WHEN TALENTED PROFESSIONALS TALK, WE LISTEN.
Admit it, you have an inquiring mind, and you want to know about the team designing your Sun Valley dream home. We understand the inclination. So we decided to bring you Shop Talk, conversations with the talented pros designing, building, outfitting your homes and those who offer options for work spaces outside your home.
QB Corporation
Michael Lane, Vice President & General Manager,
& Jaycee Lane
QB Corporation is a premier glulam manufacturer located in Salmon, Idaho. The company produces large quantities of both stock and custom glulams, columns, arches, and QB Rim with the capability to do CNC fabrication. Michael ensures that they are producing enough product, keeping employees safe, maintaining a strong quality product, and continuing to improve customer satisfaction. He primarily works with production, quality assurance, safety, accounting, sales, and marketing.
What services do you offer?
We offer quality glulam products with a wide range of depths, widths, and lengths combined with our various textures and finishes to ensure that our customers receive the products they desire. Recently, we also increased our capability to fabricate our products by adding a CNC machine that gives us the ability to do anything from complex connections to diminishing onsite work for the contractor.
What geographic areas do you serve?
We mainly serve the western 11 states, but we have product that goes out all over the country as well as internationally.
What’s new in your field?
Our ability to fabricate with our CNC machine. Having CNC fabrication gives us the ability to explore new areas such as mass timber construction as well as ensuring that our fabrication has the highest quality on the market. CNC fabrication can save contactors time and money by minimizing on-site labor by pre-drilling holes, cutting kerfs for steel connections, bevel cuts, and tapers.
What projects are you most excited about right now?
It’s hard to pick a favorite, but recently we had the opportunity to provide glulam beams for the new University of Idaho basketball arena. The arena is a showcase of Idaho lumber and manufacturing since a majority of the wood products were sourced locally. It’s been great working with the College of Natural Resources to show off the capabilities of locally sourced wood products.
How do you see your field changing in the next five to ten years?
A common issue facing our industry is lack of labor. I believe that the technology is already there to alleviate some on-site labor, but builders and distributors have to get accustomed to adopting the available technology. For us, it is the CNC machine. We believe we can use it to help builders that have a lack of labor. Contractors and distributors can work off the plans to render drawings that give the QB team the ability to prepare the beams so that it doesn’t have to be done on the jobsite. That helps speed up the building process.
I also see a change occurring in the amount of wood used for building. Climate change is a common topic and will continue to be discussed. Wood is far more efficient when looking at the carbon output with manufacturing wood products versus looking at the carbon footprint with steel and concrete. Wood also sequesters carbon during the life of the tree and continues to store carbon when the wood is correctly harvested and used for building products. I believe for those reasons and others, the demand for wood products like QB glulam beams will only continue to grow.
What are you most known for?
We are known in Sun Valley, Idaho, for the different textures we can apply to the beams, along with our ability to do curved beams. Our textures are light rough sawn, rough sawn, and wire brushed. Each one offers a unique look to make beams look like a hand sawn timber (rough sawn) or to give an aged, weathered appearance (wire brush). These textures fit the theme of many custom homes in the area. Our curves are one of my personal favorites and something we are known for with custom homes and commercial buildings. We build curves needed for each project to get the correct fit, whether is in an entry way or a custom truss.
“We are known in Sun Valley, Idaho, for the different textures we can apply to the beams, along with our ability to do curved beams. Our textures are light rough sawn, rough sawn, and wire brushed.”
–Michael Lane, VP & General Manager
What words do people use to describe your work?
Reliable, quality, and consistent. We strive to make the best quality product on the market and do it consistently by continuously meeting customer expectations and keeping the project on time.
What are the most rewarding things about your work?
Getting to see finished projects and sharing that with our employees is very rewarding. We send out a lot of beams not knowing what they are being used for as the distributor sends them out, so it is extra special to hear about how happy customers are and seeing how the beams were used in the project. This work also gives us the opportunity to help our community in Salmon, Idaho, and we proudly make sure we give back to our community and our employees.
How did you get your start here?
I have been surrounded by the industry my whole life. My grandfather and a partner started QB in 1977, mainly serving the Idaho Falls, Jackson, and Sun Valley areas with glulam beams. My father worked in the business and eventually bought it with another partner. I’m the third generation working in the company with aspirations of becoming an owner. Throughout college I worked summers at QB in the mill. Once I graduated college, I did an internship for another engineered wood company called RedBuilt. After the internship I came to QB Corporation as product development and marketing manager until this last year when I was promoted to general manager and VP.
What do you enjoy about living and working where you do?
Location-wise I don’t think there are many better places than Salmon. I enjoy the outdoors and small-town life, while also having the ability to travel to larger towns if needed. I enjoy working at QB and all of the people I work with. It’s also been rewarding seeing the success of QB shared with the employees and community.
