Parting Shots

Parting Shots

Usually, a picture is worth a thousand words, except when it is worth a million “ooohs” and “aaahs.” 

Parting Shots

The theme for BCMC 2015 is Building Innovation, Framing Success. This year we are going to take a look back at the last 35 years of the BCMC show and highlight the ways it has enhanced the structural components industry’s ability to foster innovation throughout light-frame building construction. To do this right, we need your help.

Parting Shots

At 3,426 square feet, the 2014 BCMC Build project was the most ambitious house built over the weekend prior to the BCMC show. With the help of several volunteers, including a professional framing crew supplied by US Framing, the house went from a bare slab to a fully framed and sheathed building in just four days! 

Parting Shots

L-R: Joe Hikel, Scott Ward and Carl Schoening.

At this year’s SBCA Annual meeting, held in conjunction with BCMC in Charlotte, NC, the industry’s annual awards were announced:

Parting Shots

It is an understatement to say a lot has happened over the past decade in our industry. In 2004, we were Revvin’ Up the Components Industry with a little over 1.9 million housing starts (see above right). Little did anyone know, the housing market would top out at 2.1 million housing starts the very next year. When BCMC returned to Charlotte in 2010 (see above left), housing starts had spent their second year under an unimaginably low total of 600,000. This year, we return to Charlotte, Standing Strong and Gearing Up for Growth, experiencing our first year over one million starts since 2007. Will we see you in our photos of BCMC 2014?

Parting Shots

Two years have passed since we covered Integra Steel Truss (“Men of Steel,” August 2012). At that time, they were just starting out, leasing a portion of a warehouse to produce their first big job with a handful of part-time employees. Today, they lease the entirety of that original warehouse, have opened a second facility, grew their workforce to over 20 full-time employees and expanded their workload tenfold.

Parting Shots

Parting Shots

A few years ago, Lumber Specialties, a component manufacturer in Dyersville, IA, wanted a way to show proper bracing in a residential home. They asked Jason Gross, an intern in their design department at that time, to build an exact scale model of a roof truss system to accurately show diagonal bracing, lateral restraint, and T-bracing per BCSI.

Parting Shots

On October 7, 2013, the Truss Manufacturers of Texas (TMAT) hosted a golf tournament at the Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio to raise money for Operation Finally Home and BCMC Build, who constructed a home for Pfc. Cody Nusbaum. This charity event raised $10,000 for the project.

Parting Shots

By creating national standards, based on field-tested best practices, the National Framers Council (NFC) will not only help improve the safety of each worker on the jobsite, it will aid in reducing ambiguity in everything from OSHA jobsite inspections to residential fall protection.