T?eated wood adds up on bottom line

INCREASED interest in pressure

Itreated wood products for deck construction is one change building product retailers in westem states can live with and benefit from. Treated products give retailers readily available, economical alternatives to offer customers, alternatives that can last a lifetime.

The availability and price of cedar and redwood have played a part in the growth of treated products. Not long ago, these woods were standard for decking use, but relatively little old growth cedar and redwood is available today. New growtl heartwood offers some protection from insect attack, but it is often cost prohibitive.

Story at a Glance

Treated wood can replace redwood and cadar for decks ways to sell confidence of long life and insect resistance.

Today's redwood buyers typically choose lower grades that contain higher amounts of sapwood with liule resistance to decay and temfte attack.

Understructure materials specified for decks also are changing. Although in many areas, the vast majority of decks are built on concrete pier blocks to avoid ground contact of wood, protection ftom decay and termite attack is still a concem in exterior wood construction. A transition from untreated species to pressure treated species can solve the problem.

The durability of reated wood in the Pacific Northwest has been underscored by an extensive and expanding number of county and municipal building codes requiring pressure treated wood for use in decks. Although building inspectors, builders and architects in arid states are less familiar with the benefits of treated wood, the rend is becoming evident.

Product specifiers are beginning to rcalize that many man-created elements. such as the moisture from lawn sprinkling systems and ornamental vegetation in contact with wood, can foster ideal settings for decay. Even arid states have drywood

The Merchant Magazine termites which thrive with minimal moisture and easily invade unprotected wood.

Longevity is the bottom line. Treated wood lasts longer. Dennis Hayward, Western Wood Preservers Institute, recalls a recent conversation with a European associate: *I asked him why 25Vo of the average home in England is built with treated wood (their weather is similar to that of northwestern states). I was told that Europeans expect homes to last so they build them that way. Their mind-set is ingrained in longevity with the evidencp found in their construction."

Hayward believes quality homebuilders should use treated wood in the subsfructures of kitchens, baths, laundries and other areas exposed to higb humidity, moisture and dry rot.

Treated southem pine is creating a significant change with its arrival in the southwestem market. Plants such as California Cascade Industries, which now treats southern pine in their Fontana and Woodland, Ca., facilities, are using it in place of westem species.

Treating southern pine is desirable for a number of reasons, according o California Cascade's Hank Feenstra and Richard Rose. It fills in for wood species, including Douglas fir and hem-fir, in limited supply from the northwest because of restrictions created by the Endangered Species Act, and it adapts easily to the treating process because it does not require incising. Southern pine also is extremely attractive and competitively priced, they point ouL

Facts on Treated

. Trealcd wood accounted for approximately 2l.5Vo of the timber industry's total value of shipments in 1991.

. More than 550 million cubic feet of lumber and industrial wood products were treated in 1991.

r Shipments in 1991 were valued at $2.5 billion, 1.7 Vo above 1990 and exports were valued at $50.5 million.

. About 565 plants in 48 states treat wood.