Business Management Seminar

Two Sessions

OCILB CEU 1 HR Business per session

Tuesday, July 1st
Engineer's Club of Dayton
&
Zoom

Schedule:

9:30 AM    Registration (session 1 - in person)
10:00 AM  Ohio Mechanic's Lien Law - Session 1
11:45 AM  Lunch (in person)
12:30 PM  Registration (session 2 - in person)
1:00 PM    Ohio Sales & Use and Income Tax - Session 2

Ohio Mechanic's Lien Law

Lowell Woods with Taft Law will be covering the following topics:

Notice of Commencement

Notice of Furnishings (Supplier & Subcontractors)

Lien Deadlines

How to Prepare and File the Lien

Lowell Woods has over 25 years experience in his practice. In addition to Mechanic's Lien Law, Lowell has significant experience serving clients in all aspects of construction litigation, including serving general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, owners, design professionals, sureties and other participants in the construction industry on a wide range of issues arising from private and public construction projects.

In addition to litigating such matters, Lowell routinely engages in contract drafting and due diligence, provides guidance and training to construction clients, and leads presentations on sponsored programs.

Lowell was recognized in 2019 as Best Lawyer in American Litigation - Construction and Construction Law.

Ohio Sales & Use and Income Tax

Nick Barley of Kentner Sellers will be covering the following topics:

• Real Property Construction Contracts

• Business Fixture and Tangible Property Contracts

• State-by-state Considerations

• Federal Income Tax Legislative Outlook

• Ohio Income Tax Updates

Nick Barley brings over 14 years of experience delivering accounting, tax, and consulting services to clients in the construction and manufacturing sectors. His practice focuses on supporting local contractors and small businesses with specialized expertise in contractor taxation. Nick's work includes sales tax research and nexus analysis, income tax preparation and planning, audit defense, and strategic consulting tailored to the unique challenges faced by construction professionals. In addition to his tax work, Nick has experience in business valuations and nonprofit accounting, further broadening his ability to advise clients across a range of financial and operational matters.

Each session is $75 (in person or webinar)
Engineer's Club Lunch $15

Click Here To Get Registered Online

PLEASE NOTE: If you choose the webinar option, there is an additional registration step! You must be registered through Zoom in order to attend. Details are offered after payment and in a confirmation email.

Questions regarding this seminar? Please contact Emily Mandich (800) 557-6957

Modern Post-Frame Structural Design Practice: An Introduction

Presented by: Dr. Dan Hindman

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the primary structural components of post-frame (PF) building systems
• Learn how to conduct structural design of PF systems without diaphragm action
• Learn how to conduct structural design of PF systems with diaphragm action
• Learn how to design isolated post/pier PF foundations
• Identify post-frame design resources available to architects and engineers

Register Here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4485086494510636634

FREE WEBINAR!

How Construction Leaders Create Sustainable Success Without the Burnout

November 5, 2025 • 2:00 PM (EST)
Presented by: Ray Gage

REGISTER NOW

The Brutal Reality: You’ve built a business that can’t function without your constant sacrifice—and it’s slowly damaging your health, your relationships, and your company’s long-term viability.

The Good News: It doesn’t have to stay this way.

WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER

• The hidden cultural forces that sabotage every boundary you try to set
• How your company’s structure guarantees owner burnout
• Why willpower can’t compete with systemic pressure
• How to redesign job roles that don’t require heroic leadership
• Communication systems that function without constant owner involvement
• Decision-making structures that maintain quality without bottlenecking through you
• Steps to shift from reactive crisis management to proactive systems
• How to redefine “dedication” and “professionalism” in your organization
• Practical tools to measure success beyond hours worked and personal sacrifice
• Creating teams that solve problems without you (and actually prefer it that way)
• Client relationships that respect boundaries while exceeding expectations
• Financial systems that reward efficiency over exhaustion

THIS WEBINAR IS FOR YOU IF…

• You understand the balance problem but feel trapped by industry culture
• You’re tired of being the bottleneck in your own business
• You want to build something that can succeed without destroying your life
• You’re ready to challenge how construction leadership “should” work

WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT

This isn’t about time management or productivity hacks. It’s about architectural change—rebuilding the systems and culture of your business so sustainable leadership becomes the natural outcome, not a constant struggle.

REGISTER NOW

Led by Ray Gage, leadership coach, speaker, and author of "Start with Stop." Ray has helped hundreds of construction leaders build companies that create success without requiring personal sacrifice.

