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Decay, or wood rot, requires three conditions to be present: liquid water, oxygen, and a favorable temperature (generally between 35 and 100 degrees F). Of the three, the only factor that can be managed by building design is liquid water. Hence, overhangs of sufficient width are critical to...

What do a chicken house, a water treatment plant and a raised wood floor system all have in common? Very likely, they all involve preservative-treated lumber. They’re also all examples of common environments in which preservative-treated, metal-plate-connected (MPC) wood trusses may be...

The new Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s electronic recordkeeping rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illness became effective on January 1, 2017. The rule includes provisions to protect those who report injuries or illnesses from retaliation by their...

In early December, ICC posted the preliminary results of the Group B Online Governmental Consensus Vote, which included structural changes to the IBC, IEBC and IRC. ICC reports that there were more than 162,000 votes cast by eligible Voting Members during the three-week online voting...

My best advice is to always deal directly with hotels and airlines, and avoid buying from “middlemen” like Priceline. They don’t save you money anymore according to the New York Times’ Frugal Traveler (see April 18 article by Lucas Peterson). Perhaps they did before these...

Life is unpredictable. I know you’ve heard that before, but it bears repeating…and repeating. As we grow older, we think we know stuff. That’s natural. It started when we were children – every time we learned something, we knew we were a little smarter and, by the same...

The path of factory innovation is leading us to automated systems rather than true robotics. Though industrial robotics has been used for 30 years in our industry, it has served mainly as a forerunner to later systems. Its earliest commercialization, the robotic arms of the Koskovich component...

With the resurgence of new home construction we have seen unprecedented interest and growth in our outdoor equipment division.  There are certainly many ways to accomplish the conveying, stacking and banding of the truss package. Numerous truss plants continue to stack trusses manually,...

Well, I just returned from the SBCA Open Quarterly Meeting in Las Vegas. It was almost historical. This was the first time that I can remember the OQM being in Las Vegas. It seems a place that has a way of drawing greater attendance for any event and this was true for the OQM. A great time...

The call for more designers, salespeople and just about every other admin personnel is getting louder by the day. There are not enough hours in the week to meet sales demands. What if you could provide your team with tools that would give them more time? This way, you could save money by having...