Testing Capabilities
With a ceiling height of 38 feet, the SBC Research Institute will allow for accurate full-scale testing and analysis of a variety of construction products in a real-world environment. The facility was designed with flexibility in mind to allow testing of many different materials such as trusses, wall panels, engineered lumber, fiber reinforced products, field repair methods and cold formed steel. In each test, multiple sensors within the structural system will collect data on various properties of the structural framework including flow of loads through the various interconnected framing elements.

Our 40’ x 90’ strong floor will provide us a great deal of testing flexibility:

• We can build a two-story structure inside our facility and test it.
• We can place undulations on our floor system and simulate the actual lateral and vertical displacements that take place during an earthquake.

Our SBC Research Institute facility will give the industry the ability to test:

• Standard design loads on a single component;
• Drag and shear loads on a single component;
• Standard design loads on a component system;
• Drag and shear loads on a component system both parallel and perpendicular to the components;
• Unbalanced and bidirectional wind loads;
• Simulated wind uplift loads;
• Cyclic loading at application points from the foundation to the peak of the roof;
• Any point loading condition that a building could possibly have applied to it;
• Loading applied in 3 axes simultaneously, to simulate both construction and environmental loads.

Read the latest on SBCRI – featured in SBC Magazine – and get answers to some commonly asked questions about the industry's testing facility. Learn more about testing in the SBCRI brochure.

Interested in Beginning Testing?
Submit an idea for industry testing, or learn more about conducting proprietary testing on your product.

“The SBC Research Institute couldn’t come at a better time … The fact-based analysis that will come out of the testing facility will increase quality and decrease costs of houses and other structures, positively changing our industry forever.” – Barry Dixon, WTCA President and CEO of True House, Inc.

“This will allow the component industry to perform an in-depth analysis on loading and resistance and make much better technical decisions on behalf of our industry. Ultimately, the industry will have a much better feel for the anticipated field performance of the products tested.” –Kendall Hoyd, SBCRI President and President of Idaho Truss & Component Company