Several of the three-minute videos in this library are separated into two audience categories: “builder customer” and “framer customer.” The code required to embed the video on your company’s website is provided with each video below. Review the Toolbox Guidance Documents to explore how these videos can be used to promote specific products or your overall marketing campaign in conjunction with other CM Toolbox materials.
- The Occupancy Category designates the nature of occupancy for a building, which affects the required design loads for the structure.
- There is a direct relationship between the Occupancy Category and the Importance Factor—a low category will result in lower loads and a high category will call for an increase in loads
It’s the end of an era for the structural building components industry. Richard Brown, former President of Truss Systems (Oxford, GA), retired May 31. The industry sends its best wishes to a “true Southern gentleman.”
Xoom. Galaxy. Slate. Iconia. iPad. Unless you’re a technology enthusiast, it’s likely you wouldn’t recognize the products these names refer to (except for perhaps the last one). They are all the latest and greatest tablet computers produced by the computing industry, and they offer a very simple, yet seductive advantage to the business community: mobility. For you, mobility translates into easier sales, quicker response times, more effective repairs, better marketing, streamlined manufacturing processes and, most importantly, more efficient communication and collaboration.
This year’s BCMC Build project will build not one but two single-family homes with help from partners Habitat for Humanity and Eli Lilly. Just one block apart, the two-story Taft home and the one-story Harrison home (see graphics at below) will be framed by BCMC Build volunteers within a two-day timeframe, showcasing the benefits of component construction.
Remember back, if you can, to the last time this country’s housing market’s sluggishness resembled what we’re experiencing today. From 1988-1992, the U.S. experienced an economic recession. It wasn’t nearly as profound or prolonged as our current situation, but nonetheless many of you probably remember (or have been told) how bad the housing market was. Housing starts experienced a 45 percent drop over that timespan. When housing recovered swiftly from 1992 through 1994, lumber prices skyrocketed.
- Determining production cycle time, the amount of time required to process an order from start to finish, is key to meeting customer needs.
- The old paradigm suggested that similar jobs be manufactured at the same time; the new paradigm focuses on meeting customer needs with a “just in time” mentality as efficiently as possible.
- Is an urgent request viewed as a pain-in-the-neck rush job or an opportunity to exceed expectations and have a customer for life?
What kind of energy bill might an owner receive the first year in a LEED Platinum home? Try a $50 surplus!
Dear SBC,
This recession has lasted so long, we may have forgotten how we used to build houses, and that may be a good thing. Experience could be our worst enemy.
In stand-up comedy, timing is everything. Bringing an issue before Congress works much the same way. If you present your stance on an issue too early, lawmakers and their legislative assistants will look at you with confusion evident on their faces. If you present your views on an issue after they’ve already addressed it, you fail to engage them in a meaningful conversation. However, if you present a problem just as they are beginning to hear it from other sources as well, you can hook them just the way a good one-liner can.
- Lack of available credit for building projects is a major barrier to the homebuilding industry’s recovery.
- Congress is considering a measure to address this barrier in the Home Construction Lending Regulatory Improvement Act of 2011 (H.R. 1755).
- SBCA Legislative Conference attendees had the good fortune of being on Capitol Hill the same day the bill was being introduced.
- The strength axis of a structural panel is the direction parallel to the grain of the wood fiber in the face and back surfaces of the panel.
- The strength axis is usually the long dimension of the panel.
- The IBC provides two tables with the allowable spans and loads (psf) for wood structural panel sheathing installed continuous over two or more spans with their strength axis perpendicular and parallel to the supports.
As of June 16, OSHA intends to begin enforcing residential fall protection guidelines first put in place in 1994. The change comes from a 2010 decision to lift a set of interim guidelines OSHA imposed in December 1995.
- Plywood and OSB design values are given; those that are doing repairs in your office should have a good feel for the similarities and differences.
- Plywood and OSB generally have similar design properties with a key exception of fastener strength where plywood will require more fasteners to be used.
- If a truss repair specifies only OSB, plywood should not be substituted without written permission from the registered design professional who prepared the truss repair design drawing.
So much has changed in just a few short years for component manufacturers supplying single and multi-family residential construction projects. It’s no surprise that the legal landscape we face while operating our businesses in this volatile market has changed as well. As you refocus to take advantage of opportunities as the housing market recovers, I encourage you to consider these legal trends.
We received a lot of positive feedback from readers about an article in the April issue regarding a component manufacturer’s product defect negligence lawsuit. While this is not the industry’s first escape from a negligence or breach of warranty finding as a result of proper risk management procedures, it’s a very timely lesson for us. As SBCA Legal Counsel Kent Pagel explains in Important Legal Trends for 2011, the building industry is in another litigious cycle. Many of you pointed to the moral of the story: That the value of providing SBCA Jobsite Packages with all component orders cannot be overstated.
