A\fPA's

Service Bureau Military Housing Projects Specify

Stephen R. Andrus has been narnecl to the staff of the Service Bureau of the American Wood Preservers' Association western offrce at Portland, C)regon, :rccording to W. R. Bond, western manager.

"Addition of Andrus will enable this service bureau to give increased technical and pronrotional assistance to the construction and structural industry in the eleven western states," Bond said. "We lvill also be able to do more work on new product development in our field."

911000 Teco Trussed Rafters

Andrus graduated frorn Oregon State College in June with a degree in civil engineering with some work in structural engineering. He is a native of Eugene, Oregon. He has been <levoting his time the past few months to familiarizing himself with treating plant equipment ancl methods, including timber production, handling, fabrication, preservative treatment and shipment.

The western service bureau of the AWPA has been in operation frorr-r its Portland, Oregon, headqttarters for the past two years. It was established by the woo<l preserving industry in a move to nrake available tecl-rnical advisory service by trained engineers to county engineers, consultir.rg engineers ancl the construction industrv in the west.

western service bureau of the top treating engineers

M/ashington in the country. For 20 years he was dominion sales manager for the Northern Wood Preservers, Ltd., Port Arthur, Ontario. He served for years as production manager for McGillis and Gibbs of n{ilwaukee, Wisconsin, and for several years before assuming the service bureau position operated his own company, Silver Tip Forest Products, Inc., of Montana, selling out when he moved to Portland.

In the interest of efficiency and economy, builders of low cost rental housing have been quick to adopt the newest improved methods of wood frame construction, it is indicated by latest figures released by the Timber Engineering Company.

With military rental housing now boorning over the country under the Wherry law, 73,000 trussed rp.fters are under construction for 3,906 units in seven building projects. Eighteen thousand more trussed rafters are required to meet specifications for 1,500 additional units. The total number of military housing jobs in which Teco trussed rafters have been specified for use embraces 5,506 units, calling for 91,000 trussed rafters.

In this connection it is pointed out by Harry G. Uhl, president of the Timber Engineering Company, that in 1949 practically one out of every four housing units built in the greater Washington, D. C. area used Teco trussed rafters and split-ring connectors-3,78S out of 15,400 units, otl.rer than multiple-story dwellings. This compares with only one such structure built locally in 1946, the year the Teco trussed rafters were introduced.

Requiring no load-bearing partitions, these rafters pla,ce a project under cover'more rapidly thari traditional forms of construction. The resultant clear work space effects great savings of time, labor and material by permitting greater flexibility of operation for the mechanical trades.

In a 26x32 foot house, 27 per cent less lumber is required for framing roof and ceiling with trussed rafters than with outmoded joist-and-rafter type of construction, a factor which, according to sales advances, is not lost on the building industry.