Wood Framing & Sheathing Materials

Definitions

Wood: Fibrous substance forming the trunk, stems and branches of the tree

Lumber: Product of sawing, planing, and preparing Wood. Typically, you are purchasing “lumber”.

Timber: Lumber with a 5” minimum sectional dimension.

• Heavy Timber construction gets its name from this definition.
• Note that heavy timber is different from mass timber.

Rough Carpentry: Structural framing, sheathing, blocking, and miscellaneous pieces necessary to create a structure. Typically, the vast majority (if not all) of rough carpentry is covered up by finish materials.

Framing: The assembled components to construct a building.

• Due to code limitations, most traditional wood framing construction is limited to small to moderately sized buildings, or special construction such as the 5 over 1.
• Mass Timber has grown in acceptance due to its understanding of fireproofing. Modern codes are accommodating this more and more. Read more on mass timber here.

Light Wood Framing

Over the years there have been several different types of light wood framing that have been developed. The main two that evolved in the US were Balloon Framing and then Platform Framing. Light Framing refers to any wood framing consisting of dimensional lumber, normally 2x4s or 2x6s (framing without timber).