AWC Joins Second Year of Timber-Strong Design Build Competition Robert Glowinski Eighteen teams from colleges throughout the Southwest United States and Hawaii gained hands-on experience in wood design and construction during the second annual Timber-Strong Design Build competition. AWC joined APA–The Engineered Wood Products Association (APA) and Simpson Strong-Tie... Read More June 2019 Issue #11239 Page 82
Questions Answered: Strong-Wall® Site-Built Portal Frame System Simpson Strong-Tie Staff In this article, we follow up on our April 17 webinar, Meeting Braced-Wall Requirements: A New Portal Frame Solution, by answering some of the interesting questions raised by attendees. During the webinar, we discussed how the Strong-Wall site-built portal frame system (PFS) provides... Read More June 2019 Issue #11239 Page 98
The Last Word: I-Joists vs. Floor Trusses Joe Kannapell The advantages of open-web floor trusses are beginning to decelerate the growth of EWP. Though I-Joist sales per housing start have increased about 6% over the last two years, the trend has slowed considerably. Some of the small gain is due to the continuation of the replacement of solid-sawn... Read More June 2019 Issue #11239 Page 113
Celebrating 50 Years of Truss Design Innovation, Part X Joe Kannapell Part X: Windows Works Its Magic When David McQuinn recommended Windows to MiTek’s management in 1990, few expected that Microsoft could compete with the two giants of the computer industry: Hewlett Packard and IBM. HP was the dominant provider of engineering computers. For a decade, its... Read More May 2019 Issue #11238 Page 8
AWC Celebrates Building Safety Month Robert Glowinski With environmental sustainability becoming the focal point of national discourse, and extreme weather intensifying and occurring more frequently, our buildings need to be sustainable and resilient to mitigate damage to both the built environment and surrounding ecosystem. Researchers are... Read More May 2019 Issue #11238 Page 76
Building Connections: Getting Social with Simpson Strong-Tie Simpson Strong-Tie Staff Simpson Strong-Tie was built on the idea of making strong connections. That concept extends beyond our structural innovations for raising or supporting strong, resilient buildings and communities. We use social media and our two company blogs to have conversations, not only about our products... Read More May 2019 Issue #11238 Page 90
Celebrating 50 Years of Truss Design Innovation, Part IX Joe Kannapell Part IX: Windows into Truss Design Two unstoppable waves merged to form the tsunami that swept over truss design in the 1990s. The first was the mass commercialization of the PC, accelerated by Michael Dell in the late 1980s. The second was the graphical user interface (GUI), exploited by our... Read More April 2019 Issue #11237 Page 8
Steps to Minimize Snow Load Failures Mike Momb Early every year, the National Frame Building Association (NFBA) holds its annual Frame Building Expo—where thousands of post-frame builders, design professionals, and vendors meet for three days filled with break-out sessions, guest presenters, and, of course, a trade show. In... Read More April 2019 Issue #11237 Page 44
All Things Wood: IBC Balcony Changes Spur “Best Practice” Design Recommendations Frank Woeste Because of their limited structural redundancy and exposure to weather, cantilevered balconies require special attention by design professionals, contractors, permitting and inspection departments, and owners in-service. As shown in the photos, modern wood-framed, multi-family projects often... Read More April 2019 Issue #11237 Page 60
Choosing Resiliency: Lessons from Hurricane Michael Doug Allen Doug Allen, P.E., a structural engineer with Simpson Strong-Tie, looks at the choice homeowners in disaster-prone areas face between simply building to code and building to standards of resilience or IBHS FORTIFIED Home™ standards instead. Resilience, or resiliency: The capacity to... Read More April 2019 Issue #11237 Page 90