Wall panels gradually insinuated themselves into the minds of homebuilders throughout the 1930s, helped greatly by government actions. As these builders were unable to sell their custom models during the Great Depression, a few of them experimented with lower-cost construction methods. The...

For most of the 20th century, engineers did not study nor would they normally specify wood trusses. Wood was thought to be suitable only for houses and barns, so steel was the material of choice – except when there wasn’t enough steel. That was the situation the Army Corps of...

Coming home from World War I to a severe shortage of housing, 4 million American men had little hope of achieving the American Dream of homeownership. In fact, that optimistic characterization hadn’t yet entered the American lexicon. Most new families were stuck in rental housing, or in...

Remote workers and road warriors should take a lesson from a master of both, autodidact Michael T. McMahon. Early in his 45-year career, while working in the Indian Country of North Dakota, he was inspired by another master, Chief Crazy Horse. “Hoka Hey” was his war cry at Little Big...

The houses built by component plants in 2025 will owe much of their technology to the houses built by Sears, Roebuck & Company’s plants in 1925. Essential to this effort are the people that produce cutting lists for floors, roofs, and walls. In days of old, they had to do it by hand....

House of Design, which ignited the component industry enthusiasm for robotics, has tragically gone out of business, but not all is lost. We have learned that robots can pick plates very effectively among other benefits, but we also learned that fact 15 years ago from Jim Urmson’s TCT...

An industry stalwart has retired, and his journey is worth some reflection. Even though he didn’t want to, Norm McKenna learned component design. Then, he combined it with something he really wanted to do and parlayed that combination into a 46-year career. But, as with most other building...

When Dave Chambers called me his partner in front of a customer 35 years ago, it gave me a feeling of empowerment I still remember to this day. Since then, I don’t recall many other owners extending the same courtesy to their non-owner employees. But, I believe that this concept of a...

On Labor Day this year, I reflected on two component industry greats who escaped the drudgery of mill work that entrapped their fathers and created highly successful component businesses. Both were drawn to the nearest meccas of prosperity, Calvin Hall to Charlotte, North Carolina and David...

That our industry has come of age was illustrated by the carful of its members that I drove to Camden Yards on August 13. We fans of the Washington Nationals ventured into the opposition Baltimore Orioles’ territory, bound for our SBCA Chapter’s annual ballgame meeting. With me was...