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why accurate design values are so vital to structural design.
Introduction: Why the Interior Finish Installation Is Important
I’m honored to serve as SBCA’s new executive director.
Builders Warehouse Manufacturing • Aurora, Colorado
Since I started in this industry a year ago, I have realized there are three major issues that the construction industry is facing: lack of skilled labor, lack of time, and lack of money. Fortunately, components manufacturers (CMs) provide a solution to all three.
I got into the industry by starting out in retail lumber with Wickes. They had a yard near my house and in high school I cleaned the facility and stocked the shelves.
SBCA’s partnership with Tim helps educate his followers on the benefits of structural components.
JL Schwieters was started in 1980 by my dad, John Schwieters, and his brother, Leo, as a framing labor business.
- When the IRC provides a solution that cannot be supported by testing of real buildings in a code-compliant application of braced walls, more accurate and technically correct engineered solutions will never be able to compete.
- There is some resistance in the market to establishing standard factors for product equivalency or system performance because it may result in non-wood products graining an advantage over traditional OSB market share.
- A top testing priority for SBCA is “Framing the American Dream III,” which seeks to test a typical stick framed roof and compare its performance to an identical engineered truss roof.
In May of 2018, Door Creek Church broke ground on their new DeForest Campus just minutes north of Madison, Wisconsin. The church was given ten acres by a local developer in what amounts to a suburb of Madison on the edge of urban reach mixed with strong agricultural ties. Originally, a metal building was designed for the church but costs redirected the church’s architect to wood frame construction.
- A quarter of a million people left the housing construction industry from 2002-2012, and many of them have found employment elsewhere.
- Framers are feeling the effects of this exodus more acutely than most, prompting them to look for creative ways to do more with fewer people.
- CMs can play a pivotal role in switching framers from sticks to components by offering installation training and expertise to new framing employees.
A decade after it began operation, SBCRI is making a new push for industry-directed testing to benefit all component manufacturers.
- Combining fiber reinforcement with finger jointed lumber could be a win for both the lumber and component industries.
- With in-line framing, CMs can remove studs and plate material, and spread the stud spacing out to 24", which, in some cases, allows for better insulation methods.
- The key to new product development is generating sales revenue immediately by establishing design values and engineering reports that give assurance of the product’s equivalent code-compliant performance.
Having a voice and a united group of CMs to drive the industry forward is one of the primary reasons for belonging to our trade association.
- Everyone buying raw materials for structural components or conventional framing applications is purchasing design values and related properties for use in engineering equations to resist loads for a given load path.
- It is not well known that lumber design values are global in nature and not specific to the piece of lumber being used.
- Design values written into the building code become the law, whether they are scientifically correct or not.
- If the law is treated forthrightly as written, professional engineers have great value in the market.
Meet Joseph Maez at Katerra in Phoenix, Arizona.
Most of the conversations I’ve had with component manufacturers (CMs) about increasing production efficiency inevitably focus on one thing: bottlenecks.
Trusses are engineered components that will perform as intended if installed correctly. However, those who are installing trusses are not always adept in deciphering truss layout drawings.
SBCA’s Jobsite Package is likely the most economical risk management tool a component manufacturer (CM) can deploy.
Meet SBCA board member Gene Frogale, President of Annandale Millwork and Allied Systems in Chantilly, Virginia.
Erickson staff, including CEO Rich Gallagher (left) and COO Reed Graham (back row, right of center)
Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve (center), Reno High teacher Karl Kuhles (right) and his students in the STEM-based Project Lead the Way program, cut the ribbon to open the High Desert Truss and Lumber plant.
Designers are under tight deadlines; they are constantly being pulled from one project to another, and are routinely being asked to make changes to a project. All of this can create an environment that burns them out and pushes them out the door.
One of the most significant benefits of SBC Magazine’s new online polling approach is it gives component manufacturers (CMs) a glimpse into how their business model and/or local market compares to the industry as a whole.
A CM, a framer, and a supplier collaborate to significantly innovate shear walls.
Given that our industry is in the component design and engineering business, which is closely related to the building design business, accurate and reliable engineering is central to every CM’s future success.
Apparently, the secret to surviving 50 years in the truss business is to begin by selling lumber, and then working your way into it. Heart Truss & Engineering in Lansing, MI, and Littfin Lumber (Truss) Company in Winsted, MN, are both celebrating half a century of success this year, and they share some common characteristics: one, they both hail from Midwestern states; two, their founders all started by selling lumber and building materials; and three, they all resisted the urge to expand beyond their means.
$270 million project required 9,250 floor trusses, 1,580 roof trusses, and zero call backs
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Joe Hikel’s main focus for this year was to establish better connections with the supply chain. The foundation has been set.
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Collaborative work on the lumber design value issue and forging relationships at all levels of the supply chain goes a long way toward helping the industry survive today and thrive in the future.
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Hikel’s personal return on investment on time working within SBCA has been invaluable, both in business opportunities and the personal reward from the relationships formed.