The Key to Mass Timber Construction
Part 3: Design Guidelines for Glued-in Rods

This is the third part of the series of articles on modern wood fasteners. Part 1 (STRUCTURE, August 2020) focused on self-tapping screws (STS). Part 2 (STRUCTURE, February 2021) introduced the reader to glued-in rods (GIR) and the components making up these joints. This concluding part summarizes design guidelines for the GIR connections. Despite the interest among designers of mass timber construction, there is no official recognition in U.S. and Canadian design codes for GIR connections. This article sheds light on the state of the art of this emerging technology. We caution the reader that this an area of development without code approvals in the U.S. and Canada – the content is provided as informational and is not to be used for design.

The Key to Mass Timber Construction
Part 2: Introduction to Glued-in Rods

This is the second part of the series of articles on modern wood fasteners. Part 1 (STRUCTURE, August 2020) focussed on self-tapping screws (STS). Part 2 introduces the reader to glued-in rods (GIR) and the components making up these joints. Part 3 will summarize design guidelines for the GIR connections. Despite the interest among designers of mass timber construction, there is no official recognition in U.S. and Canadian design codes for GIR connections. This article sheds light on the state of the art of this emerging technology. We caution the reader that this an area of development without code approvals in the U.S. and Canada – the content is provided as informational and not to be used for design. …

The Key to Mass Timber Construction

Part 1: Self-tapping Screws

Many of the advances we have seen in mass timber construction in recent years are due, in large part, to the availability of modern wood fasteners. The two most common types, self-tapping screws (STS) and glued-in rods (GiRods), will be discussed in this two-part series. …