Retired now from MiTek (but not from this magazine), it is a fitting time to thank all of you I have been honored to serve. I was fortunate to have started about the time floor trusses were being introduced, and to have seen them revolutionize apartment building. In December, I observed four levels of them framing a monstrous apartment building, something I could never have imagined when I was testing them in 1971.
I recall assembling our very first floor trusses and installing them in our crude test rack in the back of a derelict warehouse shown here. The bottom chord splices were failing and we realized that we’d have to “pre-splice” them on their 3.5” faces. We were scrambling to catch up with our larger competitor, Truswal, who had begun promoting them in a big way, even “lending” machines to interested CMs. Within a year or two, we figured out how to trick our truss program to run them, we developed a machine to build them (the Tiger Cat), and we began designing them in earnest. Little did we know what we were in for. But I found out in a hurry.
In the Summer of 1973, I was sent to investigate some issues encountered by our floor truss pioneering customer in Georgia. Initially I took notes on their Tiger Cat machine (the press head had left the track and nearly hit a worker!). Then we traveled to a two-story apartment job on Powers Ferry Road in Atlanta. The chaos there was immediately apparent – trusses butchered throughout the jobsite – several rolls of film worth. No layout in sight. Repairs that we had never contemplated. A nightmare scenario that I thought we could never engineer around. I was right. All we had done was design a product. It would take the ingenuity of component manufacturers to design systems that would ensure their integrity.
Fast forward 10 years to Texas, and I encountered the remedy head-on, courtesy of Trussway. I was quoting projects against them, having gone to work for Truss & Component Company in San Antonio. Trussway had mastered the art of floor trussing over its decade of experience, beginning in the booming Houston market. Their layouts, spreadsheets, and project coordination set the standard for the industry, and set the stage for the next decades of successful deployment.
The result – floor trusses now claim a dominant role in the midrise housing market, and so has Trussway, supplying this project and thousands more over its 50 years. A once poorly regarded product and nascent industry has weathered recessions, price hikes, and pandemics to displace the once dominant steel and concrete paradigm. What an amazing outcome, and what a great ride getting here!
Congratulations on Your Well-Earned Retirement, Joe, and Thank You for Your On-Going Contributions to The Advertiser!