As the Wall Street Journal put
it in 1991, what Japan is to
electronics and Germany is to
automobiles, the United States
is to home construction: No
other country can match our
combination of efficiency and
quality. My recent experience
framing a house at Japan's first
international home show,
Kobe Interhome '96, confirms
this observation. Japan has a
long way to go to match our
construction techniques.
Increasing interest in learning
about our way of building
is giving some U.S. contractors
an opportunity to participate
in spreading our knowledge,
products, and skills worldwide.
For some, this can mean earning
an all-expense-paid trip to
Japan, or possibly some other
country, just by doing what
they do every day — framing.
Birth of stick framing.
America's stick-framing tradition
started