Did you know that Microsoft is ending support for the Windows® XP operating system in April 2014?  While this doesn’t mean that your computers will suddenly stop working, it does mean that Microsoft will no longer be fixing any issues or sending out any security updates for this operating system.  To stay on track with Microsoft solutions, Weyerhaeuser will also discontinue support of the Modus® software suite (which includes Forte®, Javelin®, Stellar® and other software products) on the Windows XP operating system at the same time.  Again, this doesn’t mean that your Weyerhaeuser software will suddenly stop working, but that new versions of Weyerhaeuser software may have issues running on Windows XP.  Furthermore we will not be providing support or releasing software updates to fix issues directly related to running our software on the Windows XP operating system. 

Microsoft is suggesting upgrading your Windows operating system and we support that recommendation. Upgrading your Windows operating system will not only allow you to keep current with Microsoft support, it will allow your Weyerhaeuser software solutions to perform better! The good news is that you have plenty of time to upgrade your Windows operating system or even your computers before Microsoft ends support for Windows XP in April 2014. 

For more information on the Windows operating system support lifecycle visit the Microsoft website.

If you have any questions or concerns about how this affects your Weyerhaeuser software, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Read more.. Support Ending for Windows XP

I had the opportunity to visit a couple of our mills last week and shot some video clips for this blog. This video shows lumber after it has been surfaced by a planer and before it gets analyzed and sorted with similar boards.

There are a few things that are impressive about this video. How about the speed with which the boards are processed? Pretty fast isn’t it? Also, there is a piece of lumber in every “lug space” or said another way, there are no missing boards. I watched this system run for quite a while – it never stopped and every lug had a board. That’s what we like to call reliability. You can experience that same reliability and consistency in our lumber products! And finally, and most importantly, this is one of the safest mills in the industry.

Who says you can’t have it all? Not us!

Read more.. Was that fast? That looked fast.

Nearly every builder has been there before. It’s the early afternoon and on the way to the job site from another job, an inspection is scheduled for 3 o’clock and drywall is scheduled for first thing the next morning when the phone rings—someone just noticed the plumber notched an I-joist flange for a tub drain.

Growing up in the construction industry, I saw issues pop up that threatened the job schedule regularly. To their credit, builders and sub-contractors nearly always find a way to solve problems and keep moving forward – but sometimes help is needed.

When a joist flange gets notched or a hole is cut too close to a bearing (two of the most common field issues I have seen), it typically requires review from the manufacturer to determine what, if any, repair is needed. Commonly this review involves the builder contacting the lumber dealer, the lumber dealer contacting the manufacturer who then analyzes the condition and makes a repair recommendation. The repair information then works its way back through the chain to the builder in the field. In recent years some builders have begun using smart phones to submit repair requests directly to Trus Joist from the jobsite by clicking Damage Report on our website.

Last year the technical team supporting Trus Joist products was able to finish the majority of repair and technical support requests the same day they were received. Unfortunately, sometimes even same-day turnaround isn’t fast enough to keep a job moving forward on schedule. With that in mind, Trus Joist developed a few Technical Bulletins that allow builders to immediately determine a repair recommendation based on the loads, spans, joist series, spacing, etc. specific to their job.

Have a notch in the side of a TJI top flange? Take a look at Technical Bulletin TB-818 (TJI Joists with Side Top Flange Notches). Simply use the joist depth, series, span, and spacing to instantly see if the joist needs repaired based on the notch depth and location. If a repair is needed the builder can choose from either of the repair methods shown to reinforce the joist.

Is the flange okay but a hole is drilled too close to the end bearing? Technical Bulletin TB-817 (Repair Details for Holes Located Within 12” of Bearing) can help. Use the same joist information mentioned for flange notches along with the hole size to verify the reinforcement detail shown will work (note that the repair shown can be installed without removing the plumbing or wiring from the hole).

In some cases the notch or hole will fall outside the scope of Technical Bulletins TB-817 and TB-818. When that happens, headering around the damaged section of joist may be the simplest fix. In the past, calculations would be needed to verify if the adjacent joists could support a header, but now simply using the jobsite conditions when referencing Technical Bulletin TB-816 (TJI Joist Header-Off Table) will allow the builder to make sure a header will work.

