WESTERN LUMBER COMPANY

Lumbermen Seek New iAqrket For Wood in Flooring Field

The lumber industry is taking steps to expand the market for wood-floor construction by up to one billion board feet of lumber annually. As a start in this direction, the Timber Engineering Co., of Washington, D.C., service agency of the lumber industry and affiliate of tl-re National Lumber Manufacturers Association, has awarded a $20,000 research contract to Washington State University at Pullman. The university is contributing an additional $10,000, since this new project will parallel ancl partially overlap an existing research program on wood-panel construction.

The contract awarded by the Timber Engineering Co. provides for a one-year study of promising' new methods of wood floor construction and for development of rrew designs fort field and laboratory testing.

Primary objective of the project will be to develop allwood flooring systems to capture a potential market for the use of about oner billion board feet of lumber ar.rnually as joists, sub-flooring and finishecl flooring.

William Scheick, vice-president of research for the Timber Engineering Co., said the project will explore "the full range of floor construction engineering from modifications of present methods to new approaches in design." Scheick explained: "Our studies may point the way to development of several new products by lumber and woocl flooring manufacturers or lead to new methods of floor frarning that ir-rcorporate plumbing, heating and insulatior.r."

Because reduction of on-site labor costs is a main target of home builders, the study will include an investigation of wood-flooring systems designed especially for rapid assembly and installation.

"llere, the objective would be to help builders lay the entire flooring system of a house, including joists, subfloor and finished floor, in a day or less," Scheick pointecl out.

"If results of the one-year program are as encouraging as we expect, we plan to begin experimental construction and field testing of new floor system designs in 1961," Scheick added.

Sponsors of the program include the Fairhurst Lumber Co., San Rafael, Calif.; Koppers Co., Pittsburgh; McCloud River Lumber Co., McCloud, Calif.; Weyerhaeuser Co., Tacoma, Wash., and the Southern Pine Association, New Orleans; National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association, Memphis, Tenn., and Southern Hardwood Producers, Inc., Memphis.

First phase of the study will involve field surveys of basementless home construction in Los Angeles and other areas where large numbers of basementless homes are built. Officials of the National Association of Home Builders have promised the full cooperation of member builders throughout the country.

A Technical committee representing sponsors of the program includes C. H. Hoffman, Koppers Co.; G. A. Horstkotte, McCloud River Lumber Co., and Ed Williston, Weyerhaeuser Co.

lookee Where Vic Rorh Moved His Triongle lumber Co. in Kensington

After 12 years of bucking Oakland's downtown traffic on his way to the office from his Kensington (Berkeley) home, Vic Roth finally went semi-suburbanite, moved his Triangle Lumber Co. office, and is now probably the safest, best-protected wholesaler in Northern California. Vic's new ofifice, 264 Arlington Avenue, Kensington 7, is on the second floor over the local Police Department !

Commissioner Roth (Vic was appointed a Kensington Police Commissioner a few years back) can now mix sleuthing and lumber sales with equal ease. For lumber f 191 the facts, man !) call him at -LAndscape 4-9595 or TWX him at OA 262.