PLIB Launches Online Learning Portal

The Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau (PLIB) has launched Fundamentals of Lumber Grading, a comprehensive introductory online training course providing detailed foundational knowledge of lumber grading. With its deep dive into softwood lumber grading basics the course is an ideal training tool for anyone involved in buying, selling or trading softwood lumber, as well as architects, engineers, specifiers, contractors, code officials and others who design, build and inspect wood-based structures.

Fundamentals of Lumber Grading is the first of several training programs PLIB plans to offer at education.plib.org, the agency’s new Education and Training website. It serves as a prerequisite to PLIB’s three-course curriculum

designed to help prospective mill graders learn to grade to the National Grade Rule standards for studs, light framing, structural light framing and joists and planks.

“Before anyone can learn to grade lumber they must have a clear understanding of how and why lumber grading came to be, the characteristics that impact lumber grades and how to measure and evaluate those characteristics,” explains Erik Wilson, PLIB’s Executive Vice President, “Those same fundamentals are critical to wood-based structural design, lumber specification and product use. Fundamentals of Lumber Grading is the most comprehensive online offering available.”

Based on in-person training PLIB has provided its members for decades, Fundamentals accommodates a range of learning styles with a variety of content delivery methods, including instructional videos, hundreds of photos depicting characteristics found in real lumber, and interactive 3D models derived from actual mill scanner data. Each of its 10 units is comprised of

multiple lessons, each of which concludes with a quiz designed to confirm comprehension before learners can move to the next lesson. 

Subjects covered include:

• Lumber Grading Background
• Tree Growth & Wood Structure
• Working with Fractions
• Lumber Grading Resources
• Natural Characteristic Identification And Measurement
• Manufacturing Characteristics Identification And Measurement
• How Grades Relate To Design Values And Lumber Use
• Lumber Drying Techniques
• Expansion and Contraction
• Parts of Grade Stamp
• Grade Rule Books And NGR Interpretations

Fundamentals is offered as a stand-alone course for anyone involved in lumber sales, purchasing, wood design, specification and use. It is a required prerequisite for PLIB’s NGR grader training curriculum designed to prepare learners to become certified mill graders. Subsequent course curriculum will be launched in the coming weeks.

Visit plib.org/education.