All three of the Technical Bulletins have tables for the most common residential floor loading conditions, using 40 PSF live load and including tables for dead loads of both 10 PSF (carpet/pad) and 20 PSF (common tile installations). Less than a minute should be needed to check a damaged joist in any of these tables, and when combined with the time savings of not sending the information through the supply chain and waiting for a response, these tools are another example of innovation by Weyerhaeuser that helps keep jobs on schedule. Maybe our next innovation will even save enough time that builders will be able to start working on the project list at their own home.

Read more.. Immediate answers for common field issues

The following excerpted from A Compilation of Micrographs on Wood and Wood Products by Norman P. Kutscha published by the Forest Products Society. Mr. Kutscha was Scientific Advisor Emeritus of Microstructure and Wood Science for Weyerhaeuser until his retirement. He won the Fred W. Gottschalk Memorial Award from the Forest Products Society in 1999. You can purchase the book, which comes with a CD of all 60 micrographs from the Forest Products Society Online Bookstore.

“Preparing a sample of wood for microscopic examination is as much an art as it is a science. Anyone who has examined a thin section of wood under a microscope realizes that the cellular structure observed can readily be referred to as ‘cellular architecture.’ The purpose of this compilation is to illustrate some of the better or more interesting micrographs of wood and wood products; secondly, to illustrate a few examples of how the microscopic examination of wood and wood products can help diagnose and solve problems related to the development or manufacture of wood products.”

Mr. Kutscha used microscopes with magnification from 25x to 1,500x to achieve these beautiful photographs. We hope you enjoy this interesting look below the surface.

The featured image at the top of this post is a cross section of radiata pine earlywood treated with phenol-formaldehyde resin and possibly wax. Treatement visible in the form of material which completely fills the cell lumen of nearly all cells. Most empty lumens are the result of treatment having fallen out during handling.

Above: Hand radial section of blackened wood (Douglas-fir) near a cross-grain crack on the surface of a beam with localized failure. Cells have prominent helical (diagonal) checks, indicating wood is highly degraded, in this case, due to chemical degradation. Wood was also determined to be compression wood, which is weaker than normal and has higher than normal longitudinal shrinkage. Yellow patches may be due to thin areas in section.

Above: cross section of ebony wood, which was commercially used to make black piano keys. Natural wood extractives (brown) present in the large-diameter vessels, the small diameter thick-walled fibers and the parenchyma cells. These extractives make the wood resistant to decay and insect attack. Extractives also present in the cell walls, which reduces their ability to pick up moisture and hence makes the wood more dimensionally stable with changes in moisture content.

Above: air-dried emulsion wax used as a component in the preparation of hardboard siding composed of wood fiber and recycled paper fiber. Wax appears multi-colored due to its birefringent nature.

Above: scraping taken from the radial surface of gray-stained eucalyptus. Dark-stained globules (starch) present in the ray parenchyma cells which account, at least in part, for the gray coloration of the wood.

Above: smooth cross-sectional surface of block of longleaf pine. Two resin canals (stained red) surrounded by thick-walled latewood tracheids. (Tracheids are elongated cells that serve in the transport of water and mineral salts.)

Above: cross section of top surface of particleboard treated with isocyanate resin.

Above: cross section of a spruce plywood glueline. Glueline (center, deep red) relatively thin. Very little cellular distortion in thin-walled early cells (right side) adjacent to glueline. Adhesive has penetrated into earlywood cells (both sides of glueline) that were cut/ruptured during the veneer cutting process.

Above: cross section of wood from a submerged warship found off the coast of New Jersey, possibly from the War of 1812. Small diameter latewood vessels indicate this wood as white oak.

If you liked these micrographs, check out all 60 in the book from the Forest Products Society Online Bookstore.

Read more.. Micrographs show wood like you’ve never seen it before

Are your customers building an elevated deck over a walk out basement? Do you want to offer them an option that opens up the space underneath and removes the column blocking the view? There’s an app for that! In under a minute, size a deck beam that spans longer than traditional lumber and delivers long-term durability even in the harshest conditions. Then email supporting documentation such as a member design report to a building official all from your phone or tablet.

Join our many customers that have built better decks with the help of our Parallam Plus Deck Beam Sizer app for iOS. If you haven’t tried it out yet, now is the perfect time to download it. That’s because we’ve updated our app for an even richer experience. Some improvements include:

• allow your beam to span even further with the addition of a 20’ post spacing option
• quickly find a Weyerhaeuser stocking lumber dealer by touching the “Buy a Beam” button

Get it now as a free download from the App Store℠.

