Redwood clears get big promotional push

OR THE first tirne in two years, the California Redwood Association is promoting clear redwood lumber grades to the consumer market. Full color ads appearing in national consumer magazines, including House Beautiful and House & Garden, are emphasizing clear and clear all heart grades of redwood lumber for distinctive paneling, siding, trim and fascia for custom hontes.

Nationwide CRA newspaper and magazine publicity promoting a new CRA brochure, Ponel A Room llith Redwood Lumber, is geared to home remodeling, a S32 billion market in 1977 . Articles appearing in Popular Mechanics, House Beautiful and other major consurner magazines and newspapers show do-it-yourselfers how to design and install redwood lunrber wall paneling to add insulation, beauty and value to their homes.

Story at a Glance

A major promotion is pushing clear redwood lumber grades to the consumer market.

new CRA sales literature stresses redwood's features as paneling, siding and lumber.

Through other publications, CRA advertising and publicity are also reaching architects, builders, remodeling contractors, designers and engineers. Redwood lumber dealers should stock clear architectural grades to meet 1977's rising demand and sales potential.

Redwood's strongest market, custom housing, amounted to 30% of 1975's'total housing starts and is growing with general homebuilding this year.

Redwood lumber paneling and siding are in demand for all rooms of a house, to complement plants, antiques and art objects currently popular ir.r home furnishings. Custom redwood applications also reflect a new trend towards artistic selfexpression in house design with natural, energy-saving materials.

CRA consumer publicity points out that kiln-dried clear and clear all heart redwood lumber grades, more shrink- and warp-proof than other wood species, provide the finest wall paneling and siding available. Redwood heartwood, with unique decayand insect-resistance, requires no finishes for years of outstanding low-maintenance perfonnance indoors and out.

The CRA does urge that redwood lumber dealers reconrmend and sell flat polyurethane coatings for best performance in humid kitchens and bathrooms. Clear water repellent and noncorrosive hot-dipped galvanized, stainless steel or aluminunr nails are recomntended for exterior redwood lumber uses.

For single- and multi-unit builder developments, CRA publicity is emphasizing redwood paneling and siding as excellent sales assets with practical and esthetic appeal. New housing with unfinished rooms, attics, basements and expandable floorplans will continue to boost demand for redwood in room additions and remodelins.

Low flamespread ratings of redwood lumber makes it practical and economical for institutional as well as home building. Without requiring expensive flame retardant treatment, redwood lumber paneling can appear naturally in public rooms, hospitals, and housing for the elderly, among other special use structures.

Architectural redwood grades are also being used in new low-rise contmercial building and remodeled offices, apartments, and entertainment centers, as well as resort-recreation facilities and vacation homes.

With close to half of today's households consisting of only one or two people, enriching small living spaces means new sales potential for redwood short clears. New CRA doit-yourself brochures for rugged redwood plant holders and other projects are being publicized in national newspaper and magazine articles to help stimulate consumer demand for short clears.

There's a redwood pattern and grade for every application-all especially suited for today's lifestyles. Dealers should take advantage of the wide variety of redwood grades and sizes and the wide range of redwood promotion for bigger sales in '77

Through their redwood suppliers, dealers should order CRA idea booklets and construction tipsheets, including Ponel A Room With Redwood Lumber and the newest on short clears, Redwood Projects for Plants, for customer give-aways. For a free sample kit of sales aids and a promotion aids price list, write to the California Redwood Association, Dept. CSC, 617 Montgomery St., San Francisco, Ca.94111.