Welcome to 2024! I’m Bryan Wert, director for Connector & Lateral Systems. Prior to joining Simpson Strong-Tie 17 years ago, I was a consulting structural engineer primarily focused on single- and multi-family construction and it felt like Christmas morning when the new Simpson Strong-Tie Wood Construction Connecters catalog would appear on my desk. So I do find it exciting that now I get to be the one to start the New Year off announcing our new Wood Construction Connectors catalog (C-C-2024). I hope you enjoy the eye-grabbing cover art as much as I do, but more importantly I hope you’ll take some time to read this blog where I highlight what you’ll find inside the catalog.
What’s New in the 2024 Wood Construction Catalog?
”New products” include not only the connectors we launched this calendar year, such as the ACHZ heavy adjustable post cap, but also all the connector products that we’ve launched in the timespan since we published our last connectors in 2021.
Outdoor Accents® Decorative Hardware
This catalog now includes the full product line for our Outdoor Accents decorative hardware, our collection of connectors and fasteners that bring beauty and strength to custom outdoor living structures. All Outdoor Accent products are made with ZMAX® steel (which has double the corrosion protection of our standard G90 connectors) and are finished with a black powder coating to create an alluring aesthetic. We have two styles: The Avant Collection™ features straight edges and chamfered corners for a clean, timeless design and the Mission Collection® has a Southwestern style aesthetic with curved arches.
I’ll highlight the latest additions, starting with the APVKB knee brace connectors. These knee brace connectors, which feature the Avant Collection style, make installation of bracing supports fast and easy. They come available in two sizes, the APVKB45-4 and the 45-6, to accommodate 4x and 6x lumber respectively. Both sizes are angled at 45 degrees and install with the Outdoor Accents 3 1/2″ structural wood screw and STN22 hex-head washer combination to provide the look of a bolted connection without the hassle of a bolted connection.
The Outdoor Accents line now includes black powder-coat models of our popular Rigid Tie® connectors. These connectors can be used with either the Mission Collection or Avant Collection, as well as separately for smaller project needs. The APRTC2, APRTA2 and APRTR are all designed for 2x lumber and use the Outdoor Accents #10 x 1 1/2″ connector screws, while the APRTA12 fastens with #8 x 3/4″ screws, ideal for 1x lumber.
The new 2″ Outdoor Accents structural wood screw installed with the patented STN22 hex-head washer is a versatile, high-performance fastening solution, designed specifically to attach Outdoor Accents hardware to 2x, 2x rough and 3x lumber as well as hollow columns that are typically fabricated of 2x material.
DGT™ and DGHT™ Fire Wall Hangers
Ideal for multifamily, multilevel Type III residential construction, the patent-pending DGT and DGHT are load-tested fire wall hangers with a two-hour fire rating. The first fire-wall hangers designed to be installed with 1 1/2″ and 2 1/2″ power-driven or hand-installed nails, they provide space for two layers of 5/8″ drywall to be slipped into place after the framing is complete. And because all models are fabricated from 10- or 12-gauge steel without any requirement for welding, they are a very cost-effective solution. See the catalog or strongtie.com for more information about options like skewed hangers, offset hangers or installation on steel beams.
The new DGT and DGHT line reduces the number of SKUs for the line while covering the same number of joist/truss sizes. We have this engineering letter to help you update your specifications from the DGF to the DGT series of hangers.
ECB™ Elevated Column Base
The new ECB elevated column base was designed with multifamily stacked balconies in mind. It features a 2″ standoff, providing enough room for a moisture barrier and thin finish surface to be poured over the balcony framing while still allowing a 1″ standoff to prevent post decay. It has flexible anchorage options: four corner holes to screw down to wood framing, or one center hole to anchor to concrete. Two models are available to accommodate 6×6 or 8×8 hollow columns or solid-sawn posts; and both are available in Simpson gray paint or hot-dip galvanized finish.
This new model replaces the ECBQ, which had been offered to customers in the Southeast US for years. It started as a special created at the request of a hollow-column manufacturer. There are a couple key differences with this new model. As mentioned above, this product can be installed either directly to a concrete foundation with a Simpson Strong-Tie® Titen HD® or another anchor, or it can be installed to a wood foundation with ¼”-diameter Strong-Drive® SDS Heavy-Duty Connector screws — which are typically easy to find on a multifamily jobsite. The other change is that the size of the hole in the flat portion of the bucket is now larger. This is because the part is offered in a hot-dipped galvanized finish as well, and when dipping the original part, zinc would get stuck in the standoff pipe section because it couldn’t all drain out. So the hole size was increased, and the parts were retested to their current load rating.
H1A Hurricane Tie
The next-generation H1A hurricane tie is designed for nominal 2x lumber and suitable for roof truss, rafter, pergola or deck attachments. It offers an improved fastener pattern that increases allowable uplift and F2 lateral loads. It installs with only a single nail size and fewer nails overall than the previous model. Like the previous model, this U-shaped hurricane tie holds the 2x member on both sides, which can aid in framing layout and creates high lateral load resistance.
