Mass timber buildings use cross-laminated timber (CLT) or mass plywood panels to create horizontal diaphragms to transfer wind and seismic forces into the vertical elements of the lateral-force-resisting system. Spline connections resist shear forces at the panel joints, which I discussed in this blog post. I wanted to discuss several options for tension straps used for chord splices and collector forces. This blog will not discuss methods for calculating design forces. Instead, I am going to focus on several strap products and how we developed their allowable loads.
