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Mid-Life Crisis? Maybe, but not if you consider that I’ve been “remote” since 1992. Sure I’ve had offices, all home offices, but who is to say they can’t have wheels? I had a false start in 2017 when I bought the RV and truck, then headed to Naples, Florida. It was...

As a follow-up to our January 2021 All Things Wood article by Frank Woeste and Don Bender, “Hybrid Lumber” Grade Stamps Require Special Attention, we are pleased to report that additional information is now available for designers and code officials. The following article appears...

As climate patterns continue to shift, an increasing number of communities around the globe are not only experiencing extreme weather events with increased frequency, duration, and intensity, but also some are experiencing these hazards for the first time in their histories. As a first line of...

Many of the problems we hear about and actually see on jobsites, both offsite and site built, involve the poor quality of standard SPF #2. When I was the General Manager of a large lumber yard back in the 1980s, it wasn’t much better. I can still remember the yard men cutting the steel...

Build-To-Rent: Overlooked Obvious Not to be sacrilegious, but things in the lumber market are feeling apocalyptic. My primary concerns about the lumber and OSB market right now are two-fold. One, blatant disregard and unnatural comfort with prices. One of our members asked if he should...

The more I read and learn about 3D printing and its potential utilization, the more amazed I am with human ingenuity. The fact that we can create something virtually, combine it with raw materials and create anything we want from it is simply fascinating. It got me thinking about what this could...

For many, the first day of summer means it is time to cinch up your favorite hip-hugging bathing suit and enjoy the warm weather. For the truss industry, it’s time to keep those hip-hugging bathing suits in the closet and take advantage of the favorable weather months by bidding and...

“Make more eye contact,” Dick Marriott once told me after a sales call. Since then, I’ve been practicing the art. But, after Covid, people often avert their eyes when I encounter them. And their eyes are all I can see over their masks. Do they believe the virus can be...

In his article on page 39, Glenn Traylor uses an excellent Trumanesque phrase while addressing people in leadership positions — “In the truss business, the ‘puck’ stops with you.”  Of course, we all know that the phrase, “the buck stops here,” is...

The future of automation was on display at the 1988 BCMC, but few of us recognized it. Two leading truss plant owners did, however: Lenny Sylk of Shelter Systems and Dick Rotto of Trussway. Lenny’s purchase of the automated saw encouraged others to follow suit. Dick demurred on the...