Treated sales from a dealer's viewpoint

FI EALERS throughout the l/ Western United States are enthusiastic about their involvement with pressure treated lumber.

Retailers serving both contractors and homeowners discussed their successes and strategies in a recent phone survey. Here are some highlights:

Rick Herr, president of Herr Lumber in South Seattle and Auburn, Wa., said, "We sell a lot of pressure treated wood at both stores. We started the program eight or 10 years ago and it has been very profitable.

"When treated wood was available only in green it was not too popular with customers. Since the brown tones have been introduced, it has been selling extremely well. In the last three years we have increased sales 300/o each year.

"One thing that has helped us is the local building codes. King County, where we are operating, requires all outdoor projects be built with pressure treated wood or naturally durable species. This helps the treated wood market immensely. lf a customer wants 4 x l2s for an outdoor project, for example, we have it in our pressure treated stock. Naturally durable species are hard to get in that size and very expensive, particularly the durable all-heart grades.

"We have had tremendous customer acceptance because of our promotion program and have expanded the number of skus we've carried each year for the last several years. We advertise in spring, summer and fall and merchandise with literature on how to build fences and decks. Giving away a free deck installation was another promotion we had success with.

"Another benefit of pressure treated wood is that it holds up better in our yards. lt doesn't turn grey or check. In other words, it has a much longer shelf life.

"Our success has sold us on pressure treated wood."

Steve Spangler of Sutherlin Lumber in West Valley, Ut., said, "For

us, pressure treated lumber just gets better every year. People are becoming more and more aware of the value. When it can last 40 years and more. it is hard for the finest all heart wood to compete. More of our customers are turning to treated wood.

"We are a self-service yard and we display pressure treated wood with literature up front. We also advertise it frequently.

" l foresee even better sales of it in our market .as acreage of naturally decay resistant species continues to shrink and their prices stay high."

Ed Vidonic, an estimator at Grant Road Lumber in Tucson, Az., reports, "We move a great deal of pressure treated wood in our market. Use of fire retardant treatment and treated wood studs in commercial buildings is really growing.

"We have special projects needing pressure treated products all the time. F'or example, we are now supplying special size timbers for a water tower at a hospital and for a water wheel near the zoo.

"For some time we have been into fire-retardant treated wood. ln 1980, after a big fire in Tucson, we had 5000 board feet offire retardant pressure treated 2x4s on hand for rebuilding walls.

"We carry foundation grade plywood for mobile home foundations and Permanent Wood Foundations.

"Another segment of business we like is highway guard post rails. We bid on these every chance we get."

Tim Waggoner of Kingston Lumber in Kingston, Wa., says, "We like pressure treated wood. It has been a good product for us. We have timbers displayed here in the yard in a bulkhead setting that helps our customers see what the landscape ties and other products look like in place.

"The appearance of the pressure treated product we are getting today has good customer acceptance. Another thing that helps our sales is our salespeople. They really know the product.

"We also have deck building seminars on weekends. These are well attended and work well for us."

Stan Wilson, general manager of BMC West Corp. (formerly Boise Cascade Building Materials) in Bellevue, Wa., reports, "We have sold pressure treated wood at our retail store and to contractors and builders for the last five years. It has been a good item. I used pressure treated wood to replace a deck at my home last year and am very pleased with it.

"Our business is mostly with homebuilders. If a remodeling contractor gets into building a deck, we sella lot of treated wood. If the interest rate stays below l20h.we look for a good year. The key is the interest rate. It will dictate the future."

"ln the early 70s people stopped buying used railroad ties for landscaping because the supply and quality was so bad no one wanted them," says Jim Corradi of Landscape Ties in Santa Barbara, Ca.

"l retired as a landscape architect in 1983, moved to the West Coast, and looked for a good way to landscape the house I bought on a hill. I decided there was a need for a high quafity landscape timber, so 3-l/2 years ago I started this business.

"Our business has grown in Part because of the high quality product we supply. We use only ground contact material treated to a 0.40 retention by Western Wood Preservers Institute members. We can guarantee performance.

"Our business has caught on because everyone has some kind of wallor project they can build of landscape timbers. Since we started, our business has doubled every year," Corradi concluded.

Story at a Glance

Dealer6 in fourwestern states re port on their real life experiences selling pressure trcated wood ... profit and customer acceptance are favorable factors.