You may recall that a few years ago, there was a code change in the IBC that required connectors to be tested per a new ASTM standard — and this changed a lot of allowable load values when we published the 2019 Wood Construction Connectors catalog. The H1 was a key hurricane tie that had its uplift load drop with these changes. By relocating some nail holes in this new H1A model design, we were able to increase the uplift load while reducing the quantity of fasteners required.
ACBH™ Aluminum Concealed Beam Hanger
With an allowable stress design load capacity of up to 20 kips, the ACBH aluminum concealed beam hanger is the strongest connector in our line of concealed end-grain beam hangers, more than doubling the capacity of our lighter CBH hanger. Like the CBH, its concealed connection allows for a wood-only aesthetic while offering one- and two-hour fire resistance ratings per ASTM E119. And if even higher loads are needed, it can be installed in a double condition to achieve twice the load capacity.
HSKP™ Heavy Seated Knife Plate
Another hanger that preserves the look of mass timber beams while meeting high-demand loads is our new HSKP heavy seated knife plate. It installs with Strong-Drive® SDCF Timber-CF structural screws and CJTPL steel dowel. Offering the highest load ratings yet in our line of concealed beam hangers, the HSKP has an allowable load capacity of up to 33 kips. It can be installed in wood-to-wood beam-to-beam or beam-to-column conditions and is also available without the back plate and screws for wood-to-steel conditions as well. It has been tested for drift and can be used in any seismic design category. ASTM E119 one-hour and two-hour fire testing is complete and the report showing these ratings should be finalized shortly.
ICFVL6 and ICFVL8 Ledger Connectors
The ICFVL6 and ICFVL8 ledger connectors solve the challenges of mounting wood or steel ledgers to insulated concrete form (ICF) walls, and are designed to provide both vertical and in-plane lateral load capacity. We created this new design after a customer asked us to produce an ICF connector with longer legs to accommodate a new, thicker ICF panel with higher R-values (a measurement of how well insulation prevents the flow of heat energy). As a result, the maximum ICF foam wall thickness for the new ICFVL6 is 3 1/4“ (similar to the outgoing model), and the maximum ICF foam wall thickness for the new ICFVL8 is 4 1/2″. This system offers many benefits over traditional anchor bolting, including better on-center spacing in most cases, faster installation, and no protrusions. As with the previous ICFVL, in wood ledger applications the ICFVL-W is required for 2x ledgers, and the ICFVL-CW is needed for 1 3/4″ LVL ledgers.
ABA24-2Z Adjustable Post Base
The ABA24-2Z is an extension of our popular ABA adjustable post base line. It’s designed for attaching double 2x lumber to existing concrete. It can be used for installing a structural post consisting of two 2×4 studs nailed together as well as for securing double 2x beams to a footing for ground-level decks.
1616 HTQ Heavy T Strap
Due to the popularity of our PSQ pile straps, we’ve had multiple requests for a heavy T strap that can also be installed with our patented Strong-Drive® SDWH™ Timber-Hex HDG screws instead of through-bolts.
The new 1616HTQ heavy T strap is designed for beam-to-pile connections, is load rated (with slightly higher capacities than the bolted 1616HT) and installs quickly and easily with ten SDWH27400G screws. Note that the load rating in the catalog table is for a single part and can be doubled if the product is installed in pairs on opposite sides of a minimum 5 1/2″-thick wood members.
ACHZ Heavy Adjustable Post Cap
Noticing a gap in the line for post caps between the lighter-capacity AC and heavier-capacity CC or CCQ, we created the new ACHZ heavy adjustable post cap to provide a secure, high-capacity connection between a beam and a post. A two-piece design, it’s ideal for new or retrofit applications where structural support is needed. ACHZ provides the flexibility for either mid-beam or end-beam connections. For end-beam connections, the flanges are field bent along the oblong perforations of the upper portion of the cap.
SCLC: Stair Cassette Ledger Connector
The SCLC stair cassette ledger connector offers a safer and more efficient way to connect preassembled stair cassettes to headers. It installs on the header with power-driven or hand-installed nails, and after the stair cassette ledger is seated, it’s fastened with Strong-Drive® SDS Heavy-Duty Connector screws on the jobsite. Important to note is that a minimum of two SCLC connectors must be used to support the stair cassette.
MASOZ™ and MASOPZ™ Mudsill Anchors
The latest in our growing line of offsite construction solutions, the MASOZ and MASOPZ are ideal mudsill anchors for factory-built, sheathed wall panels, providing an effective anchorage method that reduces onsite labor costs. It provides a convenient alternative to traditional cast-in-place anchors and eliminates the need for additional blocking and connectors required by our MASA product when used over sheathing.
The MASO is bent flat in order to be attached to a typical form board with duplex nails or screws prior to the foundation pour, whereas the MASOP is vertical so it can be screwed to a form panel prior to the foundation pour. Both have patented fastener holes that make it simple to use a standard power nailer to fasten the mudsill anchor through the wall sheathing into the sill plate.
These products are slated to launch in April of 2024, at which time load tables and a code evaluation report will be available on strongtie.com.
I hope you enjoyed learning about the new products introduced in C-C-2024 and check back in next week to learn what products we’ve discontinued, their replacements and about a few improvements we made to the catalog.
