“Advanced framing” has been around a long time. Introduced as “optimum value engineering,” or OVE, by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the 1960s, the concept is simple: use less wood in the wall so you can use more insulation. For decades, the idea has hung around without really catching on. But in recent years, as government policy has driven a rapid toughening of the energy code, advanced framing has started to emerge as an important strategy for meeting code without pricing your product out of the market.
