Lumber Briefs: What To Do When Supply is At Odds With Demand Matt Layman Our lumber market is notorious for over and under producing its products. The relationship between supply and demand is constantly in flux. When producers make decisions to increase supply, it is in response to a relatively long term period of increased prices where there is the perception of a... Read More November 2019 Issue #11244 Page 96
Celebrating 50 Years of Truss Design Innovation, Part XIV Joe Kannapell Part XIV: Whole House Launched Pacing nervously outside the truss office, our best software “brain” was physically sick. Another failed demo could end his career. He worried because, after 6 frustrating years, our $50 Million OptiFrame program may not be ready for primetime. And... Read More September 2019 Issue #11242 Page 8
Lumber Briefs: Lumber & Housing Market Forecast Matt Layman 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... Read More September 2019 Issue #11242 Page 94
Celebrating 50 Years of Truss Design Innovation, Part XIII Joe Kannapell Part XIII: The Unfinished Whole House By purchasing Alpine, ITW/Truswal strengthened their chances of outflanking MiTek/TrusJoist in building the whole house. At the time of this acquisition in early 2006, we at MiTek had poured many millions into our efforts and had little to show for it.... Read More August 2019 Issue #11241 Page 8
Lumber Briefs: Housing’s Dilemma...No More Capacity Matt Layman More housing data is rolling in and it is not looking good...but it is 30 days old. Therefore, I am looking for 2-month trends. Existing Home Sales declined on rising prices, expanding inventory to 4.5 months...about average...not a shortage. New Home Sales increased as did prices,... Read More August 2019 Issue #11241 Page 84
Celebrating 50 Years of Truss Design Innovation, Part XII Joe Kannapell Part XII: Walls Get in the Way Just because two CEOs agree to build a computer model of a house in 3 years doesn’t mean it’s feasible. And barely a year into the agreement between TrusJoist and MiTek to merge software, we realized that we couldn’t do it. Meanwhile our... Read More July 2019 Issue #11240 Page 8
Modular Construction Makes Inroads in Multi-Family Sector Tom Hardiman 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... Read More July 2019 Issue #11240 Page 86
Celebrating 50 Years of Truss Design Innovation, Part XI Joe Kannapell Part XI: A Whole House in the New Millennium We truss designers were outfoxed by an unlikely pair of moguls who knew nothing about truss design. Gene Toombs and Tom Denig, CEOs of MiTek and TrusJoist, without our prompting, announced in 2001 that their companies would join forces to design... Read More June 2019 Issue #11239 Page 8
The Last Word: I-Joists vs. Floor Trusses Joe Kannapell The advantages of open-web floor trusses are beginning to decelerate the growth of EWP. Though I-Joist sales per housing start have increased about 6% over the last two years, the trend has slowed considerably. Some of the small gain is due to the continuation of the replacement of solid-sawn... Read More June 2019 Issue #11239 Page 113
Celebrating 50 Years of Truss Design Innovation, Part IX Joe Kannapell Part IX: Windows into Truss Design Two unstoppable waves merged to form the tsunami that swept over truss design in the 1990s. The first was the mass commercialization of the PC, accelerated by Michael Dell in the late 1980s. The second was the graphical user interface (GUI), exploited by our... Read More April 2019 Issue #11237 Page 8