P.S. Android users, we didn’t forget about you: While the Parallam Plus Deck Beam Sizer app is only available at this time on the Apple App Store, it is coming to the Google Play™ Store very soon. Keep an eye on this blog for more information!

Read more.. Deck Beam Sizer App Update

It’s been over three years since the devastating earthquake near Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 12^th, 2010.  As the need for relief and rebuilding existed in Haiti prior to the earth quake, so too does much work remain to be done past this three year anniversary.  However, we take this opportunity to note the fulfillment of a $250,000 commitment Weyerhaeuser made soon after the earthquake to help in the recovery and rebuilding of Haiti.  Our pledge was not only to provide an immediate donation of building materials to help with temporary  housing, but also to explore alternatives that could introduce safer products for the long-term rebuilding of Haiti (press release).

Habitat for Humanity shelter in Haiti

First Phase – Temporary Shelters

The first half of our commitment was fulfilled in the summer of 2010 through the donation of lumber and plywood to Habitat for Humanity and Techo.  These materials aided in the construction of approximately 350 emergency or transitional shelters.  This initial phase also provided support for the reforestation efforts of Plant with Purpose and the development of Caribbean wood construction design guidelines by the American Wood Council (AWC).

Second Phase – Permanent Housing

The second half of our commitment also involved partnering with a local organization – Nehemiah Vision Ministries (NVM).  Weyerhaeuser provided the structural design, materials and volunteer labor to complete five permanent wood-framed homes.  NVM provided the architectural input, logistics, and a local presence to ensure the appropriateness of the homes and their long-term utilization.

Three intern houses built in Chambrun, Haiti

A total of fives homes were built. Two houses will be used by volunteer medical staff serving in the hospital being completed later this year.

Three Intern houses were designed to meet the needs of a typical Haitian family. At less than 500 SF in size, these homes have two small bedrooms and a central living area. A full length porch provides a shaded outdoor living area where cooking would also take place. These homes were also designed with large windows centered across from each other on either side of the building to allow natural cross ventilation.

Design Considerations

As permanent structures, these homes were designed to be suitable for the climate and culture of Haiti, resist 150 mph wind speeds and D2 seismic forces, and be resistant to termites and other natural predators. Unique features included the TJ Shear Brace, southern pine treated lumber, FrameGuard treated sheathing, HardiePlank siding, structural sheathing, and various connection strategies for uplift resistance.

“End Zone” wind pressures (psf) based on 150 mph wind speed

The drawing to the right shows the maximum end zone wind pressures that the Intern House was designed to resist.  These forces required that all components of the structure including the foundation, wall and roof framing, porch framing and exterior cladding be properly designed and connected to act as a complete system. 

TJ Shear Brace installed in an interior wall of an Intern House to provide lateral resistance

These photos illustrate some of the design components used to resist the extreme wind loads which must be considered for designing permanent housing solutions in Haiti.

Decreased roof purlin spacing at the building ends to provide for additional uplift resistance

Volunteer Teams

Twenty-nine Weyerhaeuser associates along with ten family members traveled to Haiti for one or more weeks at their own cost to build the homes.  These volunteers completed two homes in October 2012 and the final three homes in February of 2013.  Not only did these associates serve the people of Haiti in building these homes, but they got to connect personally with the community they served.  This will have an impact for the long term – not only on the community of Chambrun, Haiti, but also in the lives of those who served.  Check out this time lapse video of the final three homes being built.

Lessons Learned

These homes utilized materials which are not all readily available in Haiti and incorporated some construction techniques that are not familiar to most local construction workers.  This approach allowed us to better understand the challenges associated with providing wood-framed housing in Haiti while at the same time providing permanent homes to assist with the long-term rebuilding efforts.  Key observations include:

• As expected, the availability of lumber is limited – especially treated and wide dimension products.
• Critical structural components such shear braces, connection hardware and fasteners are also difficult to obtain.
• Even supplementary materials suited for wood-framed buildings are not available locally (anchor bolts, electrical boxes, etc.).
• There is a lack of construction knowledge and experience – a Haitian “carpenter” is likely only familiar with how to build wood formwork for poured concrete.
• It is often difficult to get enough hardware installed to achieve the required uplift loads using traditional connectors.  Alternate approaches such as the use of TimberLok or similar fasteners may simplify installation.
• Opportunities exist for incremental improvements in the use of wood construction materials.  Most notably  the proper design and installation of wood floor and roof framing in conjunction with “confined masonry” and other concrete systems.

