All Things Wood: Impact of Sustained Elevated Temperature on Wood Frank Woeste Unlike solid-sawn lumber, the mechanical properties of some materials are greatly affected by ambient temperatures and solar-radiation heating, as depicted by the photograph. However, while the engineering design properties of solid-sawn lumber are not affected by ambient temperatures, they can... Read More March 2017 Issue #10212 Page 66
Celebrating Engineers Robert Glowinski Engineers Week is February 19 – 25 February 19 – 25 is National Engineers Week. The week celebrates the impact engineers make on our daily lives and encourages young people to consider engineering as a career. For a trade association, AWC employs a lot of engineers and we see the... Read More February 2017 Issue #10211 Page 56
Snow Loading for Trusses: Why Specifying a Roof Snow Load Isn’t Enough Kelly Sias “Winning is about having the whole team on the same page.” Bill Walton You might wonder what a quote about winning basketball games could possibly have to do with snow loading on trusses. As with basketball, the importance of close teamwork also applies to a project... Read More February 2017 Issue #10211 Page 70
A Tale of Two Houses: Design Loads for Metal Plate Connected Wood Trusses Kelly Sias Take two trusses with identical profiles and environmental surroundings, and they should have the same design loads, right? Early in my career, I recall hearing a story about two identical buildings right next to each other that were designed for two different magnitudes of environmental loads.... Read More January 2017 Issue #10210 Page 72
Designing Overhangs on Gable Ends Randy Shackelford It seems that each major hurricane tends to teach those of us in the construction industry some lesson. With Hurricane Andrew, the lessons were the importance of protection from windborne debris, and the importance of proper construction of gable ends. There are two main areas where gable... Read More November 2016 Issue #09208 Page 64
Question of the Day: Code Change Proposals on Wood Trusses Stan Sias Why are we seeing all the code change proposals regarding wood trusses in the current ICC code change/update process? It is true that there were several proposals submitted pertaining to wood truss restraint and bracing and another requiring special inspection of the installed truss... Read More October 2016 Issue #09207 Page 4
How to Pick a Connector Series – Selecting Fasteners Aram Khachadourian, P.E. The parts won’t hold themselves up. They have to be fastened in place. In a previous entry in this series, Randy Shackelford, PE addressed selecting a joist hanger. This article focuses on the fasteners recommended for various wood connectors. For straps, holdowns, and other... Read More October 2016 Issue #09207 Page 68
Progressive Roof Collapse Due to CLR Shifting David Bohnhoff Overview Progressive roof collapse is a roof collapse in which the failure of a single structural component triggers a chain reaction of failures that result in a large portion of a roof collapsing onto the contents below. The shifting of continuous lateral restraint is well known as a... Read More September 2016 Issue #09206 Page 67
Question of the Day: Organizational Self-Assessment and Critical Reflection Stan Sias Can organizational self-assessment and critical reflection help my business? Following-up on last month’s article, which garnered more comments than usual, I think that we should take a bit deeper dive into metal plate connected wood truss permanent bracing from “the... Read More July 2016 Issue #09204 Page 4
Smart Guys Carl Schoening This month I wanted to stop down again and talk about some of the great individuals who have worked in this industry. It wasn’t my idea….well, not completely. After a few of the articles I penned about some of the guys that haven’t received due recognition, I started getting a... Read More July 2016 Issue #09204 Page 16