THE NATIONAL FRAME BUILDING ASSOCIATION

 
By Dick Lehman
Mac-Co Metal Buildings

Post-Frame Builders Have Feelings Too

 

As Jim Betonte mentioned in his article in our previous newsletter, the PNW-NFBA has rotated its officers and I have the privilege of sitting as its president for the next couple of years. As president, it’s my honor to submit an opening article for the association’s newsletter. It’s my belief that if the expectation is for you, the reader, to spend your precious time reading our articles, the articles should be of value to you or at least be entertaining and worth your time.
For my inaugural article, I’d like to begin by disclosing a personal philosophy. I believe that most people are in search of the same thing, personal fulfillment. What makes this statement easy to support is its vagueness. Please pause for just a moment and think about your personal mission.  Is it not true with you as well that there is some personal goal or ideal you are striving for? Or perhaps you have a set of personal goals and ideals. For some of you your goal or direction might be very precise and defined whereas for many of you may have a more broad or general ideal in mind. The point being that each day we awaken we all have some sort of purpose that drives our actions and embroiled within the many facets of our daily functions and personal relationships is our profession or occupation (i.e. work). If we were to divide our daily functions and concerns into two categories, one being our personal/private life and other being our work life, I believe that within our work life there also exists a purpose that drives our actions and these actions are fueled by our personal fulfillment derived from our performing these work-related activities. This would then suggest that we actually like to work. 
Within my personal philosophy I believe our own personal fulfillment is tied more closely to our emotions rather than the actions we engage in. (You may need to look over your shoulder right now to make sure no one is seeing you reading this because not only have I suggested you like to work, I’m about to suggest that people in the building industry have feelings too.) Actions are what we do. Emotions are what we feel. The emotions connected to an action continue long after the action ends. But it’s our actions that nourish our emotions. (Please bear with me just a minute longer. I promise this is going somewhere.) Example: if you like to fish, think how the actions of fishing nourish your emotions. Fishing makes you feel good, especially the feeling of victory when you land the “big one”.  You probably haven’t taken the time to analyze why fishing makes you feel good. You just know that you enjoy fishing. Even if you don’t catch any fish and the weather sucks, a fishing outing can still create a sense of pleasure and fulfillment. Now if someone who does not like to fish goes through the same motions of fishing as you do (particularly if the weather sucks as they don’t catch any fish), they’re likely to create a flood of negative emotions entirely opposite from yours, even though you both performed identical actions. (Some of you may have spouses falling into this category.) So can we conclude that it’s not the actions as such that brings personal fulfillment but rather the individual emotional connection within the person performing the actions that determines personal fulfillment?
Now before you call for an impeachment, here are the points I hope to make. The first is to imply that there are some personal fulfillment goals lurking within your working environment. And the second is to imply that those of us involved with or related to the post-frame industry either as builders, suppliers or other associates are doing so because we’re deriving some form of enjoyment or satisfaction of achievement in doing so. We may not have taken the time to analyze why we enjoy being associated with post-frame construction. We just know we enjoy doing so.
It’s not the fisherman’s role to convince everyone that fishing is fun and perhaps also not in the fisherman’s best interest to teach everyone how to enjoy fishing. Likewise, we that are aligned with the post frame industry don’t need to disclose just what it is about our work that is bringing us personal fulfillment or to teach everyone how to do what we do.  But similar to how fishermen must bond together in order to preserve and protect their fishing interests, people connected and related to the post frame industry need to bond together to support and develop the industry that is fulfilling their lives. And being a member of the national NFBA and the regional Pacific-Northwest chapter of the NFBA can help accomplish this.

