"So, what does NTA do?"

 “So, what does NTA do?” does not have a simple answer. Trying to explain a third party agency to someone outside the industry is not always easy. Except when they ask what the test lab does. That one is surprisingly simple; “It’s like Mythbusters, for building materials.”

So, what does the test lab do? Well, we shoot 2 X 4’s out of a cannon. We blast windows with rain. We pound bathroom tiles with more weights than a body builder. We compress walls until they snap. Non-destructive testing, destructive testing, accelerated aging…  we push building materials and products to their breaking point. But while we are doing that, we are gathering data, filling in spreadsheets, analyzing breakpoints, solving equations, and in general, creating a scientific ‘picture’ of the products performance in real life situations.

NTA created a video series of 11 videos to help explain what the test lab does (all 11 of these videos are available on our website, or our YouTube Channel). What these videos DON’T show is why we do it. We do it for you. For the personal safety and well-being of everyone who will live, work and play in the structures that these building products will become a part of. We do it to help protect those who live in seismic areas, or climates with hurricanes, or structures that will have to bear a large snow load.

Perhaps the answer to, “So, what does NTA do?,” should be, “We help make certain the roof over your head, stays over your head”.