Women in Post Frame Book Club
Hosted by Mrs. Post Frame – Emily Marshall

The NFBA Women in Post Frame Book Club is back on Thursday, September 11th, with a new topic: “Too Much: A Guide to Breaking the Cycle of High-Functioning Codependency by Terri Cole”

Join our host, Emily Marshall (Mrs. Post Frame), and fellow women from the post-frame industry for a meaningful conversation focused on building each other up and finding strength through community.

Whether you're a seasoned professional or just getting started, this is a welcoming space to connect, learn, and grow together.

🗓 Date: Thursday, September 11, 2025
🕒 Time: 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM EST
📖 Topic: Too Much: A Guide to Breaking the Cycle of High-Functioning Codependency by Terri Cole

Register Today!

We hope to see you there!

Questions? Email Kathleen Unger at kunger@nfba.org

Excellence in Safety Award

The National Frame Building Association (NFBA) recognizes NFBA member companies that have demonstrated a commitment to improving job-site safety through the development, implementation, and enforcement of a safety program. All applicants will be recognized on the basis of an assessment of their safety program through this application.
 
Have your company's safety policy reviewed by industry experts and get a detailed and confidential analysis of your policy. Find out what you're doing right, and what improvements could be made. How will your company measure up?

DEADLINE: October 24th, 2025

36th Annual Golf Event
&
 Membership Meeting

August 5-6, 2025 

Firefox Golf Club at Par4 Resort
Waupaca, WI

Join us for golf on Tuesday followed by a tailgate party and cookout!	On Wednesday, attendees have a choice between golf or taking a shuttle to attend the Wisconsin Farm Tech Days at Clinton Farms!

Register & Sponsor Online

Click Here To Download Registration & Sponsorship

Register by July 15th to be entered in the
WFBA Early Bird Drawing for this YETI cooler!!

 

Comfort Suites conveniently located on Par 4 Resort Property Reservation Line: 1-715-350-2345 Mention WFBA for special room block rate!  Room Block Rate: $149.00 ROOM BLOCK DEADLINE IS JULY 15TH

 

Thank You Sponsors!!

 

 

Questions regarding this event or registration? Please contact Emily Mandich at the WFBA office (888) 294-0084

October 28, 2025

Architectural Alternatives for Post-Frame Building Systems

Presented by: Dr. Joe Zulovich

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the unique structural features of PFBS
• Demonstrate the code compliance of PFBS
• Demonstrate the energy efficiency and sustainability of PF building systems
• Identify and demonstrate with completed Post-Frame (PF) project case studies the range of applications and architectural features possible with PFBS

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1289626427450036825

Post frame works great for retailers needing large glass facades.

Windows and doors in a post-frame building that are narrower than the post spacing typically do not require structural headers, since roof trusses/rafters in most post-frame buildings bear directly on the posts. Elimination of structural headers enables elimination of trimmer studs (a.k.a. jack studs, shoulder studs) and other special structural members required to support the headers.

Removing headers and their supports not only saves money, but results in an enhanced thermal envelope when framing members are replaced with thermal insulation. Additionally, fewer framing members mean fewer cracks for air infiltration.

Mini-warehouses (figure 1) and service garages typically have several equally-spaced and equally-sized overhead doors making them ideal candidates for post frame. In these buildings, posts are often used to frame both sides of the doors.

Replace the doors in a mini-warehouse with large glass panels, and you can understand why post frame is also ideal for retail stores with large glass facades like that shown in figure 2. In general, any building with large, regularly-spaced door and window openings is an ideal candidate for post frame (figure 3).

Figure 1: The numerous, equally-spaced overhead doors of mini-warehouses are ideal for post frame.

Figure 2: Large, equally spaced windows are well-suited for post frame.

Figure 3: Post frame easily accommodates the size and relative location of door and window openings in this building.

Mechanically- and glue-laminated posts (figures 4 and 5, respectively) are used in the vast majority of today’s post-frame buildings. These posts enable the construction of buildings with relative large floor-to-ceiling heights at prices much less than they could be fabricated with a comparable wood stud wall.

Laminated posts can be fabricated to any length by splicing shorter pieces of wood together. Laminated posts are also straight and inherently more stable because of the laminating process. The only way to get a tall, relatively straight wall with wood studs is to use more expensive, engineered lumber products (e.g., laminated strand lumber, parallel strand lumber).

As wall height increases, bending moments in the wall’s vertical framing elements increase. This increase is not minor. Bending moments induced by uniformly-applied loads increase with the square of the unsupported length of a member. This means that a 20-foot wall stud is subjected to a bending  moment that is four times greater than that for a 10-foot wall stud with the same on-center spacing.

