We've Gone To The Dogs..................

Yep, we have gone to the dogs! You have to love a company where you can bring your pet to work! Sometimes Merlot will bring Bo to work, but today Bower brought Craig to work! Meet Bower he is the latest to run the halls of Matthews. He spent the morning with us, at least until Craig got unruly. Bower caught him drinking out of the toilet!!! So Bower took him home! Craig will love this post Monday!!!!! Hope I made you laugh, see ya next week...............

Stair parts...............

Are you aware we have access to 17 different specie's of stair parts. It might take a few weeks to get some of these but with a little planning you could really put a unique stair system in your next house. Or if you would like to redo what you already have!

                             ALDER                                       MAHOGANY

                             WALNUT                                   LYPTUS

                             WHITE OAK                              HICKORY

                             BIRCH                                        ASH

                             SOUTHERN YELLOW PINE    BRAZILIAN CHERRY

                             AMERICAN CHERRY              BEECH

                             BLACK WALNUT                    HEMLOCK

                             MAPLE                                      POPLAR

                                                        RED OAK

Just thought I would let you know what is available. Again some of these are a few weeks out but overall it really is not that long of a wait time. Planning is the key, with just a little more you can really separate yourself from the rest of the crowd.

With the market as tight is it is wouldn't you like to have one more option to give homeowners. Right now it is all about standing out in the crowd......................                                

You Like Us yet..............

That's right "do you like us yet" ? I am talking about Facebook Of course, I know you already like us. How could you not. We have the most diversified staff in the lumber business. Only at MBS could you have a sales staff like ours.

We have a Lying Larry a Serious Eddie, Happy Feet Gary. Then we have a Window and Door Guru, a Silver Hair Tiny Tim and The Worlds Greatest Lumber Salesmen Ritchie, with his side kick Gertrud! For goodness sake don't forget Jumpin Jimmy! Then we have a shop with the Rick & Rick show. We have it all covered.

So now that you know who we are why not hit that like button next time you are on Facebook. Together we can turn this slow economy around. You see the more people who like us the higher we go in the search engine and in turn you get to come along for the trip! Although I am scared of hieghts, I am tired of slow business. SO HIT THAT BUTTON.....

Isn’t It Funny?

Isn't it funny how people all over the world visit your website? Checkout the graph below, neat ain't it. Why in the world would somebody in Africa be checking out our website. I assure you we don't run trucks from here to there! We don't even have a UPS account (yet) if we have something that we could ship let us know. I will set up the account. So far we are only a local company.

I like this feature though, it is kinda neat to see where people live who are checking you out. We can tell what city they live in but that's it. The world wide web really is world wide! Just more proof, I always wonder what products they are looking for that would direct them to our site. Do they use the same building materials in Singapore as they do here! From what I see on the news, I would say they don't! So who is looking.

One more thought, I told Wes, our web designer, the hits from India are the guys trying to hack the site! Made me laugh anyway.............................  

Mark your calendars for June 23, 2011 and come have lunch with us.

Wake up...............

Wake-up! Yea, we have engineers working here at Matthews and every once and awhile they bore us to death in our sales meetings. One of them got a hold of your ear this time. Now it's time to wake-up! I promise I will change the password so they can't get in here anymore.

The one upside is they are here to help. You, our customer if you ever have a need for them so keep that in mind. They can size beams and help you with all kinds of design issues.

So now for a little wisdom, yep we are gonna make you a little smarter just by reading this. I think smarter is a word, if it ain't it ought to be! So here we go, do you realize that Asian people always say a last name first. I learned this today and everybody I have mentioned this too had no ideal.

suzuki ichiro

It started with a conversation about Ichiro Suzuki. Have you ever wondered why he would have his first name on his jersey, no one else in baseball does! As you see I have written his name under his picture the American way.

Now in this picture he doesn't look to happy about it. So I will admit that the way I did it is wrong. Sorry

Mr. Ichiro. I will respect your traditions and write your name as I am supposed too. So the next time you see some reporter ask him a question and say; Ichiro blah blah blah. You will look at the TV and have a little trivia to tell your wife about. Because I bet she doesn't know this fact. You got to admit you always want to look smarter than you really are in front of the wife.

Speaking of wives, he has a pretty hot one. Of course I say that with respect, I don't want him to chase me down with that bat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What in the World is L/360?

Have you heard the term L/360 before? Looks kind of geeky don’t you think? In the residential construction industry L/360 is the maximum allowable Live-Load deflection. Live-Load is considered everything in your home that can move. Yes, the upright piano that has sitting in your home, in the same spot, for twenty-years is considered Live-Load.
Another term that you will see, or hear of, is L/240. This control is for the Total-Load deflection, which by the way, is the Live-Load plus the Dead-Load. For sake the conversation; Dead-Load is all the building material in your home.

Well now…that is just about as clear as mud. Maybe an example is in order. Let’s look at a typical floor joist, and let’s assume the joist has a span of 15-feet.

Tip: The L in the equations above represent the span, and it has to be in inches.

Step 1: 15-ft x 12-inches per foot = 180-inches.
Step 2: Allowable Live-Load deflection = 180-inches/360 = 0.5-inches (1/2-inch).
Step 3: Allowable Total-Load deflection = 180-inches/240 = 0.75-inches (3/4-inch).

So given the above condition and a loading pattern that would push the controls to their limit these values would be the vertical displacement we could expect to see in our floor system.
So now…that was not so bad, was it?

I bet you are thinking right now, where is my MBS Blog writer!? He wouldn’t write this kind of….

If you are thinking this, then you are correct! Let’s say that I too have access to MBS’ Blog. So before I get caught with my hand in the cookie jar, I want to know is there anyone out there that can tell me what the Dead-Load deflection would be in our example. Email us your answer.