Simpson Joist Hangers: Naming Conventions
Simpson Strong-Tie started in 1956 with a single joist hanger. Today, there are more than 6,000 products – and that doesn’t include things such as anchors, hold downs, shear wall panels and other related products. It is hard to nail down (couldn’t resist the pun) an exact number of products when you are looking at all of the divisions of the company. Add USP and their 4,000+ items and you have walked into a maze of connectors, hangers and strap ties that can leave you a little dazed and confused.
To discuss the entirety of the Simpson Catalog alone would take longer than finding the Loch Ness Monster so this particular article will deal with Joist Hangers. Simpson lists more than 90 Types of joist hangers and that doesn’t even count the heavy truss girder mounts or multiple member hangers.
To start, the naming conventions used by Simpson (and USP has a similar feel) are not a great guide until you gain familiarity. There are some obvious tells:
However, with all of the Joist Hanger Products we hit some confusion. They are U hangers (a reflection of their shape), but that is not the designation you will see starting the item description for most products. Ledger hangers start with an L, Concealed have a C at the end, so you have U, LU and LUC. The HU and HUC are heavy duty Joist Hangers.
As for “I-Joists” (such as TJI, LPI, or BCI type products) Simpson has a more standardized naming system – ITS (I-Joist Top-Flange Hanger with Snap-In Bottom Flange). The Joist depth is plain but the Flange Width is a more precise decimal number (e.g. the top flange for a Weyerhaeuser 110 series is 1.81” so the hanger would be ITS1.81/9.5).
The best tool I have found to help with the Hangers is the Simpson app – https://app.strongtie.com/hs It makes hanger selection pretty easy and also navigates you through fastener selection which can be another maze of information. It also covers hangers for EWP products.
