History

RedBuilt™ (formerly the Commercial Division of Trus Joist®) was originally founded in 1960 as Trussdeck Corporation by Art Troutner and Boise native Harold “Red” Thomas. When they first met in 1958, Troutner was already an accomplished inventor, architect and engineer. At the time, Thomas was a traveling lumber salesman who had studied forestry at the University of Idaho. Together they invented the lightweight wood and steel composite Open-Web truss, and developed the engineered wood products laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and I-joists.

After merging their franchise operations in 1969, the company was renamed Trus Joist Corporation. During the early 1970s, it became increasingly difficult to source high quality old growth lumber required for their products. To address the issue, they invented laminated veneer lumber -- a stronger, lighter weight and longer wood product for headers and beams, I-joist flanges, concrete forms and scaffold planks.

Ambitious growth goals set by the management team in the 1980s led to the opening of a dozen new manufacturing plants and over 130 new sales offices, which raised the employee base to over 2,600. Following the acquisition of two manufactured wood window companies, Norco Windows and Dashwood Industries, the company restructured as TJ International. Facing competition from larger lumber manufacturers in the 1990s, TJ entered a joint venture with MacMillan Bloedel, a company that had developed parallel strand lumber to compete with TJ’s Microllam. This new venture of their engineered lumber subsidiaries created Trus Joist MacMillan, and was headed by president and CEO Tom Denig.

As old growth logging faced federal restrictions based on environmental impacts, engineered wood structural products gained a stronger foothold in the industry. Fueled by international growth and demand and the opening of new manufacturing plants, the company grew to a $577 million company in the mid 90s.

In 1999, The Weyerhaeuser Company acquired MacMillan Bloedel to help boost their packaging operations. Three weeks later, they acquired the outstanding shares of TJ International for $720 million, making Weyerhaeuser the leading provider of engineered wood products under their Trus Joist brand for both residential and commercial applications.

Atlas Holdings, along with a group of industry veterans that are former senior managers at Trus Joist, acquired the commercial division of Trus Joist from Weyerhaeuser in October, 2008. This group includes Tom Denig, the former CEO of TJ International who now serves as Chairman; Bill Walters, a former Vice President of Trus Joist Corporation is Vice-Chairman; and Kurt Liebich, former Vice President of Trus Joist Corporation, serves on the Board of Directors.

Today, RedBuilt™ is the world's leading manufacturer of engineered lumber products for commercial construction applications. Our environmentally-friendly products address the dwindling supply and fluctuating costs of old growth trees needed for solid-sawn lumber. These innovative and patented products are uniformly strong, defect-free and guaranteed to last, and provide builders and designers with increased flexibility and labor cost savings.

Learn more about our engineered lumber products.