When I Cut My Lumber, Do I Affect the Lumber Grade? Glenn Traylor As a general rule, when you cut lumber to length, the lumber grade is unchanged. In those cases, care should be taken to transfer that grade verification along with the cut lumber. This can be done with a lumber crayon, segregation, tagging, or many other suitable ways. Ripping lumber,... Read More April 2017 Issue #10213 Page 30
All Things Wood: A “Truss Frame” Safe Room for Protecting Your Family? Frank Woeste Being that it is early spring, it may be a good time to think about taking steps to protect your family in the event of a tornado. The 4th Edition of FEMA P-320, introduced below, contains a “treasure” of design information for constructing a residential safe room, either in the home... Read More April 2017 Issue #10213 Page 67
Mass Timber Construction – Building for the Future Fred Tai The future is here. It is common knowledge that wood is a renewable and environmentally friendly building material. There are two types of wood-framing methods in North America. The most common method for residential construction is light-frame construction using either balloon-framing or... Read More April 2017 Issue #10213 Page 76
Vivian Hollinshed, R.I.P. Joe Kannapell Not one of the fathers of our industry did more design work than Vivian Hollinshed. Over his 55 active years, on the small drafting board behind his desk, this magnificent man named Vivian crafted countless fine homes and innovative commercial buildings. All the while pioneering trusses in a... Read More April 2017 Issue #10213 Page 80
A Tribute to Caring Joe Kannapell “If I didn’t care for him so much, I’d let him go,” said the late Vivian Hollinshed about an aspiring young designer, Chuck Rogers. Chuck knew nothing about trusses when he came to Vivian’s company, Comtech in Fayetteville, NC. And now, nearly 20 years later, thanks... Read More April 2017 Issue #10213 Page 85
Coming Together with Custom Designs James Clinich When I got the plan for the Edwards Residence, a two story home in Midland, Texas, the Architect had already worked with a Structural Engineer to come up with a framing plan. I worked closely with Siboney Diaz-Sanchez with Overland Partners Architects to be sure that our truss designs would meet... Read More March 2017 Issue #10212 Page 34
All Things Wood: Impact of Sustained Elevated Temperature on Wood Frank Woeste Unlike solid-sawn lumber, the mechanical properties of some materials are greatly affected by ambient temperatures and solar-radiation heating, as depicted by the photograph. However, while the engineering design properties of solid-sawn lumber are not affected by ambient temperatures, they can... Read More March 2017 Issue #10212 Page 66
Off–site Designing and Sales: The Three Biggest Obstacles Todd Drummond What once was frowned upon has now become very common. Off-site designing and off-site sales individuals or teams can be a very good way to expand your company’s capabilities. The biggest driver of its emerging acceptability is the fact that the pool of talent is larger when looking... Read More February 2017 Issue #10211 Page 24
Snow Loading for Trusses: Why Specifying a Roof Snow Load Isn’t Enough Kelly Sias “Winning is about having the whole team on the same page.” Bill Walton You might wonder what a quote about winning basketball games could possibly have to do with snow loading on trusses. As with basketball, the importance of close teamwork also applies to a project... Read More February 2017 Issue #10211 Page 70
Is This an Allowable Repair? Glenn Traylor There is nothing worse than running a truss out the door and then realizing one of the truss members is broken. The question is – can I make a quick fix using a connector plate? The short answer is – no. But there are many who may not realize that specific engineering is required for... Read More January 2017 Issue #10210 Page 28