manufactured timber

tnHE problem has been around the I construction industry for so long, everybody's just gotten used to it.

The lumber shipment comes into the yard, is placed into inventory and in a matter of days or weeks, depending on the climate and time of year, the supply warps, twists, cups and splits. Then the best of the lot is purchased by a framing contractor who will be back for more, as the framing material continues to twist, warp, cup and split. As much as 20% of the job may have to be torn out and replaced after the framing inspection, and before the finishers can take over.

If that's not bad enough, long after the job is done and turned over to what has now become an angry customer, dealers continue to hear the woes of the framing subcontractors as they are called back to repair twisted timber and rebuild walls.

Everyone down the line suffers with unhappy customers, and costsnot included in the original bid-accumulate. But producers of new manufactured timber hope to change all of that. Approved by WCLIB as "Certified Glued Lumber," the new product provides a laminated, structurally engineered alternative to green solid sawn timber. Manufactured from smaller, faster growing trees cut from second and third generation tree farms, it comes in sizes framing subcontractors are familiar with.

Contractors "use them like studs, because that's exactly what they are," adds Mike Nicholson of wholesaler All-Coast Forest Products, Chino, Ca.

Two HUD-financed. 20-unit senior citizen housing projects under construction in El Centro, Ca., recently employed RMT, Rosboro Lumber Co.'s contribution to the new manufactured timber supply. The impetus for using RMI says the projects' architect David Coup, "came from the constant frustration any architect feels who works in a dry desert climate dealing with lumber."

"Lumber tends to grow in nice moist forests," he explains. "It's barged down from the Northwest to San Diego, which does nothing to reduce the moisture content-and then it's run over the mountains to the desert where the moisture is probably lUVo of what it is on the coast in San Diego. And the lumber goes berserk! I don't care what quality, what grade of lumber you're buying. If you're buying solid lumber, you're going to have a substantial amount of loss."

Solution-minded contractors have tried everything-from buying huge, heavily strapped carloads of lumber and placing them two months in advance on the job site, to using "astronomically expensive" kiln dried lumber.

Richard Thomas, general mgr., Barr Lumber, El Centro, sits on the board of the non-profit organization sponsoring the HUD project. He suggested RMI explaining that it would cost more at the front end, but save money in the long run. "In our climate, we're always looking for something that's going to be stable," he says. "With green timber, that means trying always to buy old growth, which is difficult. RMT interested us because of the stability factor. We first used it for our garage header, a good sized header. We had very good success with it."

Manufactured timber allows second and third growth to be used in unique ways. "It's straight," Thomas says. "You don't have to worry about a crown in it. And you can get lengths up to 48 feet. We actually have some 48-ft. material here that we're able to cut any of our long stuff out of. We have it on site, ready to supply our customers when they ask for it. The RMT stock really comes close to pricing with the regular timber stock and we have 07o loss in the vard."

Having been on the receiving end of complaints from framing contractors, Thomas understands their struggle. "It's a tough job when you have a timber or a header that goes bad in a wall after the drywall's up and the stucco's up," he says. "Somebody's got to go in there and tear that header out and replace it."

"The problems (twisted or warped beams, cracked sheetrock, etc.) turn up eventually," agrees architect Coup. "And they are normally not reflected in the normal pricing at the beginning of a job. Plus, the long term costs related to losing customer confidence should not be underestimated."

On the HUD project, RMT was used for anything 4x and over. "Pricewise, it's almost identical," says framing subcontractor Cecil Gordon. "It's good to work with at the site and goes into place easily and it holds. Sometimes, I can put in a conventional beam in January and come back in the middle of September and it's gone bad-twisted, with cracks in the drywall. RMT does not do that: it holds."