of columns, beams, rafters, and braces). (b) The
completed bents are laid out on the floor, ready for raising. (c) Raising the bents, using a truck-
mounted crane, and installing floor framing and roof purling (smaller, secondary framing
members that span across the primary beams or rafters). (d) The completed frame. (e) Enclosing
the timber-framed house with sandwich panels consisting of wafer board faces bonded to an
insulating foam core. (Courtesy of Benson Woodworking, Inc., Alstead, New Hampshire)
Fire resistive heavy timber construction
Large timbers, because of their greater capacity to absorb heat, are much slower to
catch Þ re and burn than smaller pieces of wood. When exposed to Þ re, a heavy timber beam,
though deeply charred by gradual burning, will continue to support its load long after an
unprotected steel beam exposed to the same conditions has collapsed. If the Þ re is not
prolonged, a Þ re-damaged heavy timber beam or column can often be sandblasted afterward to
remove the surface char and continue in service. For these reasons, building codes recognize
heavy timber framing that meets certain specific requirements as having fire-resistive properties.
In the International Building Code (IBC), for a building to be classified as Type IV Heavy
Timber (HT) construction, its wooden structural members must meet certain minimum size
requirements and its exterior walls must be constructed of noncombustible materials. Minimum
permitted sizes for solid wood timbers are summarized in Glue laminated members used in this
type
Wood Shrinkage in Heavy Timber Construction
Where the edges of floors and roofs of a heavy timber frame are supported on concrete
or masonry, special attention must be given to the potential for differential shrinkage between the
outer walls and the interior wood column supports. Wood, compared to masonry or concrete,
expands and contracts more with changes in moisture content, particularly in the direction
perpendicular to its grain. These changes occur over a period of years as large timbers gradually
dry and seasonally with changes in ambient conditions. A heavy timber frame building is
detailed to minimize the effects of this differential shrinkage by eliminating cross-grain wood
from the interior lines of support. In traditional Mill construction, cast iron
Example of wood construction
Example of roof in wood construction

Heavy timber roof trusses for Mill construction. Split-ring connectors are used to transmit the
large forces between the overlapping members of the truss. A long anchor strap is again used at
the outside wall, as explained in the legend to Figure
Types of deck in wood construction
Large-scale cross sections of four types of Heavy Timber decking. Tongue-and groove
decking is the most common, but the other three types are slightly more economical of lumber
because wood is not wasted in the milling of the tongues. Laminated decking is a traditional type
for longer spans and heavier loads; it consists of ordinary dimension lumber laid on edge and
spiked together. Glue-laminated decking is a modern type. In the example shown here, five
separate boards are glued together to make each piece of decking. Decking of any type is usually
furnished and installed in random lengths. The end joints do not necessarily line up over beams;
rather, they are staggered to avoid creating zones of structural weakness. The splines, tongues, or
nails allow the narrow strips of decking to share concentrated structural loads as if they
constituted a continuous sheet of solid wood.

Floor and Roof Decks for Heavy Timber Buildings

Building codes require that Type IV Heavy Timber buildings have floors and roofs of
solid wood construction without concealed cavities. Figure 4.18 shows different types of decking
used for these purposes. Minimum permissible thicknesses of decking are given in Figure 4.7. To
meet code requirements, floor decking must also be covered with a finish floor consisting of
nominal 1-inch (19-mm) tongue-and-groove boards laid at right angles or diagonally to the
structural decking. In some circumstances, ½-inch (13-mm) plywood or other composite wood
panels are also permitted as the Finish layer.