" The one thing you wanna notice right away is were using 2 by 6 studs for the exterior wall which will give us the opportunity to put in fiber glass for an R30 factor [unk] . It's not that big a deal in southern hot climates but, it's a, it's a real payback where you have real cold weather and you wanna keep the cold weather out. Also, it's an advantage from the point of view of finishing off inside the house and you put the windows and the 2 by 6 parti------ [unk] outside the wall. You've got that extra depth for blinds or whatever."

" Now Riley, let's talk about the lay out coz------"

" Right."

" what we've got here are the pressure treated shoe and top plate which are always put together at the assembly stage so that when you do the lay out, you can do the lay out of your locations on both at the same time."

" At the same time exactly. But before you start laying it out, the first thing they're gonna do is cut these plates to lane [unk] ."

" Yes."

" So that on this last stud here, they're gonna end up on a 16-inch center."

" Exactly."

" So that you'll flip the stud just so [unk]"

" So that you don't have the top and bottom plates kind of wobbling in there not fastened to a vertical member."

" Right."

" To help us along, this tape has got every 16, wherever the 16 inches is. It's, it's colored in red."

" Right."

" So it stands out for you."

" Exactly. Now let's meet Brian Redling [unk] from APA-The Engineered Wood Association. Hey Brian."

" Hey Bob."

" How are you?"

" Good."

" Now one of the objectives in building this dream house is to make it as strong as it possibly can be to withstand hurricanes, earthquakes and the like. And let's talk a little bit about some of the materials that were using here."

" This is a laminated veneer lumber header that were using. It's superior to a dimension lumber header. It's made similar to ply wood in that the veneer is tilled and used to produce the beam. But in this case, the veneer is not cross oriented as you have with plywood."

" It's all going in the same direction."

" Right. So------"

" All the veneer is working for you. And I know if you can see it well in an extreme close up here but there must be 20 layers out of that."

" Right. So, that is what makes this a lot stronger than a regular 2 by 8. By using individual pieces of veneer, you eliminate a lot of the straight through distinct characteristics of wood such as knots and slope of grain that you would have in a 2-bound [unk] ."

" It really is engineered."

" Right."

" What other products are we using in the construction of the house that are----"

" Were gonna be using an oriented strand board exterior wall sieving------"

" Yes."

" to create our sheer wall. This is a product that's made with the same real adhesive that is used in a laminated veneer lumber beam or plywood."

" And what kind of adhesive is it? It's not something that people need to worry about in terms of allergies is it?"

" The [unk] of formaldehyde from this product is almost immeasurable in a, in laboratory setting. Very low and practically non-existent."

" Right."

" But, yet I know that a lot of builders even are concerned that OSB or any strand board or sometimes they miss, they call it by the misnomer chipboard that it can delaminate, especially if you've got flooding situations, a lot of water."

" Right."

" This product is manufactured with the full intention that is to be exposed to weather. That includes rain or temporary period of time. Under normal construction delays, this product will not lose strength after it's exposed to rainfall."

" Yes. But what about if it's immersed in water in a flooding situation?"

" That shouldn't be a problem either. That's part of the testing at APA is to fully impregnate this product with water using a vacuum of, it's, it's injected more or less into the, the interior of the panel------"

" Yes."

" And then we test the panel to make sure that it hasn't loss strength."

" Yes. Great. Well let's see how they're coming along with the wall here. Okay now, were sliding in what you call the Jack stud. This is where you're gonna have a window of opening. And so you have 2 of the tacks set from either side of these studs. And then, down at the bottom, we'll have what they call the cripples which are these short cutoffs going ahead the side and on 16-inch setters. At the top, Ill bring in the other one of these extra heavy headers which also get nailed together. Once the wall is ready to go up, there are 2 or 3 things that need to be done. First, on the outer perimeter some braces so that when we race the wall, it doesn't fall over the side. Secondly, on the sides of the walls, some 2 by 4's that will help"