Typical Uses

of Wood Bearing Walls ...

Residential Construction

The most common use of wood bearing walls, or wood-framed construction, is in residential buildings. Single family homes and small apartment buildings are typical 3 stories or less. This is the perfect situation for a wood framed wall. Wood framed walls can be pre-fabricated off-site and transported to the jobsite completely assembled. This is yet another reason that wood-framing is perfect for this application. It cuts down on construction time and labor costs and allows more houses to be built simultaneously.

Small Commercial Buildings

Many small commercial structures use wood-framed construction as they are not much larger than some apartment buildings. Wood-framing is a great use for small office buildings where live load levels are relatively low. Although the capacity of wood framing is typically exceeded in buildings over five stories, a combination of wood bearing walls and some other type of bearing wall construction, ie- masonry or steel framed, could be used to add more floors to a building.

Temporary Construction Support

Wood bearing walls can also be used as temporary support during construction or renovation projects. They provide a stable base for installing more permanent solutions in cases where wood framing is not appropriate. They can also be constructed temporarily on either side of an existing wood bearing wall in order to carry the load during removal of the wall. This technique is becoming more and more useful as the "open-concept" floor plan is becoming more and more popular.