Although last month’s article in this series, “Home Building Technology, Part V: Early Truss Connection Innovators,” brought our story up to the post-war time period, we would be remiss without acknowledging the original truss manufacturers in greater detail. A small group of...

Nearly 20 years after the Tibbetts family sold Cox Lumber to Home Depot, a crowd of onlookers gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of Tibbetts Lumber’s soon-to-be largest truss plant, which will be located in Zephyrhills, Florida. This event demonstrated the on-going confidence of...

Three midcentury forces converged to form the truss business we know today. First came the deluge of demand for affordable housing after World War II. Then came the prefabbers who addressed that need with trusses. And finally came the connector that made trusses into a blockbuster...

In 1990, when Dickie Vail traveled from his shuttered Virginia plant to his job interview in Burlington, NC, he didn’t have much going for him. He was 35 and broke, and he was meeting Carroll Shoffner, a 57-year-old mega-millionaire who owned over a dozen highly efficient truss plants....

George “Sid” Ketchum, cofounder of the Wood Truss Council of America (WTCA), and an exceptionally generous man, passed away peacefully on November 11, 2024. Sid had a long and distinguished career in the truss business, beginning in 1973 when he took over PDJ Components, a...

During the challenging 1980s, gutsy cousins Larry Rogers and Dickie Vail tackled truss plant ownership. Larry put his savings on the line in 1981 and with an SBA loan began Rogers Manufacturing Co. (RMC), not far from where he had worked in northeast Louisiana. Dickie relied mostly on backing...

One of the strangest twists of fate in the truss business was initiated by Larry Rogers, and fortunately it boosted his career and that of his replacement, Dickie Vail. Out of this occurrence, both men launched successful startup companies. However, there was also a flood and more than one...

Some surprises are in store at the BCMC Show this year, especially the stunning news that the biggest robotics maker won’t be there and won’t be showing up anywhere. But, the demise of House of Design (HoD) wasn’t because of their equipment, which worked serviceably (for more...

As automation and robotics are increasingly embraced, it makes sense to review examples of successful implementations from the pioneers of past systems. Interestingly, the first successful fully automated component assembly in the U.S. involved wall panels rather than trusses. However, in many...

What if the future of truss design isn’t just about developing better tools, but redefining the entire process from the ground up? On August 15, we publicly announced Paragon — a product that will change the way trusses are designed and built. A product that took years of...