NE\T=T DESIGN VALUES

These customers can achieve the product performance they need by identifying a particular design value, choosing from a number of visual grade selections, or specifying their choice of mechanically graded lumber."

Proposed changes

Design values are assigned to six basic lumber properties. These values are used in designing light-frame construction and provide guidance for designers in calculating the performance of a structural system. Design values for four of the propertiesbending, tension, compression and stiffness-are based on data from testing full-size, commercially produced lumber specimens. Proposed new design values for these properties may be reduced approximately 25-307o. New design values are proposed to change for all grades and all sizes of visually graded southern pine dimension lumber 2" to 4" thick, 2" and wider. "All grades" includes Select Structural. No. l. No. 2. No. 3. Stud. Construction, Standard and Utility. "All sizes" includes 2x2s through 4xl2s (and wider).

Design values for shear and compression perpendicular-to-grain are based on specific gravity. The average specific gravity observed from the latest testing of No. 2 2x4s was not found to be different enough from the published southern pine specific gravity value of 0.55 to warrant a proposed change at this time. Because specific gravity is not proposed to change, the design values for shear and compression perpendicular are also not proposed to change.

What about Dense lumber?

Test results did not indicate enough of a difference between Dense, unclassified and NonDense lumber to continue publishing three different design values for each lumber grade. The result will be a simplified table with design values assigned by lumber grade without density classifications. However, it is important to note that SPIB Grading Rules will not change. Dense lumber remains an option for southern pine users requiring Dense material, such as proprietary grades for laminated beams. If Dense lumber is specified, it will have the same new design values as the corresponding unclassified grade. For example, if No. 2 Dense is specified, it will have the same desisn values as No. 2.

TALK Back

We welcome your letters to the editor. Send comments to Fax 949-852-023 I, dkoenig@ building-products.com, or B PD, 4500 Campus Dr. #480, Newport Beach, Ca.92660.

Lovps A SuccESs Sronv

Each month when BPD arrives at Smick Lumber, I sit down in the evening and quickly go through every page to see what to read first. Always it is the fine article "Competitive Intelligence" by Carla Waldemar. We love the personal stories of retail lumber dealers. Her articles are fabulous reading; it's so exciting to see success stories in a difficult economy.

The photos of Linton Tibbetts' "new" lumberyards are beautiful (Sept., page I7).I turned only 86 on May 2 this year and have high regards for our industry leader.

B. Harold Smick, Jr.

Smick Lumber, Quinton, N.J. (856) 935-0500

Srnrur-rrn Tnrs!

Thank you for a thought-provoking intro to the October edition ("The

Problem 1s Clear, Unlike the Solution,"

p.6).

I own a business that supplied custom millwork to over 75 lumberyards and millwork distribution companies in Wisconsin. Illinois. and lowa. Over the past four years, 27 of them have closed. In addition, my forestry business has suffered with stumpage prices so low that landowners have no inclination to sell their timber.

Like you, I am frustrated with government, but I am trying to keep that frustration accurately directed. Remember that the stimulus bill passed by the Obama Administration included the First Time Home Buyers Credit. I heard a lot of positives from my regional yards about the efficacy of that program. A few of them credited their survival to the building activity stemming from it. The stimulus bill also gave the SBA broad latitude to "no-fee" refinance small businesses through their existing banks, and I know for a fact that the injection of cash from that program saved my business and many thousands more.

With the mid-term election of "tea party" candidates and a Republican leadership whose publicly stated goal is to defeat the president at all costs (read keep the economy in the tank), the President's jobs proposal is bold in the context of what might actually get through Congress.

Keep in mind that the President is not authorized to spend. That's the job of Congress. The hard-working people in our industry need to hold their legislators'feet to the fire ifthey stand by and do nothing while businesses fail andjobs disappear.

Rick Bechen Workbench Tool & Millwork Co. Madison, Wi. bechenforestrv @ vahoo.com