With surging housing demand, 1981 was much like 2021. Yet, in the midst of overflowing residential orders, a gutsy CM decided to take a chance on a different line of business. His painful memories of housing’s boom-bust cycles, and his Harvard education, told him to diversify. Ricks Wilson, owner of Truss and Component Co., hired a PE to focus on the untapped commercial sector – and that PE was me! And Wilson’s vision was prescient. Just two years after my arrival, housing collapsed, and the repetitive commercial truss business that I delivered helped us significantly. Then as now, as residential development ebbed, commercial construction continued to grow.
In 2021, many associate the term “commercial” exclusively with large apartment jobs. They often shun such all-consuming projects to avoid tying up their plants and upsetting homebuilder clients. But with the proper engineering talent, why not attack the more manageable and more repetitive commercial structures – meaning “buildings not lived in” – that may fit into tight production schedules and may yield higher margins? In the 1980s, we built dozens of McDonald’s restaurants in Texas with long runs of trusses. I’d get a phone call saying, “Send a 34x84 store to Port Arthur, Texas,” and I’d just send the cutting to the shop. Yes, McDonald’s got fancier over the years, but several CMs are proving that the franchise business is still healthy and profitable.
Chick-Fil-A is expanding faster than McDonald’s, opening 135 locations in 2020. They’ve introduced modular construction into the Atlanta market; however, imposing designs like the one pictured are more desirable, especially if the rough frame can be erected in one week. [For all photos, See PDF or View in Full Issue.] And RedBuilt, the TrusJoist successor, has figured out how to do it, enabling them to ship these buildings 500 miles past dozens of truss plants. To accomplish this, they have had to provide a complete package, including components that others eschewed, such as 20-foot-tall wall panels. These panels may weigh over 500 lbs and require an overhead crane to handle. However, when compared to residential construction, these panels have very few window or door openings. And there are no sloping (rake) panels. Yet, since this building is in a commercial strip shopping center, some walls need to be non-combustible. This necessitates panels with DensGlas on steel studs being adjacent to Zip Board on wood studs (see photos). Most CMs would probably decline to quote such a structure.
In addition, the intricate design of the walls requires considerable attention to detail. The enlarged view shows extensive blocking, made more difficult by doubled or tripled studs. [For all photos, See PDF or View in Full Issue.] This is clearly not conducive to fabrication on conventional wall framing tables. Fortunately, Panels Plus has developed a tall-wall table, with walk-throughs to facilitate blocking, capable of framing 30’ tall walls.
The result is a well-engineered structure with minimal materials. Note the use of solid joists where adequate, and stud-packs which combine solid sawn 2x6’s with LVL studs. Blocking consists of ripped LVL scraps lettered to designate stud spacing.
This type of franchised structure has been a specialty of several CMs and has enabled them to level out residential truss production cycles. However, the amount of design detail is not to be underestimated and may not be addressed in the plan documents. Clearly, commercial work is not for the uninitiated, but may be developed into a more enduring counter-cyclical business.