Building Materials Archives - The Douglas Company - Senior Living and Multifamily General Contractor Located in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Florida

Conventional Hold-down Hardware vs. New Tie-down Systems

Posted on April 6, 2023 | by Savannah Sokol

When it comes to anchoring building components in wood-framed structures, there are two primary options to consider: conventional hold-down hardware and new tie-down offerings from either QuickTie or CLP. While both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, the trend in the framing world seems to be pushing more toward the new tie-down systems.

Conventional hold-down hardware typically involves using screws, bolts, straps, and lots of nails to secure the hardware to the framing components. This can be an effective method, but it can also be labor-intensive and time-consuming, especially when dealing with larger or more complex wood-framed structures. In addition, the use of traditional hardware can sometimes lead to damage or deformation of the material being held down, especially if excessive force or nails are applied or installation is sloppy. Also, traditional hardware has little flexibility on tolerances and does nothing to address wood shrinkage and building settlement.

Quick tie...

March Madness!

Posted on March 31, 2022 | by Bob Ritter

Usually March is good for two things in the North, March Madness and spring weather. This spring is a little slower than years past as construction material pricing has been surging for some time and now oil pricing is also surging which is only adding more fuel to the fire. So just like my March Madness bracket, I am sure everyone’s budgets are busted right now which is leading to some project starts sliding.

While we have been dealing with the pricing fluctuations to the best of our ability for the past year, once we get past that hurdle we then have to overcome the supply chain issues. This is taking a lot more pre-project planning as some materials are simply just not available in the time frame in which we need them to meet the schedule. With being a traveling GC, we have been able to foster relationships in many...

Spanning the Truss Shortage

Posted on March 17, 2022 | by Bob Ritter

There have been many challenges in the construction industry over the past 24 months, but one that has surprised many developers and builders is the unavailability of wood trusses. A problem that seemingly started to appear at the very end of 2021 has now shockingly escalated into lead times measured in months and even years. I’ve had truss and lumber vendors provide insights into how this situation came to be, and two reasons have been mentioned consistently. One cause was a shortage of truss gusset plates that caused a bottleneck to the production lines. The other, and likely the bigger contributor to the shortage, is that many truss manufacturers presold their production capacity to the homebuilders, who all have voluminous production targets for 2022. I have been advised that the truss vendors have configured their production lines to quickly and efficiently crank out single-family and townhome trusses and have little...