APA – The Engineered Wood Association

Formerly known as the American Plywood Association, APA – The Engineered Wood Association is a nonprofit trade association whose member mills produce approximately 75 percent of the structural wood panel products manufactured in North America. You may have noticed the association's trademark "APA" on some of the plywood sheathing you've used. The same trademark can be found on composites (veneer faces bonded to wood strand cores) or on OSB. The trademark appears only on products manufactured by member mills and is the manufacturer's assurance that the products conform to the standard shown on the trademark. The APA EWS trademark appears only on engineered wood products manufactured by members of Engineered Wood Systems (EWS), a related corporation of APA.

Besides quality testing and inspection, research and promotion programs play important roles in developing and improving plywood and other panel construction systems, and in helping contractors, architects, and specifiers better understand and apply products affiliated with the association. They offer three publications that you can use as handy reference manuals:

Construction Guide – House Building Basics. This handbook is designed as an elementary guide to wood-frame construction. It illustrates the basic steps to completing the structural shell of a typical single-story house, from the foundation to the roof. In some cases, alternative methods of construction are explained or described. I firmly believe it doesn't hurt to go back to the beginning for a refresher course. This isn't meant to insult your professionalism, but merely to put you back on track. After all, some of us get sloppy with experience. Anyone who plans to enter the construction market could use this guide for a simplified, yet detailed, understanding of construction and framing methods.

Design/Construction Guide – Residential & Commercial. This publication contains up-to-date information on panel grades, including APA Performance Rated Panels; specification practices; floor, wall and roof systems; diaphragms and shear walls, fire-rated systems, and methods of finishing.

Product and Application Guide – Glulams. Everything you ever wanted to know about glued laminated timber can be found in this handbook – and then some. A nice thing about this product is no old-growth timber was cut down to produce it. Glued laminated timbers are composed of individual pieces of dimension lumber end-jointed together to produce long lengths, which are then bonded together with adhesives to create the required beam dimensions. Because of this process, large laminated timbers can be manufactured from smaller trees of a variety of species harvested from second- and third-growth forest and plantations.

To get your copy of this or other APA publications, contact them at:

APA – The Engineered Wood Association
7011 S. 19th Street
P.O. Box 11700
Tacoma, WA 98411-0700
253-565-6600
http://www.apawood.org

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