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Contractors Consider Alternatives
With rising prices and diminishing supplies of lumber, contractors are considering alternative materials for ftaming.
More engineered wood products arc being specified. Although they cost more than dimensional lunber, their consistent quality without warping and twisting saves labor costs and callbacks. Many require less field cutting and enable builders to achieve special effects such as longer spans and higho ceilings. Sales are climbing fast with a l60vo gowth anticipated by 2000.
More worrisome to those firmly entrenched in lumber sales are developing signs of builders' willingness to use light gauge steel as framing material. At a recent National Association of Home Builders meeting in Las Vegas, Nv., 407o showed interest in using engineered wood with gqo optrngtoW steel.
So far steel studs have been used to frame only about 37o of the homes built in this country, but steel scrap was used to ftame a recently completed test home constructed in Bowie,
Md., by NAHB. A few Oklahoma and West Coast builders are using steel with others said to be considering a switch.
The disadvantage of high material cost is thought to be offset by price stability. Although most builders and subcontractors are not faniliar with steel, its resistance to shrinking and warping, light weight and capability of being preassembled off site are attractive. Some feel fire resistant qualities will appeal to consumers.
Negatives that can be overcome are said to be teaching framers to work with screws and screw guns instead of hammers and nails and processing pemrits individually because most residential building codes don't cover steel construction.
Adams Build America in Dundee, Fl., is a retailer detennined to get a jump on the competition. Last month president Greg Adams invited over 100 builders to his store for a steel stud conference including a framing demonsradon.
"Olrrl Not Causing Price Hike"
The nation's economic recovery, not the timber shortage brought about by federal logging cutbacks and protection of the spotted owl, is causing high lumber prices, the Congressional Research Service reports.
Researchers for the branch of the Library of Congress blame timber and housing industry leaders for exaggerating the northern spotted owl's effect on the lumber market. They add that the substantial increases will not significantly slow housing starts or economic recovery.
Wood Pallets Are No. 1 Ghoice
Wood is the material of choice for 984o of the pallet users responding 0o a recent survey. Availability, cost and strength were considered the greatest advantages of woodpallets.
Co-sponsored by the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association, the survey showed availability, durability and the capability of being reused, stacked and racked were most important to pallet buyers.