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Wood is the go-to material for builders in the U.S., where we have some of the highest construction standards in the world. Why? It’s easy to build with, strong, safe, and renewable. It’s also the right material for our planet since wood allows for a smaller carbon footprint than...

Rationing On May 23, in its most active lumber futures day ever, the market traded $68 of volatility from $15 limit down to $30 limit up and back down $15 to unchanged. Why is that? Futures suspected what we Layman’s Lumber Guide members have known since mid-May. BC mills are not...

A few days ago, I was speaking to a customer about an application using alternate fasteners for a joist hanger installation. Her questions come up often, so I thought I would dedicate a post to some of the resources available that cover the use of different nails in connectors. Designers and...

What better way to assess buying trends than to recap the lumber specified on truss designs? The following charts illustrate the material derived from 80,000 truss drawings totaling 12.8 Million Board Feet of wood. Not surprisingly, more than half the total volume is consumed by visually graded...

Occasionally, someone will ask me—do you have themed issues or an editorial calendar? To date, the answer to that question is—no. Every author is invited to speak their mind about the topic of their choosing, so our articles appear in the order in which they are submitted. With that...

Part Three:  Apartment Survival Strategies in the 1980s A few stalwarts “lived to tell” how they survived the Eighties, but none knew magic. What they did then works just as well today—expanded markets, refined quotes, and controlled costs. And in the collapsing...

Spring is here and that means we’re nearly half-way through this year’s project to compare available manufacturing equipment for our industry. Each month as I visit manufacturers’ websites, I learn something. Then, we also send a draft copy of the chart I’ve compiled...

As companies grow and change, we should ask ourselves—what are the essential pillars of support that help companies succeed? While making changes that will transform their businesses, successful companies will rely on core pillars that form the foundation of who they will be in the future....

A process that requires the inspection of each individual unit or component received from a process or manufacturer is said to be “100 percent inspected.” When fabricators initially consider a quality program, this is what they imagine is necessary. This 100% process, however, is...

Most think lack of time is their biggest barrier to achieving their goals, but they are mistaken. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This quote by Peter Drucker is one of my favorites. While providing consulting services for over one hundred companies, I have witnessed and...