 

 

By Nicholas Jasper, P.E.  ¨  Alliance Engineering of Oregon, LLC  ¨  Phone 503/589-1727 ¨  nicholas@aeoregon.com

A structural component fails when actual or calculated stresses exceed allowable stresses.  Allowable stress levels are developed in laboratories and at universities by various material agencies such as The American Concrete Association (ACI), The American Society of Steel Construction (AISC) and The American Forest and Paper Association.  Allowable stresses are published in various formats for use by design professionals.  To give just one example, consider an unbraced, 12’ length of #2 DOUG - FIR 2 x 6 lumber.  The 1997 edition of the National Design Specification for Wood Construction (NDS) published by the American Forest and Paper Association can be used to determine the allowable stress due to bending (Fb) for this member as 916.4 psi.  The important thing to understand here is that this 2 x 6 has an extremely low probability of actually snapping in two at this stress level.  The design professional, however, is required by state law to keep the calculated bending stress at or below 916.4 psi.  At an Fb of 916.5 psi, the 2 x 6 is said to have failed in bending.  To get some kind of feel for the load condition that would fail this DOUG - FIR 2 x 6, imagine a pair of saw horses 12’ apart with the 2 x 6 spanning between them (with the 1 ½” edge up).  A 192.6 lb weight in the exact middle of the span will fail this structural member (Fb = 916.8 psi), whereas a 192.5 lb is within the allowable bending stress limit (Fb = 916.4 psi).

The real genius of the “failure” code philosophy over the “collapse” code mentality is that it allows for maximum stress levels while minimizing actual instances of collapse.  It further minimizes structural costs while minimizing collapse.  The IBC and the UBC both mitigate against failure and thus recognize the fact that over time and over the full range of application, the weakest graded member will experience the maximum load condition.  Both codes are thus able to insure public health, safety and welfare at minimum cost.

The Code of Hammurabi did not place a time limit on collapse and it may well be asked how the IBC and the UBC deal with the endurance of structures over extended periods of time.  Are IBC and UBC compliant structures guaranteed for ever?  They are not guaranteed forever but they are designed to resist environmental loads predicted to occur only once in every 50 years.  I’ve often heard comments such as: “You want me to install 6 x 12 posts?!!  I built one just like it 20 years ago with 6 x 6’s and it’s still standing.”  These structures have probably not seen or experienced a code mandated 50 year wind, snow or seismic event.

I looked up weather history for western Oregon and found that 47” of snow fell in Eugene, Oregon in January of 1969.  This is seven times the average snowfall for Eugene in January  and nearly three times the design snow load.  Hundreds of farm buildings collapsed as a result of this snow storm.  In October of 1962, wind gusts reached 116 mph in downtown Portland.  During this Columbus Day Storm, scores of livestock were killed when barns collapsed in rural communities.  Both these events took place less than 50 years ago.

The IBC and the UBC go a long way toward balancing risk and construction costs.  It is not possible to erect a structure that will withstand all environmental loads but it is reasonable and prudent to design a building for load conditions that are very likely to occur within its economic life.  Modern building codes must strike a balance between public safety and reasonable construction costs.  The IBC and the UBC both serve needs very well.

With the background above we can finally look at why the IBC or the UBC must be used to design and construct a post – frame building.  It is important to understand that post – frame construction employs very highly stressed structural components and as such must be carefully sized to ensure public safety.  Let’s compare stick – frame construction to post – frame construction and see how they differ.

The stick – framer has the CABO Code (Council of American Building Officials) and the IRC (International Residential Code) to tell him exactly how to frame and sheet his building.  It’s a cook book.  Every nail, every member size, every anchor bolt, every sheet of wood sheathing is specified for the stick – framer in the CABO and IRC Codes.  The Post – Frame builder, on the other hand, must analyze, size and locate every structural component in every structure based on the configuration of the building and the environmental conditions at the building site.  Since there is no such thing as a “Post – Frame Building Cook Book”, we have to rely on the UBC or the IBC to tell us what the wind, snow and seismic loads are, how the building will respond and where the stresses are.  We have to do this every time for every building.   Each nail in every girt and purlin and truss block must be sized and installed accurately.

We have to pay attention to not only lumber grade but species as well.  All of us, builders, engineers, architects and building officials, must remember that we are dealing with highly stressed structural elements and that it is our responsibility to see that the state laws are upheld.   The UBC and the IRC are our guides.  They allows us to safely load the structural elements and maintain our competitive advantage.