What is sure to make you laugh?
Recently, my wife and I had our first child. While there have been some sleepless nights, which I expected, what I didn’t expect was to laugh as much as I do. We could sit and watch his new facial expressions and movements all day.
Mountainwood Construction
David Wood, Owner
Mountainwood Construction provides quality in every aspect of construction services. They go the extra mile when it comes to providing professional construction services throughout the Wood River Valley. They take pride in taking your vision and making it a reality. As the owner of Mountainwood Construction, David Wood has decades of experience in all phases of construction and believes that details matter. The firm approaches each new project as an opportunity to create something beautiful with their clients.
What services do you offer?
We specialize in building custom homes and performing transformational remodels from an idea to completion. We also offer project design, architectural plans, and custom painting and staining. With each service we provide exceptional customer service and client satisfaction.
What geographic area do you serve?
We currently serve the greater Wood River Valley.
Do you have any specialties?
Remodeling can offer a host of unexpected challenges. Our specialty is working our way through each challenge and achieving exceptional results by project completion.
What’s your professional background?
Our team has a mixed background primarily in construction, business, and customer service. This combination allows us to successfully serve our clients in a variety of ways. Dave Wood, our founder, is a lifelong contractor with a degree in business and a minor in construction.
How do you see your field changing in the next five to ten years?
As we all know, recent world events have inspired a renewed focus on home, changing much of how we see the place we live and what we want it to provide for us. This re-examination has opened the door to new creators and designers who will change the baseline for what homes look and feel like for this generation. Increasingly, this will be more environmentally-minded building with a focus on energy efficiency and organic materials and methods. New technologies such as VR will further job safety and provide more homeowners and carpenters with a 3-D version of plans on site.
What project(s) are you most excited about right now?
Among our most exciting is a complete home remodel and addition in Sun Valley for former NFL and collegiate head coach Jim Mora, his fiancée Kathy, and their family.
What is the first question you ask a client?
How can we help?
What other specialties do you have in-house?
Beyond offering complete project management from project conception to completion, we now also offer architectural plans, design, as well as custom paint and finishes in-house.
What project(s) are you the most proud of?
We are wrapping up the My Sun Valley Home property management building. It will serve as the main office of their organization as well as provide housing for their employees. It’s a beautiful building with a great purpose and we are proud of it.
Do you have favorite materials to use or a style you prefer or are known for?
Glass is our favorite material. Our team loves clean lines, lots of light, and bringing the most of our breathtaking outdoors inside as possible. If we had to highlight a style we want to be known for, it’s bringing the outside in.
What’s the difference between a good house and a great house?
Light. Great design and great construction can provide exceptional natural light to a space and that single element will add timeless enjoyment and satisfaction to any home.
What word(s) do people use to describe your work?
Detailed and honest. We like details. We want everything to be just right on every project and we want every client to feel that we have honesty in our work. We enjoy sharing details of their project with them every step of the way.
“We love building; we think about vanities on the weekends, talk about kitchens after work with our friends, and then get to go to work and build people’s homes Monday through Friday.”
–David Wood, Owner
What do you enjoy most about your work and why?
For us, it’s about providing the clients with a space they love. We love building; we think about vanities on the weekends, talk about kitchens after work with our friends, and then get to go to work and build people’s homes Monday through Friday. When we can give a client keys to their dream home and not just a house, that’s an amazing feeling.
What is the most exciting new product or development in your field?
We feel that sustainable products are game-changers in the construction field. We are building structures that we expect to stand for a century or more; every material we can use to produce that home without depleting our natural resources is important.
What are the biggest challenges in your field?
Recently, procuring materials has been a challenge but more and more, overall skilled labor has become hard to find. Schools across the country have decreased or elimin-ated their vocational programs leaving a gap between the truly skilled carpenter and the laborer just beginning his or her construction career.
How did you get your start?
I was raised in the custom home market; my dad and my older brother are both custom home builders and it has always been a large part of my life. I moved here from Phoenix in 2007 where I had been working for a large builder supervising the construction of a residential subdivision. Like a lot of people I have met in the valley, we moved here and didn’t know anyone but loved the town and the beauty of the area. I started a small company here specializing in honey-dos and small remodels while I got to know the valley. I built my construction company from there.
If you weren’t a craftsman, what would you be doing?
I tried to become a nurse, but I passed out at the sight of blood too many times. I think I really liked the “idea” of healthcare more than it was an actual fit for me. But I did meet my wife that way, so it worked out well in the end.
What do you enjoy most about living here?
I enjoy the seasons changing and the energy the whole valley gives off when we get ready for a new season. I like the first snow, the first warm week in spring. It’s something you can see and feel throughout the whole community. Like the feeling of a good snow day, when everyone gets excited; it makes this a great place to live.
