Texas wood distributo rltreater

EASTI:X l:oresr Products is a uni- L que company. The llouston, Tx., family-owned and operated business started in 1964 as a supplier of housing tops and builder's materials for a local home contractor. Today, the $25 million operation is both a wood distribution center and a wood preserver serving lumber yards within a 250 mile radius of llouston with treated lumber and white wood and plywood.

Bobbie Schiel, founder and owner, began his business career at l9 when he started the Schiel Drywall (-ontracting Company. The switch from doing building construction work to supplying builders with construction materials came easy. In fact, Schiel switched his company's operations again in January, 1988, when a new state-of-the-art wood treating facility was added to Eastex Forest Products. The retail and builder-trade operation was closed with the customer base changed from builders to lumber yards.

The company's state-of-the-art wood treating facility, a 6-l/2' x 60' Woodtec unit, was completed in December, 1987, and was at full capacity in April, 1988.

Eastex has a payroll of 52 employees and a fleet of I 5 trucks to service major, chain and independent lumber yards in Houston, East and South Texas areas.

"You can't sell from an empty wagon," commented Schiel. "That's why we are working hard to improve our treated material inventory."

Currently, Eastex maintains three million feet of treated lumber in its covered warehouse facilities with white wood and plywood accounting for an additional l0 million feet of inventory to serve customers.

"We are striving to have five million feet of treated materials in stock." said Schiel.

The wood preserving segment of Eastex Forest Products' business. was built on the western boundary of the company's l8 acre facility in northeast Houston.

"We exceeded all EPA requirements constructing our wood treating facility," commented Schiel. "l

For photos

please see page 34 wanted to be sure no one driving by would have any reason to suspect we were operating a chemical treating facility. No trouble no way!"

The 80' x 480' drip pad on which the treating plant and kiln are located has a retaining wall surrounding the lacility and a catch basin large enough to hold all of the stored chemical materials, should all storage tanks fail at one time.

Story at a Glance

Company adds treating facility. .. changes customer base state ol art plant exceeds all EPA regulations.

When the plans were drawn, Schiel and his people planned for a sizable truck entrance so the lumber could be unloaded directly from incoming trucks to the treating tramway or placed in the wood-holding sheds adjacent to the cylinder. Because the new Woodtec unit has a door at each end, Eastex can treat a new charge while the last charge of treated lumber is being unloaded, placed on the drip pad and the next charge is loaded.

Schiel placed the kiln directly behind the treating tube to reduce handling of products for those customers who prefer KDAT material.

Rounding out the distribution and treating operation, Eastex has a complete re-saw line in-house to handle special sizes and custom orders. In addition, the plant has a large band saw, edge-molder, planer and a complete maintenance shop to keep all fork-lifts and trucks in first class operating condition.

"Our objective is to provide quality service and quality products and be competitive," was the way Bobbie Schiel put it. "That's why we buy from quality suppliers like TempleInland Inc. "