While the cost of construction in the
U.S. continues to climb, one building material – wood – remains a smart
investment for the savvy professional. According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, over the last four years, steel products have doubled in
price and concrete products are up 35 percent while wood products have
declined six percent.
“Structural wood products continue to be a great value, especially in
commercial applications where end users face the dilemma of higher
costs and in some cases product scarcity,” said Dennis Hardman,
president of APA – The Engineered Wood Association, Tacoma, Washington.
McGraw-Hill noted that as of June, steel prices are back into “crisis
mode” as the 20-city average is up nearly 15 percent over last year for
three types of structural steel and grade-60 rebar. A surge in scrap
metal prices and lack of imports are blamed for the latest crisis. This
is in sharp contrast to the market for structural wood products, which
benefit from a large domestic production and distribution network.
“Wood is ideally suited for low-rise commercial buildings such as
resorts, mixed-use offices, schools, healthcare, senior living
facilities and adaptive re-use,” said Hardman. Structural plywood, OSB,
wood I-joists, glulam beams and dimension lumber also are excellent
values, Hardman said, because of their numerous performance advantages,
including strength and stiffness (pound for pound wood is stronger than
steel), superior performance as a nail base for finish siding
materials, high impact resistance, ease of installation and proven
durability in all kinds of climates.
Another important consideration that deserves greater weight in
environmental debates, Hardman said, is the long-term effects of raw
material extraction and manufacture.
“If we view the full life-cycle from cradle to grave, wood products
have no equal,” said Hardman. North American forest growth continues to
exceed timber harvests by a wide margin. Technological advances have
increased the industrial output per unit of wood 40 percent in the last
50 years. Hardman also pointed out that wood products are the only
renewable, recyclable structural building material and compare
favorably with non-wood products based on such environmental criteria
as embodied energy and emissions of carbon dioxide.
“Trees are generated by solar energy, create oxygen and consume carbon
dioxide as they mature. To convert the raw wood fiber into useable
building products requires only seven percent of the energy required
for steel production and 20 percent of the energy required for cement
production. And once wood is converted into building products, that
carbon is stored. When the building’s useful life is over, nearly all
the wood can be recycled,” he added.
Structural engineered wood product formaldehyde emissions are so low
that the products are exempt from U.S. HUD and California Air Resources
Board (CARB) formaldehyde regulations.
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