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August 2025 #17313 Page #10
Home Building Technology, Part VIII: The Engineering Advantage By Joe Kannapell
W
here is the best location to start a business — the easiest place or the toughest? Choosing the easiest means you may or may not “have what it takes” to succeed in the toughest markets. But, by choosing the toughest, you may “set yourself up” to market yourself everywhere, as Carol Sanford inadvertently did by clearing Miami’s hurdles. Successfully completing the Miami gauntlet resulted in a superior product, the Grip-Plate, which Sanford could sell almost anywhere.
The advantages of the Grip-Plate were obvious. But, when Sanford began to use that product in the field, he learned he would need superior engineering, too. That Miami required engineering drawings for every truss on every job was unlike any jurisdiction in America. To make matters worse, the complexity of roof framing in Florida, necessitating multiple drawings for a single house, was nothing like what Sanford had experienced in his native Ohio. In the pre-computer days of the 1950s, each of these designs required hand-calculations, manually drafted design drawings, and review by a professional engineer. And because building permits weren’t issued until drawings were approved by the building department, the pressure of meeting construction deadlines bore down on the truss engineer. Yet, because Sanford was an architect by training, and had built and sold houses in Ohio and Florida, he understood what he was up against, and went to work getting ahead of these challenges. At the same time, Sanford knew having the cheapest connector wasn’t enough. He also knew that he needed to have the most efficient lumber design. For example, shown in the top image is a design of his main competitor in 1958, Timber Engineering Company (TECO), that requires a 2x8 top chord for a 38’ truss, whereas Sanford’s, shown in the bottom image, uses a 2x6. In addition, this Sanford drawing specified a 55 lbs. loading, while TECO’s drawing called for only 40 lbs. So even without consideration for assembly labor savings, the Sanford design advantage enabled him to quickly gain the bulk of TECO’s Miami business. However, this would only be the first skirmish in the decades-long battle to produce the least costly engineering. Continued next page
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