Much work needs to be done to support significant wood-framed construction in Haiti (design guidelines, construction skills development and supply chain infrastructure).  However, this effort has demonstrated that wood-framed homes can be appropriately designed and constructed for the loads, environmental conditions and cultural needs of Haiti.

More Information

Check out the detailed plans for the staff houses and intern houses.  A technical paper (Haiti Wood-Framed Housing Initiative) was presented at the 1st Annual Residential Building Design and Construction Conference sponsored by the PA Housing Research Center.

Read more.. Lessons Learned From Rebuilding in Haiti

FEDERAL WAY, Wash., April 2, 2013 — Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) today announced Adrian M. Blocker will join Weyerhaeuser as Vice President of Lumber, effective May 1, 2013. Blocker’s appointment follows Robert Taylor’s planned retirement from the company in May.

“We are excited to welcome Adrian to Weyerhaeuser,” said Larry Burrows, senior vice president, Wood Products. “He will be a great addition to our team, bringing more than 30 years of broad forest products operational and corporate experience in forestland management, fiber procurement, and lumber and plywood manufacturing.”

Blocker has held positions in leadership, strategic planning, business development, manufacturing and sales management at Champion International, International Paper and West Fraser. Most recently, he served as CEO of the Wood Products Council. He holds an MBA and Bachelor of Science degrees in Business and Forestry from Mississippi State University.

“Rob has provided tremendous leadership during his 36 years with the company in Hardwood and Softwood Lumber,” said Burrows. “We will miss his guiding hand at Weyerhaeuser, and we wish him well in his retirement.”

Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world’s largest private owners of timberlands, began operations in 1900. We own or control more than 6 million acres of timberlands, primarily in the U.S., and manage another 14 million acres under long-term licenses in Canada. We manage these timberlands on a sustainable basis in compliance with internationally recognized forestry standards. We are also one of the largest manufacturers of wood and cellulose fibers products, and we develop real estate, primarily as a builder of single-family homes. Our company is a real estate investment trust.

In 2012, we generated $7.1 billion in sales and employed approximately 13,200 people who serve customers worldwide. We are listed on the Dow Jones World Sustainability Index. Our stock trades on the New York Stock exchange under the symbol WY. Learn more about us at http://www.weyerhaeuser.com.

Read more.. Adrian M. Blocker Joins Weyerhaeuser as New Lumber VP, Robert W. Taylor Retires

Sweet Home High School is in the heart of lumber country. An hour and half south of Portland, Sweet Home is also the location of a Weyerhaeuser veneer plant with 114 employees. Logging is the economic driver in this part of Oregon; thus, making a Forest Club at the 600 student high school a natural fit. After a 20-year absence, the Forestry Club at Sweet Home High is thriving, in part due to the volunteers from Weyerhaeuser.

Each spring, the Forestry Club hosts a Skills Competition Day. More than 25 students compete in events such as the pole climb complete with spurs and gear, log rolling, team sawing, and chainsaw skills. The event highlights the forestry skills of the students along with providing some fun. Thanks to the 280 hours of volunteer time provided by Weyerhaeuser employees, the competition has become an annual event and is just one example of a project supported by “WAVES” (Weyerhaeuser Active Volunteer Employees).

WAVES is a volunteer-driven program supported through Weyerhaeuser’s corporate giving strategy. WAVES honors the volunteerism of its employees by giving financially to the organizations for which employees volunteer. In 2012, $311,000 in grant dollars was awarded to programs representing 31,820 Weyerhaeuser employee volunteer hours. One of these programs included the Forestry Club Skills Competition Day at Sweet Home High School.

Diapers line the halls at Weyerhaeuser HQ

In addition to the WAVES, Weyerhaeuser’s corporate giving program includes disaster relief and response, traditional grant making and a new company-wide giving initiative called “Operation Diaper Drive.” The initiative meets a critical need in the communities where Weyerhaeuser does business and engages and inspires employees to give back. The result? 629,000 diapers donated by employees with an additional $25,000 in Giving Fund monies.

