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Once again, Virginia Tech will be offering its popular two-day course on topics related to wood construction. This year’s course, to be held on April 26–27, will focus on practical code-conforming design of wood structures based on provisions of the 2018 National Design...

It wasn’t very long ago, so many of us remember the Great Recession and fear we are going to see a repeat. Hopefully not. It seems regional right now, like it did early in 2007, after the job market had raged in 2006 and the good times rolled! Like in 2006, the 2022 hiring season...

If I compare the truss layout and design software used in the early 1980s to what is available today, it’s mind boggling. Actually, comparing layout software wouldn’t be possible since the first layout software at our company didn’t show up until around 1989! Up to that point,...

The start of a new quarter and a new year bring with them a cautious glimmer of optimism that the economy is finally poised to begin a slow turn-around toward a gradual recovery. To be sure, many challenges remain for households that have been weathering inflation for more than 18 months. But...

How does ripping lumber, cutting a board along its length, affect its grade or strength values? Structural lumber is graded or inspected which provides designers, through the National Design Specification® (NDS®) for Wood Construction, the strength/design values for the lumber members....

In the last article, we described the primary structural and wood-related changes in the 2021 International Residential Code, Chapters 3 and 4. This article will continue with the primary changes to Chapters 5 through 8 of the IRC. Decks For the 2018 and the 2021 IRC, an informal group...

Joe Hardy of 84 Lumber was the last of the World War II veterans to whom we owe our industry. Ed Ryan of Ryan Homes (now NVR) and Cal Jureit of Gang-Nail (now MiTek) were also major contributors. All three returned from winning that war with a drive to transform home building, and they helped...