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If you live in a wood frame home it was made with “wall panels”. No way? Way; because every wood frame home is built with “wall panels”. That’s right - wall panels have been used on every wood frame home since the onset of dimensional lumber and the invention of...

When folks hear the term audit, they generally think of an IRS audit. Not a pleasant thought. The term invokes an image of hot lights, endless questions, pouring over boxes of records, all in the attempt to find wrong doing on the part of the tax payer. When you consider a quality assurance...

The green building movement is inspiring an exciting new trend: reclaimed wood. Not only does using reclaimed wood help reduce the environmental impact of buildings and take discarded wood out of solid waste streams, but there is also a large opportunity being missed with the amount of...

Everyone wants to avoid trouble. We don’t want things to break down, and we don’t want to lose time and money. But sometimes, it’s the actions you can take before something goes wrong that will help you the most. That’s why a preventative maintenance program is important...

For the wood truss industry, the single most important component in a component plant is LUMBER. Nothing is as price volatile. Nothing else takes up more physical space. Nothing else requires more constant cash or credit line. Nothing impacts the physical appearance and structural integrity of...

Now is the time for you to prepare to move up in management.  Over the last 20 years, dozens of plants formerly run by “hands-on” owners are now run by managers.   During the recent recession, many management candidates left our business.  And in the next 10...

If you are anything like me, you were delighted with the new format and content of the January issue. Congratulations to Anna and Thom on producing a first rate resource periodical. I was delighted to see new articles by Carl Schoening at Eagle Metal Products, Sean Hubbard at Square 1 Design and...

In January, I had the privilege of once again attending SBCA Chapter meetings. Having participated in meetings for many years as WTCA/SBCA staff, it was funny to think I was now calling in as an SBCA member. In the past, I spent 13 years working to support members, and now I was a member too!...

Our industry is made up of an assortment of players from small family owned framing crews, to medium sized family corporations and even publicly traded corporations. Each and every corporation has their place in our industry. Diverse entities bring a specialty that is advantageous to their...

So, here I sit with plenty of work that needs to be done. I began thinking of when I first started in the industry, then becoming involved in the national association, then becoming the western distributor of involved. The one constant in all of that “doing” was that as a group we...