Since 2010, the number of households that rent has grown from 32% to 36% with the addition of 4,000,000 new renters. Mid and high-income renters saw the biggest increase. With construction slowing down due to COVID-19 and lawmakers debating the pros and cons of rent forgiveness for those who...

This month, we’re continuing our series on better tools for wall panel design and exploring our Break/Review process. Walls are just walls until they are broken into PANELS. Similar to the way trusses are just profiles until they are designed, the same is true for walls. Beginning with...

Continuing our articles series on better tools for wall panel design, it’s time to start talking about parametric 3D. So, what is parametric 3D and what does it mean for you? According to Wikipedia, “Parametric design is a process based on algorithmic thinking that enables the...

Alpine’s STITCHER software delivers significant savings for APEX Technology’s bidding and design tasks The Product STITCHER is a unique software tool developed by Alpine to free component estimators and designers from repetitive tasks and to speed both bidding and production...

From four stories up, I realized how far wood components have come. I was atop 170,000 sq. ft. of trusses, viewing the Minneapolis Basilica, and couldn’t help thinking back 47 years to my first jobsite visit. [See PDF or View in Full Issue for photos.] Back then, floor trusses were brand...

Last month’s article launched our series on the most advanced panel design software in decades: Truebuild® Layout with panel design functionality. Written from the ground up by industry veterans and developed by the best in-house team in the industry, we listened to what you needed,...

Alpine’s STITCHER software makes a big difference for A-1 Roof Trusses providing rapid turn-around of bids—and much more The Product / The Speed STITCHER is a unique software tool developed by Alpine to free component estimators and designers from repetitive tasks and to speed...

One of the people in the modular housing industry I’ve wanted to interview since I met him a few years back is Vaughan Buckley, the owner of Volumetric Building Companies in Philadelphia. He is the rising star more people in our industry should emulate. His vision for what is and could...

Housing is Over Built; Lumber is the Honey Hole Most of the time, the daily news and world events do not have a significant impact on how we buy and sell lumber. This recent stuff is different. It’s scary. All the trade and economic balls are in the air, and politically the U.S. is...

Permanent modular buildings are considered real property, built to the same building codes and requirements as site-built structures, and can be financed, sold, and depreciated in a similar manner. As such, the markets for permanent modular construction are similar to the markets for site-built...