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Installation of Interior Gypsum Board Finish

Gypsum wallboard provides an excellent example as to
why accurate design values are so vital to structural design.

Introduction: Why the Interior Finish Installation Is Important

Top 10 Employee Training Tools: Reading Construction Documents

The component industry is full of complex documentation, from blueprints and truss design drawings to bids and contracts. Reading these documents effectively and knowing what to look for can make the difference between a profitable job and a huge headache. This article will discuss some of the easy mistakes that can be made and advise on processes that can help reduce the chance they occur.

Build Your Sales Force

  • The whole premise of NFC is to help the framing industry grow and develop through best practice-based standards.
  • Having a more standardized approach to framing will make the whole building construction process easier.
  • I believe every component manufacturer should get involved in NFC, become a member of this fledgling organization, and help support its mission and objectives.

Bracing Options for Webs Revisited

  • The following Technical Q&A has been updated from the version that appeared in the 2006 June/July issue of SBC.  
  • Lateral restraints are installed to reduce the buckling length of the web(s), but must be restrained laterally to prevent the webs to which they are attached from buckling together in the same direction.
  • BCSI-B3, Permanent Restraint/Bracing of Chords and Web Members, provides general industry recommendations and methods for restraining web members against buckling.

Top 10 Employee Training Tools: Safety Communication

Safety Communication: Sing the Right Lyrics

Knowledge Is Power: Quantifying the Value of SBCRI through SP Design Value Changes

Knowledge is power when it comes to making decisions, so the more knowledge the better. SBCRI unequivocally gives us access to knowledge no one else has.

A Framer’s Perspective on Innovative Framing

  • It takes a creative approach to using material to meet customer’s needs, while still providing good quality structures. 
  • Once innovative framing methods are learned, and framers experience the ease of installation, and discover how all the parts of the framing fit together well, they quickly become comfortable with the techniques.  
  • Framers must be involved in creating industry standard details, because we are the ones most familiar with actual building construction.

Innovative Framing Requires Collaboration

  • Even with its many benefits, innovative framing faces resistance. Prescriptive codes don’t directly promote innovative framing, and markets are slow to adopt for many reasons.
  • The earlier in the process CMs can get in front of building designers, the greater their ability to influence the use of innovative framing techniques to design buildable structural framing. 
  • In order to get innovative framing ideas into the market effectively, you need to have your ducks in a row prior to approaching the building designer.

Seismic Design Coefficients: How they are determined for light-frame components Part 2

More on why Seismic Design Coefficients (i.e., factors) are important to engineering innovation

Top 10 Employee Training Tools: Housekeeping

Cleaning. It’s not sexy, and when a component manufacturer (CM) is cranking out trusses, it’s difficult to switch focus and make sweeping and picking up scraps a priority. However, a few simple housekeeping steps can help bolster a CM’s bottom line, and that is sexy. This article will look at some of the most common areas of the production facility where cleaning can have a big impact and explore easy steps to make it part of a CM company’s culture.

Do You Need a Swiss Army Knife?

You don’t want a Swiss Army knife when a good sharp blade is all you need, and vice versa. 

Growing Compliance

  • In the past 30 years, my commitment to safety has led to lower insurance costs, OSHA inspections without fines and repeat customers.
  • Having a safe jobsite did not happen overnight. After working in the framing industry for many years, I’ve learned some methods and practices that work better than others.
  • A safer work environment will have far-reaching effects in the industry, beyond just a healthier and safer workforce.

Training Doesn’t Stop at Your Task

  • Current and past industry leaders, with the support of SBCA, have invested thousands of hours developing standards, warning documentation, training programs and other tools to help train industry employees.
  • As a salesman or general manager, knowing what to look for on contractual documents is critical even with long-time customers.
  • ANSI/TPI 1 Chapter 2 can provide insight into market expectations, scopes of work, responsibilities and the value of your work.

Parting Shots

A few years ago, Lumber Specialties, a component manufacturer in Dyersville, IA, wanted a way to show proper bracing in a residential home. They asked Jason Gross, an intern in their design department at that time, to build an exact scale model of a roof truss system to accurately show diagonal bracing, lateral restraint, and T-bracing per BCSI.

Engineering, Knowledge & Building Relationships

  • By approaching engineering and testing through the eyes of framers, NFC can make the framing process more reliable and cost effective.
  • SBCRI is fully capable of testing any type of full-scale assembly, which can provide framing contractors great insight into the performance of the products they use on a daily basis.
  • Testing raw materials, products and structural systems will ensure that framers understand real performance and derive maximum value from the product or engineered solution.

Isolated Testing Helps Understanding of Heel Height Load Paths: Downstream Improvements Probable

  • Couple the IRC requirements with energy code requirements that are pushing more buildings to utilize a higher heel, and it is apparent the connection of high heels to walls is a key application issue.
  • The SBC Industry Testing Task Group and the TPI TAC/SBCA E&T Testing Review and Vetting Group has begun to evaluate the needs and priority of testing the performance of assemblies to quantify the effect of heel blocking. 
  • It is clear from the very specific and isolated heel height testing already performed that there is an opportunity to provide revisions to 2009 and 2012 model code blocking requirements to transfer the lateral load resulting from wind and seismic events into braced wall lines.

Manual Labor: A Short-Term Solution to Increase Production

All three of these experts agreed on the bottom line: pull out and dust off all of your owner’s manuals.

Seismic Design Coefficients: How they are determined for light-frame components

Why Seismic Design Coefficients (i.e., factors) are important to engineering innovation