Stavebolt Connection

We are working on a new project with Rudd Construction. It is a large heavy timber storage / barn structure. What makes this interesting is we have a clear span of 50′ with some shed dormers on top. This creates a fairly large tension load on the bottom chord among other  things. We have a connection that we can use to resolve this. In fact I have blogged about before. Click here to see the article. The connection itself looks like this:

We are working with an engineer that we have never worked with before. His name is Dodson Harper and he is with Resource Engineering Group out of Crested Butte CO. After speaking with Dodson about the 43 kip tension load he recommended a stave bolt connection. It is something I had seen and heard about but had never used.  We did have to change the location of the bottom chord but this is a great way to resolve these loads in a very efficient way.  We have spec’d out this connection with Dodson’s help and I am excited to use it in this project.

Let me know if you have seen or used any interesting connections using any type of material.  It would be great to hear about them.

Snavely Forest Products

Back in March I called Mark Spargo of Snavely Forest Products Inc. asking if they could help us by providing 2×6 tongue and groove decking for the roof of the CTRC project. If you don’t know about our CTRC project click here.  We have never done any business with Snavely. (Not for any reason other than the fact that they don’t sell the materials we use on our projects). As many of the people in our industry, things have been really slow for them. I told him not to make a decision right away. I said think it over and get back to me. When he called me back he said that he looked in his yard and couldn’t find any decking that they could donate. I could tell by his tone that he was disappointed but I understood the circumstances. Times were really tight. The following week I was at the MSLMBDA show in Denver and I noticed Snavely had a booth. I asked if Mark was there ( I had only spoken with him on the phone so I had no idea what he looked like.) and someone pointed him out to me. I introduced myself and told him I fully understood his situation not being able to donate to our project at this time. Especially since I wasn’t even a customer. He was gracious and said thanks for understanding. That was on a Friday. The next Monday Mark called me and said I could pick up the decking next week. I had never purchased anything from Mark, but that didn’t matter. Times are really tough right now for everyone in construction, but that didn’t matter. He would probably not get any business from us (again, only because they don’t supply the type of materials we typically use), but that didn’t matter. It is easy to do the right thing when things are going well. When things are tight and you are struggling and you still help others, people you don’t even know. That says volumes about your character. I don’t know Mark from Adam, but from this one experience I hold him in high regard and would encourage people to do business with him. These are the types of people that make the world, even just a little piece in their corner, a better place.

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Atomic Forge

I am way behind on my blog posts giving credit to the folks who have helped me out with the pavillion. Brian Martella of Atomic Forge came out this spring and welded the post bases to the steel embedments. It never fails to amaze me how generous people are with their time when it comes to helping out on this project. Brian has been really busy, but he made the time to get this done.

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The Missing Algorithm.

Honestly, I don’t know if it is an algorithm I am looking for. It might be a formula, I am not sure. Anyone who is in business knows that some projects go great and some not so great. If you could predict which jobs will go which way what a great tool. I think in order to figure that out you need some variables and an algorithm (or formula) to run those through. First, what are the variables? That part seems pretty easy. I think that there are 3 factors that can be reviewed. Let me say these factors apply to us here at Three Elements Timberworks. The factors may be different for you and your company. Here are three factors that are important to us. First off (in no particular order) is the “Cool” factor. We love to build interesting projects that push the limits of innovative design. If the project ranks high on the cool factor that is a good indicator that this could be a good project for us. The second variable is the “People” factor. In a past post I talked about how important relationships are to us when it comes to business. We need to have a common goal. There needs to be mutual respect in order to work cooperatively on the project. If the people we work with share a similar philosophy that is another good indicator that this will be a good project for us. The third variable is the “Money” factor. We are all in business to make money. Our business can’t survive if we don’t make money. We can’t do a good job on the project if we aren’t making money. It is a simple fact.

So we have our three variables/inputs. Now what? I still haven’t figured that part out. I do know that the function (hmm, maybe it is a function?) is non-lineal, meaning that some of the variables have a greater influence than others.

 

For example: If the money factor is moderate (we cover our expenses and  maybe a little bit of profit), but it is high on the cool factor and high on the people factor that has been shown in our past to be a good project. We have had projects that were moderate on the cool factor, moderate on the money factor and high on the people factor, that also was a good project.  We looked at a project for a couple retiring from New York and building a small retirement home in Estes Park. They wanted 2 trusses in their great room. Nothing fancy, just 2 simple king post trusses. It was a small job to say the least. Here are how their variables added up. Very low on the cool factor. They were not wanting any fancy joinery, just straight cuts and bolted together. It  could have gotten cut on the job-site by some competent framers. Very low on the money factor, due to the simplicity and the small scope of work we would barely cover our expenses. We met with the owners for about an hour. They were so nice and so excited about these simple, easy, little trusses in their house. They were great, off the chart on the people factor. I want to build these trusses for them. An example of how the function is non-linear. The off the chart people factor overwhelms the low ranking on the cool and money factor.
I probably will never come up with a rock solid algorithm/formula/function. However, knowing the variables and rating them should help us make a reasonable decision about whether or not we should take the job.