As Post – Frame builders, we must pay special attention to the requirements of the UBC and IBC because the structural components of our buildings are highly stressed.  We know we can always beat the sick - framers on cost and erection time.  We know our buildings are safe and durable.  We gain every one of these advantages by highly stressing all the structural elements in our buildings.  To give an example: a typical 2 x 6 girt installed in the Pacific Northwest is stressed by UBC design wind loads to 95% of allowable values.  A typical 2 x 6 wall stud is loaded to less than 20%.  That is to say that for each dollar spent on girts, the owner gets $0.95 worth of use.  The same dollar buys $0.20 worth of use in a stick frame structure.  Who needs to be more careful?  Who has more margin for error?  The UBC and IBC are our guides.  They provide us with safe limits.  They tell us exactly how to provide our clients with a robust and economical structure.
The writers of the UBC and the IBC know that our structural components are highly stressed and they intend for us to be closely monitored by the Building Official.  Let me site the Oregon UBC Interpretive Manual (Oregon Alternate Method Ruling No. 92-27, “Design of Post-frame Buildings Not Required To Be Designed Under the Architects Law”) as it concerns the design and construction of Post – Frame buildings.  This ruling was written in response to the question: “To what standard are Post – Frame buildings which fall below the requirements of the Architects Law required to be designed?”

“The perception by both the builder and some building officials is that these are simple buildings (referring to post-frame buildings)…These buildings are actually more complex because they are often structurally indeterminate; i.e., they mix embedded poles, knee braces and shear walls, so they cannot be analyzed by normal engineering methods.  Buildings or structures not required to be designed by the Architect’s Law, and which do not use conventional wood frame construction as provided in Section 2517; i.e.,…pole buildings…are required to be engineered or tested.” (emphasis added)

It is because we take our structural components right up to the very limit that we need and depend on the wise counsel of the Uniform Building Code and the International Building Code.  It takes an experienced and multi disciplined team to deliver a safe and economical structure to our customers.  Every building must be analyzed and designed by a Design Professional who knows how post frame structures respond to environmental loads and who knows the actual building techniques used in post frame construction.  Every set of design drawings and structural calculations must be checked for code compliance by a Plans Examiner who knows the Building Code and knows post frame construction.  Every Building Department must be overseen by a Building Official whose primary concern is the insurance of public safety and welfare.  Every building must be built by a Builder who knows post frame construction and whose primary concern should be the delivery of a safe, economical and robust structure erected exactly as specified by the approved design documents.  And finally every post frame structure must be observed and inspected by a Building Inspector who knows what to look for and who is prepared to make certain that the approved plans are followed and that the Owner will be presented with a safe, code compliant building.

 

	Golf Humor - It was a sunny Saturday morning, and Mike was beginning his pre-shot routine, visualizing his upcoming shot when a voice came over the clubhouse speaker - "Would the gentleman on the Ladies tee please back up to the men's tee!"  Mike was still deep in his routine, seemingly impervious to the interruption. Again the announcement - "Would the man on the women's tee kindly back up to the men's tee! Please!" Mike had had enough. He turned and shouted, "Would the announcer in the clubhouse kindly shut up and let me play my second shot!"
	Five Small Business Tax Tips 1. Contribute to a retirement plan: Payments to your retirement plan will reduce your income for this year and translate into significant dollar deductions. Consult your financial planner or accountant to find the best strategy for your business. 2. Defer income: Payments your business receives during the first week of January 2007 instead of in December 2006 cuts your tax bill and will not be taxable until April 2008. 3. Increase expenses: Purchasing items that your business will require in the immediate future will maximize deductions for this year. Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code allows small business to expense acquisitions up to $108,000 in 2006. 4. Pay bills now, not later: Pay any outstanding bills such as utilities, rent, insurance and healthcare, even employee bonuses, before Dec. 31 2006 to take the deduction this year and lower your tax bill more.  There is a also a new provision for 2006 that allows for a refund of the telephone excise tax. Any business with a phone is eligible and the IRS has developed a formula to simplify the calculations for the refund amount. 5. What to watch out for: Any strategy to reduce your taxes that does not have a valid business purpose.  It might be subject to challenge for not having economic substance.
	Event Calendar May 4, 2007 Chapter meeting Location TBA
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