Library

Fire retardant lumber, also called FRTW, is used when a project has a requirement to reduce the structures’ ability to burn and to reduce the structures’ contribution to the spread of fire. Most fire retardant materials also reduce the development of smoke and the release of...

Do you think your plant is too small to be able to capture additional efficiencies? Or, maybe you’re satisfied with the growth your plant has experienced and you think you’ve attained an effective production system. Whether your plant is small, large, or somewhere in between, you can...

If you are considering financing equipment at this juncture, you may be concerned about where interest rates are headed. You may be wondering if perhaps it might be better to wait until rates drop before you take that step to finance. Darrell R. Spence, an economist with 31 years of...

As North America’s largest lumber manufacturer, West Fraser supplies the truss market with mechanically graded lumber, dimension lumber, and premium products such as Prime, Select Structural, and HiLine. Founded nearly seven decades ago West Fraser began operations in 1955 when...

You have to go back to the Great Recession 15 years ago to find as many LBM dealers reporting sales declines as we had in 2023. But the reasons are far different, and so are the consequences. Three-quarters of the companies constituting the 2024 Construction Supply 150 reported revenue drops...

Building safety includes a wide range of best practices, including implementing fire suppression systems, conducting regular inspections on existing buildings, providing clear access to emergency exits, employing sustainable water and energy usage, and more. By understanding and adhering to...

As a manufacturing manager, you understand the importance of having a skilled and efficient design team. If you’ve encountered our Truss Design Skills Evaluation, you know its thoroughness in assessing truss designers. This evaluation measures skills and experience across nine key areas...

In the busy world of prefabricated components, there are three conflicting metrics that owners and managers look at to determine operational performance – board feet of lumber, sales dollars, and margin dollars. I’ll start with what I believe is likely the most common but also the...

Imagine a looming deadline, a complicated 2D, multi-family floor plan. It will take days to get accurate measurements, manually. STITCHER® streamlines the process by capturing walls, openings, and intricate details with precision, transforming a 2D architectural drawing into a 3D model in a...

As the “Green” movement progresses and energy prices go increasingly higher, more and more homeowners and commercial developers are looking to utilize photovoltaic panels (solar panels) to help get them “off the grid.” It may seem that designing for solar panels is as...