Weyerhaeuser

Weyerhaeuser joists and beams, the Trus Joist TJI, LVL, PSL and LSL lines, frame floors, beams and headers on houses and other buildings. Add Framer Series lumber and Edge panels and one maker covers the joists, beams, rim, walls and sheathing. For a builder or owner-builder, that means one lineup for the whole frame.

Weyerhaeuser Company is an American timberland owner and wood-products maker, founded in 1900 by Frederick Weyerhaeuser and now headquartered in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. It owns about 10.4 million acres of U.S. timberland and manages about 14 million more in Canada under long-term licenses. It operates as a real estate investment trust and trades on the New York Stock Exchange as WY.

A timberland REIT that still makes lumber

Because it’s a REIT, plenty of framers figure Weyerhaeuser sold the mills and kept the trees. Its Wood Products business makes and distributes building materials for homes and other structures, and the company has made wood products for over a century. The businesses it exited were paper and homebuilding.

TJI joists and rim board for the floor

TJI joists are the floor system to use on a house. They come off the truck straight, with no crown to sort, and they don’t shrink the way sawn joists do, so the humps and squeaks from drying lumber mostly go away. The mistake seen most is a plumber or electrician notching a flange. The flanges carry the load: cut nothing in them and keep holes in the web.

Close the ends with Weyerhaeuser Rim Board or TJ Rim Board, not a sawn 2x. Sawn lumber shrinks in height as it dries and the I-joists beside it won’t. Match the rim depth to the joist depth before the order goes in.

LVL, PSL and LSL for beams and headers

Microllam LVL is the everyday beam and header. It’s veneers glued in layers, and it plies up two or three wide for a flush beam or a header over a wide opening. Parallam PSL is the one for heavy solid beams and posts, and its strand face is often left exposed. TimberStrand LSL fits shorter headers, rim and tall walls where a stud has to stay straight.

In a Montana house, roof snow load decides beam and header size more than anything else. Pull the ground snow load for the lot from the MSU snow load tool before sizing any LVL, PSL or LSL member.

Framer Series lumber and the panels

Framer Series lumber is Weyerhaeuser’s dimensional lumber for walls, plates and the parts of the frame that stay sawn. OSB sheathing goes on the walls and roof, Radiant Barrier Sheathing goes on the roof deck, and SturdiStep treads are for stairs. Edge and Edge Gold structural panels are the subfloor over the TJI joists: glue and screw them, and leave the edge gap so the sheets can swell without buckling the floor.

Warranty by product

Each line carries its own warranty, from TJI joists and the three beam lines to both rim boards, Framer Series lumber, Edge, Edge Gold and OSB sheathing. Parallam Plus PSL carries a limited 30-year warranty, and StrandGuard TimberStrand LSL is covered apart from standard TimberStrand, so read the certificate for the exact product on the delivery ticket.

The lineup at a glance

Line	Where it goes on the frame
Trus Joist TJI Joists	Floor and roof joists
Trus Joist Microllam LVL	Beams and headers, plied up for width
Trus Joist Parallam PSL	Heavy beams and posts
Trus Joist TimberStrand LSL	Headers, rim and tall-wall studs
Weyerhaeuser 1 1/8″ Rim Board, Trus Joist TJ Rim Board	Band around the joist system
Weyerhaeuser Framer Series Lumber	Walls, plates and sawn framing
Weyerhaeuser Edge and Edge Gold Structural Panels	Subfloor
Weyerhaeuser OSB Sheathing	Wall and roof sheathing

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I know before putting Weyerhaeuser I-joists in a floor?

TJI joists are light enough to carry long lengths by hand, but the flanges and web don’t like sitting in snow or mud. Keep the bundles up on stickers off the ground and covered until the subfloor goes down. Wherever a wall or post above lands on a joist at a bearing, add blocking or squash blocks so the load bypasses the web.

What’s TimberStrand LSL good for?

TimberStrand is made from long wood strands pressed together with resin, so a stud or header stays straight and flat instead of bowing like a sawn 2x. That makes it the right pick for kitchen walls hanging tall cabinets and bath walls getting tile, where a crooked stud shows up in the finish. Keep it covered on site, because the edges swell if it sits wet.

Can you notch or drill a Microllam LVL beam?

Don’t notch or bore one on the job unless the beam’s design allows it, because a cut near the bottom edge takes away the part carrying the load. Microllam LVL comes out of the plant dry and stays that size, so a beam won’t shrink away from the posts or twist after it’s set. When joists hang off only one side of a multi-ply beam, fasten the plies together so they all share the load, not just the ply the hangers are on.