Laminated posts are able to deal with increases in bending moment more effectively than solid-sawn posts. This is because weak areas in one layer of a laminated assembly are supported by adjacent layers — layers with a low probability of having a weakness at the same location. This support of  weak areas in one layer by the adjacent layers gives rise to the phenomena of load sharing. Load sharing is very important in any area of a laminated assembly in which there is a butt joint between two members. Because of load sharing, the design strength of a laminated assembly is greater than the summed total of its individual layers prior to lamination.

The increased bending moments associated with taller walls may be handled by using higher grade lumber or with larger vertical wall framing elements. Another option is to reduce the spacing of the framing elements so that each element is subjected to less load. These options are easy to  accommodate into post-frame building design. It’s one more reason why they get the nod over other framing systems in tall wall applications.

The cost advantage that post-frame buildings hold over low-rise steel frame buildings generally starts to disappear once minimum floor-to-ceiling heights move beyond 20 feet. Below these heights, post-frame holds thermal insulation advantages, if not cost advantages, over steel frame structures. This has made post-frame very popular for storage facilities such as the airplane hangar in figure 6.

It is not uncommon for the required length of vertical wall framing elements to be significantly different in  various locations within a building. Where such length variations occur, structural requirements for the longer elements generally control framing/support system selection. Significant wall framing length variations most commonly occur in the endwall framing of wide buildings with sloped ceilings (the dairy freestall barn in figure 7 is one such example). Not surprisingly, the endwalls in many of these buildings are post-frame.

Buildings whose only purpose is to provide protection from precipitation and/or solar radiation are generally fabricated with one or more open sides. This would include many commodity (e.g. fertilizer, lumber, feed) storage buildings, animal shelters, and park and other recreational shelters. Open sides facilitate quick building access, which can translate into significant cost savings when handling stored materials.

Unless a unique structural support system has been employed, expect the roof above an open wall to be supported by posts with an on-center spacing of 8 or more feet. Since these posts are seldom laterally  supported between their base and crown, they must be designed to resist buckling equally in all horizontal
directions. For this reason they tend to be round poles, square solid-sawn timbers, or square glulam or parallel-strand lumber members. Nail-laminated posts will typically require the addition of face plates to obtain relatively equal bending strength in all horizontal directions.

Wood posts in open-front buildings are often preservative-treated because of their direct exposure to “the elements.” However, in situations where wood posts are supported on concrete piers or walls and fairly well  protected from precipitation with a roof overhang, preservative treatment may be unnecessary.

Component connections are critical to the structural integrity of a framing system. In buildings with large, clearspan wood trusses, the most critical connections are those between the truss and its supports. In addition to gravity-induced forces (a.k.a. bearing loads), these connections must resist shear forces acting perpendicular to the plane of the truss and uplift forces due to wind. Depending upon overall building design,  connections may also be required to transfer bending moment.

Wood posts enable the fabrication of strong, direct, yet inexpensive connections between large trusses and walls. Exact details for post-to-truss connections vary from designer to designer, and may be influenced by post type. Solid-sawn timber and glulam posts are generally notched to form a truss bearing surface. The truss is rested on notches and bolted into place. A special plate/bracket like that shown in figure 12 may be added to increase connection load transfer capabilities. With mechanically-laminated posts, the truss may rest on a shortened outer-ply or on a shortened inner-ply. The later scenario, which is shown in figure 13, places the
bolts in double shear and is a very effective connection.

Stilt buildings are among the least expensive options when building in floodplains, over very poor soils or water, on very steep terrain, and in regions of high snowfall..

Stilt buildings fall into two categories: those with stilts that only support sill plates and floor headers, and those with stilts that connect to both roof and floor framing. The latter are essentially post-frame buildings with wood-framed floors. Exactly how a post-frame stilt building would be detailed depends largely on desired floor, wall and ceiling finishes as they control the spacing of structural frame components.

Spacing of posts used to support a building’s porch, roof overhang and/or arcade (an arcade is a walkway at the edge of a building that has a cover supported by posts) is generally in the 6 to 10 foot range regardless of the building’s structural framing/support system. Given that this spacing is typical of the post spacing in most post-frame buildings, there are benefits to using a post-frame building system anytime a building features a relatively long post-supported porch, roof overhang or arcade.

First, it increases the likelihood that all building support elements will be on similar footings. This speeds construction and minimizes the likelihood of differential settlement. Second, posts used to support a porch, roof overhang or arcade may be aligned with — and then connected via — rafters to posts in the exterior wall to form a more efficient structural frame.