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How ready are you for the uptick in business once the pandemic is behind us? In a recent survey of the National Association for Business Economics, 73% of their members said that the U.S. Economy will return to pre-pandemic levels by the 2nd half of 2021. Members include 48 professional...

Lumber properties are influenced by species and growing region. Species with similar design properties are combined into species groups, as shown in Tables 4A, 4B, and 4F of the NDS Supplement[1]. For example, a common species group in the southeastern U.S. is Southern Pine (SP), which includes...

Recruiting production managers is a huge challenge. It’s not that jobs are unavailable, as we usually have several Production Manager openings at TheJobLine.com. It’s finding qualified and willing candidates. Most often, it’s a problem when the move is lateral.  Most...

The Off-Site construction industry is having a great year despite COVID-19. Most builders and developers are too busy working with new buyers, planning projects, and doing all the “in your face” work that needs to be done right now to worry much about next month, let alone next...

America’s Achilles Heel I want to drift off topic for a bit. Last week we were advised that the U.S. was under a massive cyber attack. As of today, Sunday December 20, the attack is on-going, there is no determination of who is responsible, how deep the attack has penetrated, how to...

The signal-to-noise ratio measures the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. It’s commonly used in science and engineering applications but, of course, it has as much application in our professional and personal worlds, metaphorically speaking anyway. When someone...

Learning from our current landscape and the stress the pandemic has forced on our infrastructure, it has become abundantly clear that society must put a greater emphasis on the task of strengthening our buildings, both residential and commercial, to create safe and structurally strong...

Specifying products into building designs is a daily process for engineers, architects and drafters. Simpson Strong-Tie understands that the specification process can be daunting and complex. And when it comes to the multiple steps involved in importing CAD content into your designs, we want to...

Retired now from MiTek (but not from this magazine), it is a fitting time to thank all of you I have been honored to serve. I was fortunate to have started about the time floor trusses were being introduced, and to have seen them revolutionize apartment building. In December, I observed four...