Case Study on Three Elements Timberworks use of SolidWorks

Click on the image to go to the case study.

We Believe in Integrated Project Delivery

Click here for a more detailed description of integrated project delivery. This is a model of a timber structure that we were hired to build several years ago. There are so many things wrong with this design. We had no input in the original design. 164 bolts and several steel plate weldments that required a lot of slotting. The slots alone caused problems, wood is anisotropic. Problems occur when wood is slotted and the environment changes the humidity rises and falls.the temperature rises and falls. The long through slots allow the timbers to twist and check. The loads on most of the connections are shear and moments. We like to see compression and tension. If I told you to break a 2×4 would you try to bend and twist it or would you try and pull it apart.

Here is our solution. We went from 164 bolts to 24 bolts, we went from 32 slots to 5 slots, we ended up using 14% of the original amount of steel in the weldments.  If you believe in working with a fabricator while designing your project PLEASE contact us.

I believe business is about relationships.

It was several years ago when I was in Vertical Arts’ office and I saw a set of blueprints with a house that had a lot of timber. I asked the architect about the project and he gave me the name of the builder. It was Paul Ferguson of Fairview Construction. I contacted Paul and we met at a bookstore in Steamboat just off of Lincoln. I don’t think the bookstore is there anymore. We had a nice talk about the project as well as about life in general. He mentioned that he was going for a bicycle ride that afternoon and I complained about not “having” the time to workout. He said something that has stuck with me to this day. He said “you should always be able to find 1 hour a day for yourself.” I took note of that and that was when I  started to call him my life coach. . When we meet we don’t talk just about the project at hand but we talk about life.

I was hopeful about getting the work, not just for the work’s sake, but also because I looked forward to working with Paul. It turned out that our bid was higher than the other bidder and Paul wrestled with that. Honestly, I am not sure why but we did end up with the job. Paul and I would get together to discuss the project and we would inevitably end up talking about life in general. What impressed me the most about Paul was his balanced life. He works hard, he is thoughtful, he reads books that open up your mind about life’s idiosyncrasies (in fact he gave me one of these books as a gift once, reinforcing his status as my life coach), he exercises regularly and after several decades of marriage he still can’t say enough good things about his wife. At the time I had been dating a wonderful woman for almost a year and a half and during one of my conversations with Paul I mentioned that I was going to propose. He said to me “Make it Special”, nothing else, he didn’t give me specifics, he just said “Make it Special”. I took his advice. I won’t bore you with the details of how I proposed but it is a story that 3 years later my wife still loves to tell. It made her feel special. What in hindsight seems so obvious, at the time I would not have made a point of making the proposal special if not for Paul’s advice. (again re-inforcing his status as my life coach.)

As any large project moves along there are bumps along the way (at the time this was the largest project we had ever done in terms of total board foot of timber) but the fact that Paul and I had similar beliefs and a good relationship we were able to navigate them successfully. I have often said that I believe that business and friends don’t mix, but I would like to make a caveat to that by quoting John D. Rockefeller “A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship”. I would certainly consider Paul more than my life coach, he is a friend.

A few weeks before our wedding we received a beautiful piece of pottery in the mail. It was from Paul and his wife Bridgett congratulating us on our upcoming nuptials. It sits in our home reminding me to pursue a balanced and remarkable life.

WoodSource Inc.

I know, not another post about the Colorado Therapeutic Riding Center pavilion. I just want to make sure that I take the time to give credit to all the great people that have chipped in. The timbers were donated by Martin Schwab and Chris Schureman at WoodSource Inc.

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“What is it that you are building?”

I am still on the hunt for the last bit of materials needed to finish the Colorado Therapuetic Riding Center pavillion. When I ask people if they are interested in donating materials they always ask me “What is it that you are building?” I often forget as I write and talk to people that what is in my head is not in their’s. To that end I am posting a rendering of what the pavillion looks like. Hopefully this helps people get the idea.

GrainMatched Glulams

When it comes to the timbers in their project, one  concern people have is the stability of the timbers as they dry. There are several options for using dry timbers. One of the most stable  options is a glulam beam however many folks do not like the look of a glulam beam.  Three Elements Timberworks is now offering GrainMatched Glulams. When you need the stability and strength of a glulam but still want the look of a timber, this is a great option.

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