Weighing the Problems with Wood Framing

Wood framing accounts for 90% of the homes built in the United States, so you may think it must be a safe, solid method of construction. In reality, wood has some serious concerns and considerations:

Fire: The bottom line: Wood burns, and the biggest threat to your home is fire. Although you can take great precautions, such as installing sprinklers, to prevent fire from destroying your home, fire remains a real concern.

Mold: The empty cavities in a wood-frame wall are the perfect breeding ground for mold to form. The wood and drywall support mold growth, posing a potential health risk for you and your family.

Insects and other pests: Termites thrive on a diet of wood and could ruin your home. The empty chambers inside the walls are also the ideal home for other pests, like mice.

Rotting and decomposition: If water leaks into the house, the wood will warp and eventually rot.

Using wood framing has serious limitations. After you build the frame out of sticks, you still need to insulate, cover, and waterproof it. These weaknesses are all opportunities to reduce the environmental impact and your cost.

Lots of Labor and Materials

You may think of wood framing as a strong, easy way to build. But in reality, it’s just a grid of little sticks requiring labor and additional materials to make it work.

In platform framing, walls are formed by nailing studs together to create a hollow frame. Studs are inserted at 16 inches on center (measured from the centerline of one stud to the centerline of the next stud). If you want to insert a window or door opening, you have to interrupt the line of studs and frame the new opening. If you want to connect a wall to another wall, you need extra studs at the intersections and corners to make it work. This means each wall wastes wood it doesn’t need.

Must Be Covered with Sheathing

Wood-frame walls can’t be left as bare sticks, so they must be covered on the outside with sheathing, panels of solid wood. The only reason people build the studs to be 16 inches on center (see the preceding section), is because most sheathing comes 48 inches wide. This allows the sheathing to fit perfectly over four studs. The edges of the sheathing are screwed into the studs below.

I cover some wonderful green sheathing options in the following sections.

Plywood: Plywood is the typical sheathing panel. If you go with plywood sheathing, be sure to choose wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as sustainably harvested. Look for plywood without formaldehyde-based glues. Avoid using luan plywood, because it comes from the destruction of the rain forest.

Tip: In areas with earthquakes or high winds, plywood sheathing is used to add strength to the building. Called shear walls, this plywood must be thicker and continuously nailed around all the edges. Check your local building codes for the structural requirements of these shear walls. ....read more

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