Market Summary This is an FDP reversal week as well as a 3-week interval. This three week interval is the third consecutive one making this rally now nine weeks old. Historically, "extended" trends last nine weeks. This one has certainly given buyers ample time and opportunity to...

Gadgets. Upgrades. Fads. Some people love to get the next new thing as soon as they can, some people wait to see if it’s a lasting improvement or a passing craze. Me? I’m the kind of person who waits. I didn’t buy Laser Discs when they were hot, nor did I think SuperBeta was...

Many lumberyards still do not have their own wood truss and wall panel manufacturing as part of their offerings to their contractors but are contemplating whether this might be a good investment. There are pros and cons to this type of big investment; if you have been doing any research, you...

For the wood truss industry, the single most important component in a component plant is LUMBER. Nothing is as price volatile. Nothing else takes up more physical space. Nothing else requires more constant cash or credit line. Nothing impacts the physical appearance and structural integrity of...

From worst-case scenarios to less obvious examples, do you have general guidelines that will help you make informed decisions? For example, when faced with lumber defects on the table, do you know how the builders in your plant will proceed? More importantly, are they being supplied with the...

Snow, ice and cold sent contractors on eastern U.S. job sites running for cover the end of last week. That is not the case country wide, however it is a possibility in 80% of the continental U.S. now through the end of February. One can only ponder, in the depths of winter, how could our...

The phone rang this morning and the caller said that “they had a real quick question.” They went on to ask if “standard truss plates could be used with pressure treated lumber?” Hmmmm…the questions that some questions prompt. It sort of reminds me of the...

A couple of weeks ago Thom McAnally, publisher of Component Advertiser, asked if I would write a summary of how following Layman's Lumber Guide Forecasts helped/ or could have helped you in 2015. My first inclination was to create the graph below to determine that 37 of 52 weeks, our lumber...

Evaluation November was a funky weather month. The east fielded above average rainfall, the western mountains got some snow, even though most temperatures were above average over the entire nation. There are pockets of pent up demand, like northern TX and Oklahoma, although on the whole,...