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The International Code Council (ICC) reviews and updates its family of building codes on a three-year cycle. The code change proposals that will be considered this year affect the fire provisions of the building (IBC) and fire (IFC) codes, and they have been publicly posted. These changes, if...

There are three fundamental lumber market components that will likely combine to make 2018 the most volatile year for prices on record.  LABOR: ICE gave notice last week that it intends to crack down on undocumented workers in the construction industry...on the jobsites. We already...

My last article, “Standards of Performance for Smarties,” talked about writing Standards of Performance (SOP). Although an SOP uses a job description for guidance, it’s actually a performance measurement document that identifies the employee’s expected level of...

Larger beams are often built up out of smaller 2x or 1¾” members. This can be done for several different reasons: for the convenience of handling smaller members on the jobsite, or because solid 4x, 6x or glulam material is not readily available, or for reasons of cost. Engineered...

Buying a million pounds of U.S. steel for our company in Brazil taught me a good lesson on steel tariffs. While there were no apparent restrictions on imported steel, the Brazilian authorities used extraordinary means to prevent us from doing so, and we haven’t bought any since. I suspect...