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• 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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

• We need to focus on our younger employees now and groom them to become the next generation of leaders in our companies and in our industry.
• Just like raising kids, building leaders is accomplished through a million small conversations, learning moments, completed tasks and informal evaluations with feedback.
• There has to be a commitment on your part to ensure the employees you mentor learn everything they can about their jobs and the business.

When designed and installed correctly, components can greatly reduce the time and materials required to frame a structure. 

By creating national standards, based on field-tested best practices, the National Framers Council (NFC) will not only help improve the safety of each worker on the jobsite, it will aid in reducing ambiguity in everything from OSHA jobsite inspections to residential fall protection. 

• Use of galvanized box nails may result in shear walls with a shear capacity significantly below the nominal unit shear capacities given in SDPWS.
• Thus, the majority of WSP shear walls have a shear capacity with a high degree of design value variability. This may have unintended consequences that are unknown and unappreciated by the professional engineering and/or building design community.
• Once SBCA and SBCRI were certain their testing and engineering analysis was consistent and repeatable, they were persistent in bringing all WSP shear wall performance issues to the attention of APA, AWC, ICC-ES and ICC.  

Last summer, Superstorm Sandy caused an estimated $65 billion worth of damage in the U.S., a total surpassed only by Hurricane Katrina in American history. Sandy was the largest hurricane on record to hit the Atlantic Coast, at over 1,100 miles in diameter. So while it hit the New Jersey shores the hardest, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, its disastrous effects were felt as far inland as Wisconsin and Michigan.

While the chaos and destruction wrought by this powerful natural force is sobering, it’s hard not to simultaneously focus on the positive stories that came out of such events. One such story is that of Cussewago Truss LLC in Cambridge Springs, PA. It’s a tale of the marvels of wood, the value of engineering and the fruits of a well-executed plan.

Design efficiency is critical, but it can’t overshadow design quality.

• If you frequently or generally need to provide other instruction/training or everyday communication in Spanish, OSHA says you also need to provide your safety training in Spanish.
• Several of SBCA’s component manufacturing, industry-specific programs are available in English and Spanish.