Framing Products Meet the Challenge of Building Tall Walls
Products from Trus Joist offer home builders wood-framed tall walls 10-30 feet high designed to meet the growing popularity of large windows and vaulted ceilings that provide home owners with scenic views and natural light.
Headquartered in Boise, ID, Trus Joist is a Weyerhaeuser business and a member of the National Council of the Housing Industry — the Supplier 100 of NAHB.
The design and construction of tall walls present unique challenges to builders and code officials. Conventional framing practices do not apply to walls that are taller than 10 feet, even though some builders continue to use them for that purpose, says the manufacturer. Other builders use platform framing, stacking 8- to 10-foot-high walls on top of each other — creating a “hinge” effect and wall instability to wind pressures perpendicular to the wall.
Trus Joist says that its wall framing design methodology factors in both perpendicular wind load pressure and vertical loads, which are outlined in its easy-to-use specifier’s guide. By meeting structural demands, its tall walls eliminate under- or overbuilding.