Truss Tales

To hide mental decline is nearly impossible, unless you’re the boss and have guardians, who are usually family members. I witnessed this with Walter Moehlenpah, owner of MiTek’s predecessor, Hydro-Air Engineering, and I had to leave the company before it nearly collapsed, as did many...

An ingenious machine that is used in nearly every truss plant has been reborn 40 years after its introduction. It could fit in the back of a pickup truck, it sold for less than $5000, and it made an immediate impact. Yet, few would know the inventor, Donald Bowser, and know that his technology...

No one has put more people of modest means into their own homes than Mr. D.R. Horton, who passed away in May. Founding the D.R. Horton company in 1978, Mr. Horton began serving this market in the 1980s in Texas, when mortgage rates were 12%, and the company continues today in Virginia with 7%...

The tiny town of Sparta, North Carolina, turned out to honor Clint Bedsaul when he passed away in early 2021. Many among the crowd had been touched by the jobs he brought to their struggling remote community, but few knew the improbable details. And how Clint Bedsaul, the owner of a trucking...

One gentleman owned the best plant in a fast-growing town. The other worked for the best supplier in a fast-growing role. Both had what seemed to be unassailable credentials and both adapted well to changing market conditions. But only one would survive. Their tales tell a lot about survival in...

Have you asked a framer lately what floor system they prefer? I did, after seeing a crew I’ve watched use I-joists for the last couple of years now switch to floor trusses. But I wondered why they did so only on town houses. Here’s what I observed: December 12, 2023 –...

The story of how Jim Price, selling homes one-at-a-time, passed William Levitt, who sold one thousand in two days, contains a lesson for today. Although Price is not a name known to many while Levitt’s will be forever associated with his Levittowns, both pioneered production lines that...

If you’re traveling to next week’s National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) International Builders Show (IBS) in Las Vegas, you can see what can be done with trusses at The New American Home (TNAH), a “cliff-dwelling” with a distant view of the Strip. See also what...

Have you considered contributing to our monthly magazine? Are you uncertain how to start? The first step is to contact us! Because The CM Advertiser is a monthly magazine, there’s always another issue on the horizon. If you’re shooting for inclusion in a specific issue, the target...