Engineered Lumber's Green Attributes Provide Another Selling PointFringe Benefits

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Lingering Challenges

"I'm not sure why anyone would choose not to use [engineered lumber]," says green home builder Jon Alexander of Seattle-based Sunshine Construction. Aside from their environmental qualities, he adds, "I like their pretty darn consistent quality. When you order one of them, you know what you're getting."

Still, the product, which APA-The Engineered Wood Association predicts will increase significantly in production and use over the next five years, costs more than solid-sawn lumber in most markets, leaving some builders ambivalent about pitching it to potential buyers.

"I would prefer to use all engineered wood if I could, but that's not the case," says Lance Hobson, owner of Legend Builders in Paco, Wash., which builds 24 homes a year—mostly on spec—and uses engineered I-joists in all of them.

For custom homes, however, he offers the buyer the option of paying the 6 percent to 8 percent more he estimates a home would cost if he used engineered wood exclusively, and he has only had two takers, who were focused on building green homes.

Engineered wood is a hard sell, he says, because "without going into the negatives [of solid-sawn wood], there's no way to tell the positives. If I told them that [traditional] wood would warp, crack, and split, I'd be casting a doubt over the workmanship of the homes I built with wood."

At Winchester Homes in New Market, Md., sales staff tell potential buyers about the benefits of engineered wood, but the builders decide where to use it. "If they want a big, open space, engineered wood is what we're going to go with," says Randy Melvin, the builder's director of research, standards and design assurance. "If they want a less-squeaky floor and the flatness of the floor is important, we use engineered wood."

Tim Mosely, brand manager for Canfor, notes that most buyers don't know what kind of wood builders use in their homes. "The benefit is really more to the builder than the actual home buyer," he says.

Mosely notes that the green benefits are growing as manufacturers develop sophisticated software that helps builders order and cut precise lengths. Software from Boise Cascade, iLevel by Weyerhaeuser, and others allow builders to accurately specify the amount and types of materials needed, so builders buy less, avoid overbuilding, and waste less.