Walls & Ceilings Architect/October 2007

MenOfSteel uperman may be the one most of us think of as the “Man of Steel”, but he is ﬁctional. In real life we do have men of steel, some could even call them “steel studs.” Before you start thinking of a guy in brightly colored tights, I am referring to our own steel stud industry. To be fair, there are women of steel in our industry and more are being smelted as you read. Putting the superhero references aside, steel studs have been around a long time and were used primarily for non load-bearing commercial work. Today, steel framing is not only reaching new heights, it is spreading out into new areas; Loadbearing, residential and even lowrise condominiums. The reasons are basic, simple and even amazing. The S Eventually we’ll all be using steel studs, so it’s time to get into the game if you are not already By Mark Fowler Photos courtesy of the Steel Framing Alliance The other negative aspect of fast growth lumber is that it will shrink more. The wood studs do not shrink in length, but they do get thinner. The dimensional lumber used on the plate line in multi-ﬂoor wood framed multi-family construction will compress more today than in the past. Ask any stucco contractor who has been around. Experience has taught them a single-piece control joint at the ﬂoor line that worked in the past, will now crush completely ﬂat. Today, you need to consider a twopiece expansion joint that will allow for greater movement. Nothing has changed, except that the new fastgrowth lumber compresses much more than it did in the past. Have you been to a big box store and bought any 2 x 4s lately? You have to go through several pieces to ﬁnd a few that are reasonably straight. There is usually a pile of twisted 2 x THE BASICS Wood comes from trees and while trees are renewable, do we really want to keep slaughtering our forests? I am not a tree-hugging environmentalist, but I live in the Pacific Northwest, where trees and the lumber industry is king. I have been on weekend get-aways on the Olympic Peninsula, where seeing a clear-cut forest leaves a sick feeling in your stomach. The wood industry belays our fears of clear-cutting forests with the new faster growing tress. Wow, the answer to our prayers! Think again. There are always consequences for every action, and building with fast-growing trees has consequences. The new fastergrowing timber has wider growth rings in the tree trunk. We all know how a tree ring represents one year of growth in a tree’s life. Faster growing trees results in wider growth rings and these rings are ﬁ lled with more saturated cellular ﬁbers. This in turn leads to a softer and more decay prone lumber. You do not have to take my word for it, ask any framer who has been around for more than 30 years and he will testify that today’s lumber does not compare to the lumber of the 1970s. It is softer wood. 18 | Walls & Ceilings Architect | October 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Walls & Ceilings Architect/October 2007

Contents Trade News Silver Certiﬁed Airtight The Men of Steel Thinking Thermal Firestop 101 ICFs Create a Tight Envelope The Finish Line The Green Thumb Cracking the Code

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