Truss business hits a purple patch with hyCHORD
According to Lynette Simons, of the Ridge Top Frame and Truss company in the Blue Mountains, NSW, doors opened in March this year and business is booming.
Lynette was working elsewhere and had given notice when a colleague, Stephen Roseby, heard that a Frame and Truss company in the mountains was closing down. The opportunity was obvious and in only three weeks Stephen had signed leases and, with Lynette's help, had opened the doors on a new business.
'We hit the ground running,' says Lynette, 'and we keep going from record to record. Builders keep coming in and now there are three of us and we are very busy.'
A part of this innovative truss company's success is a healthy attitude to experimentation. This is where futurebuild's specially engineered hyCHORD LVL Truss Chords come in. As Lynette says, 'When you're new and trying to improve the product already in the market place, you are more inclined to look at new and innovative ideas. That's why we were happy to try the hyCHORD before anyone else was really interested. We gave it a go.'
One of the reasons Ridge Top were keen to try hyCHORD in the first place was the fact that hardwood was getting progressively more difficult to source. To be able to use a manufactured product to do the same job meant this new company could rely on a consistent supply. Otherwise they faced the fluctuations of supply characteristic of hardwood and the possibility that the sizes they required would not be easily available. To get the sizes they wanted when they wanted was very appealing.
Ridge Top's approach is 'the only way to test a product is to use it,' and after using the hyCHORD in trusses on a large house earlier this year, the other advantages became obvious. From then on Stephen has designed Ridge Top's trusses and frame heads using hyCHORD wherever possible. According to Lynette:
'The hyCHORD is more structurally consistent, we've had no problems with it whatsoever. All load bearings we have in our computer are true.'
The main advantage however, has been the lighter weight of hyCHORD LVL as compared to hardwood. Ridge Top's frame and truss crews find it easy to handle longer lengths of hyCHORD during manufacturing and because it is lightweight, it means the completed frames and trusses are not as heavy. Ridge Top uses high grades and maximum sizes of radiata pine in its frames and trusses and using hyCHORD for frame heads and truss bottom chords takes off some of the weight. This makes their product easier for builders to handle on-site.
The feedback on the company's trusses has been overwhelmingly positive and Lynette partly attributes this to the hyCHORD because of the consistent camber in the finished product. It doesn't suffer from the variability in camber that hardwood can.
Situated in the lower mountains, ten minutes from Penrith and ideally situated on the M4, Ridge Top are able to service all the areas of Sydney, both North and South and along the Central Coast. With many projects on the go, Stephen and Lynette are more ready than ever to look at new products that can improve on their product's quality and their output.
'After we started to use it we were given as the answer in question and answer sessions,' says Lynette, ' and this has encouraged other people to give it a try.'
Ridge Top was first introduced to hyCHORD by an enthusiastic timber wholesaler, Kerry Kneller of Swan Le Messurier, a name well known in Sydney. He brought the product round to Stephen and Lynette and sparked their interest. Nowadays, Ridge Top's projects and their popular trusses are used as examples to others of the structural qualities and on-site advantages of hyCHORD.
Having proven itself in the market, it seems hyCHORD has hit a purple patch of its own.
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