Codes and standards for structural wood products and their use in the United States

The system of model building codes and voluntary product standards used in the United States for structural lumber and engineered wood products can appear complicated and confusing to those introduced to it for the first time. This paper is a discussion of the various types of structural wood products commonly used in U.S. residential and commercial construction and the system of building codes and product and performance standards that help regulate the quality and use of these products. Introduction The United States is the leading producer and consumer of wood products in the world. The majority of this wood resource is used to construct the 1 million new single-family homes built every year or to repair and remodel existing houses. This demand for construction material has led to better utilization of wood, which now comes from secondand third-growth forests. Compared to 50 years ago, the forest resource in the United States can generally be characterized as having a more diverse array of species available for use and is composed of