Weyerhaeuser is pleased to support the volunteerism and community-engagement efforts of each of its employees. From diapers to a Forestry Skills event and everything in between, the employees of Weyerhaeuser continue to demonstrate their commitment to the communities in which we live and serve.

To stay up to date on Weyerhaeuser’s Volunteer efforts, Like WAVES on Faceboook.

Read more.. Weyerhaeuser’s Commitment to Community

We are excited to announce the upcoming release of Javelin® software version 5.0. With this release you will be able to accurately model more aspects of the structure and provide a more complete output of material, design details and much more!

Javelin v5.0 will allow you to:

• model and transfer loads through Compression Roof Systems using ridge boards, rafters, purlins and struts allowing you to accurately analyze members in the structure
• provide more complete material lists for the structural frame
• add and modify material information in material lists or,
• create a new one for material not modeled in the job, providing a more complete solution for your customers.
• control the information that is included in the Level Notes for consolidated and concise details about each level of the structure.

These new features add to the toolbox of opportunities that Javelin software offers allowing you to provide superior solutions to your customers.

Read more.. Coming soon in Javelin 5.0®

Rain on a jobsite can pose a number of challenges and result in added costs and delays, but what’s a builder to do since you can’t control the weather? It’s generally accepted that for OSB floor panels, excessive exposure to water leads to a less than ideal outcome. Such exposure creates the potential for edge swell and having to sand panel joints flush as well as nail pops or broken screw heads. Rainwater can also delay finish flooring installation or compromise the flooring integrity if not dealt with properly. 

I’ve seen pictures of floors in the Eastern US after a heavy storm with what can only be described as shallow lakes due to water trapped on the floor by the wall plates. For the most part, the panel industry’s response has ranged from a “do nothing” approach to tapering panel edges or significantly increasing the non-wood additive components to try to counter the effects of water exposure. Until recently, we were in a similar mindset when one of our R&D teams studying the problem suggested getting the water off the floor quickly instead of trying to design a panel that can survive until a crew arrives the next day, or days later, to drain the lake and start the drying process. That conversation led to our enhanced Edge Gold™ panels with Down Pore™ self-draining technology.

You can read about the product here, as I don’t intend to rehash the marketing features and benefits. Instead, I want to focus on why we believe this patented solution is a winning option for anyone building in the Eastern US (current market availability) where even a mild storm can drop a few inches of rain in a hurry.

Solutions that focus only on minimizing edge swell don’t account for water absorption in the rest of the panel. Perhaps you don’t have to sand joints, but water still penetrates into the microscopic voids in the panel and has potential to hamper finish flooring installations. There’s a reason the National Wood Flooring Association and several hardwood flooring manufacturers specify a maximum moisture content for subfloor panels under hardwood along with a maximum differential moisture content between the OSB and hardwood flooring. Increasing the additive materials to fill those voids is an option, but that only slows the rate of water absorption and the increased expense puts the builder in the position of weighing costs vs. benefits. Plus, the builder still has to divert resources to drill drain holes and/or sweep water away. 

The concept of drain notches isn’t new. While drain notches help channel water off the floor automatically, they have to work in the real world. Notches that plug easily with sawdust and construction debris or rely on idealized installation practices for panel spacing only perform well in laboratory settings. 

Our Down Pore technology team kept these and other considerations in mind as they set out to find a better solution. Over the course of several months they built and flooded numerous prototype floors and test houses under various conditions, refining the design each time in pursuit of a self-draining system that worked in real world conditions. 

The end result: a drain that works even if sawdust or drywall dust covers the floor; a drain that works even if you forget to gap the panel ends 1/8″ or accidentally smash the tongue and groove joint together (no sledge hammers!); a drain that starts working when the first drops of rain fall and doesn’t take time away from your crews to drill drain holes or sweep the water away. Does adding Down Pore technology to our panels cost more? Not for you. We’ve added this feature to our existing Edge Gold product lineup in the Eastern US at no up-charge.

Are you ready for a Down Pore? If not, we can help. Find your local dealer using our WYFinder tool and ask for Weyerhaeuser Edge Gold panels featuring Down Pore self-draining technology.

Read more.. Ready for a Down Pore?