This summer we asked you to participate in our second annual “Give Us Your Best Shot” contest. If you were building a project with our Outdoor Accents® line of decorative hardware, we wanted to see it. More than 40 customers sent in photos of pergolas, hammocks, arbors and other outdoor living projects. Of those projects we had the enjoyable challenge of selecting two winners, one for a large project and one for a smaller project.
Category: Building Strong
Great ShakeOut 2019: Reddit Asks Us Anything About Earthquakes
Each year, Simpson Strong-Tie teams up with the West Coast’s top earthquake scientists and preparedness experts to take questions from Redditors about earthquakes and tsunamis. The Reddit AMA is part of the Great ShakeOut, the world’s largest earthquake drill, where 55 million people drop, cover and hold on. The next Great ShakeOut is scheduled to take place at 10:17 a.m. on October 17, 2019, and your organization still has time to get involved.
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DIY: Building a Covered Patio with The Awesome Orange
Did you spend the summer sitting in the backyard dreaming about adding a covered patio or a pergola? Assuming you’re handy, maybe you even spent time thinking about bypassing a local contractor and doing it yourself (well, yourself and your BFFs, who’ll work for burgers). Naturally, as the summer crept along and your dream turned into an itch, you probably found yourself looking at do-it-yourself websites to see if you could, in fact, do it yourself.
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Building Our Company’s Future
“Company culture” has become a catch-all term to express the essence of what makes an organization good (or, in some cases, not so good) to work for. As a human resources leader, it’s my honor to work with teams dedicated to acting as positive influencers in the culture of our company. When we set out to create new processes to protect and grow the unique culture of Simpson Strong-Tie, we had outstanding direction from our founder, whose values are as relevant today as they were more than 60 years ago when he first opened the doors.
10 Critical Deck Connections
Decks continue to be a popular addition to homes. In 2017, nearly 24 percent of the single-family homes started that year included a deck. The same year, 25 percent of National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) remodelers reported adding a deck as one of their most common projects. Those numbers have remained pretty constant for the last decade, steadily swelling the number of decks in the United States.
Leadership in Giving Back
“Give Back” is one of our nine Company Values established by our founder, Barc Simpson. He said, “No matter what each of our personal situations is, we know that there are many others in this world who will never have the opportunities we’ve had. It is our responsibility to reach out, in whatever manner we can, to support others. We’re all connected in some way and are all part of a greater community. It’s important to make what impact you can. . . . Look for small ways to give back every day. Help out your neighbor, make time for others, do what you can.”
Building Safety Month 2019: Partnering to Build Strong and Smart
Simpson Strong-Tie is proud to sponsor Building Safety Month. This annual event, which takes place over the entire month of May, is intended to raise awareness of building safety and all that it involves. The International Code Council pairs together professionals from the building construction, design and safety communities with corporations, government agencies, professional associations and nonprofits to promote building safety.
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Five FRP Advantages for Contractors and Structure Owners
FRP fiber-reinforced polymer provides a number of advantages over traditional concrete-strengthening materials and methods. Strengthening concrete structures by means of this composite has benefits for contractors and property owners alike.
While FRP is not feasible for all applications, there are demonstrable FRP advantages for many structural rehabilitation projects.
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How to Restore Your Home After a Hurricane
In 2011, it was Hurricane Irene; in 2012, it was Sandy and then Hurricane Patricia; 2017 gave us Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate. This year, with Hurricane Florence, we’ve been reminded that damage can’t be predicted by the frequency of the hurricanes or even necessarily where one ranks on the Saffir-Simpson Scale when it makes landfall. Many factors can make even a Category One Hurricane devastating.
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It’s Alive! Self-Healing Concrete, Materials Science and Other Evolutionary Developments
Legions of catatonic organisms lie asleep in the matrix, waiting only for momentary exposure to water and oxygen in order to awaken — whereupon the organisms immediately germinate, grow and fulfill their destiny, sealing the cracks in the fabric of their universe before falling dormant once again.
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